01 February 2013

USD/SGD : Pyramid Long 1.2406

  • Initial : +1.2363 (5x) - break out of congestion rectangle.
  • Pyramid : +1.2406 (1x) -  impulsive push above 1.2400. Half filled only. Balance running away.
  • Next significant chart point : 1.2554.
  • [EUR/SGD is flying!]
  • Addendum 3:14 pm : Balance another 1x paid up to 1.2416.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Taichiseal,

Are you still using Reuters Eikon or have you switched to Bloomberg or CQG or something else?

Regarding the price of reuters, if I understand correctly, it is USD$2000 a month or SGD$2800 a month for the full product, right?
Have you tried looking into their lower-tier packages?
I know that bloomberg has a 2 year contract requirement and is also priced at USD $2000 a month, does reuters have a similar contractual requirement?

I think CQG is slightly cheaper and comes with decent forex and futures data/charting plus fx and economic news from Deutsche Bank's MNI service and DJnewswires. It has trading integration, but only for futures and options on futures. No data vendor lock-in/year-long contracts either. Morningstar QuoteSpeed, apparently has global treasury market data.

Also, would you say that pats is preferable as an ems to the likes of cqg and xtrader?

I heard that the charting software that eikon uses is not so good, do you use something else for charting? Do you use historical data?

Thanks for the info. The public would appreciate it to help better understand your strategies.

Taichiseal said...

On the right hand side of the blog under Links .. click on "Trading Platform".

But I do not agree with you that "The public would appreciate it to help better understand your strategies." A robust trading strategy should be platform invariant.

Taichiseal said...

I do not see how much more transparent I can be.

Anonymous said...

Oh, I agree. It's just that for OTC products, it's sort of difficult to find that sort of information outside of Reuters or Bloomberg. For exchange-traded products, it shouldn't matter at all, though.


By the way, does reuters require a subscription contract like bloomberg or is it pay-as-you-go?

Have you looked at morningstar quotes for global treasury data?

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, about the spreads. It seems that the only spreaders available at the retail level are from CQG, TT Xtrader and Sungard GL Trade. The former 2 cost USD$1400-$2000 a month and the later costs something like USD$500-$1000 a month. CQG and GL Trade have better charts than x-trader and also newsfeed integration, although for scalping and pure execution, the edge goes to x-trader over gl-trade. X-trader seems to be on par with CQG for execution minus the platform limitations with regards to charting and news. So, people often use a separate charting program in conjunction x-trader.

Some Futures brokers offer xtrader for free, though, at higher rates of commissions.

SaxoBank also offers Metatrader 4, have you looked into that and how does it compare to the basic SaxoTrader platform?

Taichiseal said...

It's been over a year since I gave up TR Eikon so my knowledge/ information is no longer updated. But as far as I know, they only offer 1 product, there is no lower tier cheaper version of Eikon. Of course they require you to sign a subscription contract and you have to give adequate notice to terminate.

My knowledge of systems is not at all extensive as my needs are very simple. I just require accurate updated price and simple charts. I trade purely on classical chart patterns. I do not even look at technical indicators. Eikon charts are perfectly adequate for me. It is just that Eikon includes so much else which I do not need but am paying for indirectly by the steep subscription charges.

Due so bad trading in 2011 and 2012, my capital has suffered a serious depletion so these days I restrict myself to straight forward directional trading while I try to replenish my equity. Hence even spread trading feature is not a requirement for me now.

SaxoWebTrader meets all of my needs and is free. I trade (almost exclusively) only futures and Saxo charges me USD10 per contract (retail rate) because I do not even meet their minimum monthly volume of 250 contracts to qualify for the lower rate of USD3 per contract.

I am not familiar with all the other systems you mentioned eg Morningstar.

Hope the above answers most of your questions.

Taichiseal said...

I would prefer it if you gave yourself a "name" (any name, but stick to the same one throughout this blog) when you make a comment or query here. So that in future, if you come back with more comments, I will know that who you are.

Daedal said...

So, is the contract for eikon 1-year or 2-years?

They offer product segmentation in other parts of the world, but not in Singapore, I see.

I hope you get your trading edge back.

Taichiseal said...

Daedal - not sure. The Thomson Reuters HelpDesk number is 1800-776-7188.

I reckon minimum is 1 year. To terminate, I seem to recall the notice period is 3 months.

Daedal said...

Good God. I was just on the phone with them for over an hour. They could not get me to connect with a sales agent, so I could not even ask. I called the main sales number first and then I was routed to the helpdesk anyway.

Are you sure it is a 1 year minimum, I recall reading on another forum about the minimum being 2 years?

How long did you have the product for anyway?

The Eikon support desk couldn't even tell me the amount of historical data they offered with the eikon product let alone give me the answers to the other information I asked for. What a nightmare. Even CQG offers better support.

Bloomberg, on the other hand was able to instantly give me their pricing and contractual details and along with technical details regarding the specific limitations of their platform.

The people at Reuters are amateurs in comparison.

Taichiseal said...

No I am not sure if it is for 1 year or 2 years minimum. I had 3000Xtra/Eikon from 2006-2011, paying over SGD 30,000 per year. Big mistake.

I can completely empathize with you on their poor customer service. I only started with 3000Xtra because that was what I was using before I left ABN for T4L and Bloomberg at that time was more expensive than Reuters.

I really should have done more research into various systems back then.

Nowadays with free Google RSS, CNBC TV, etc. and given the very simplistic way in which I trade, there really is no need for me to pay for anything as long as I get accurate updated live charts.