eSignal - Time and Sales Window Basics

eSignal - Time and Sales Window Basics

In addition to the information contained in this article, we also provide video training on working with the Time and Sales Window.
Time and Sales Window Basics

A Time & Sales Window displays real-time streaming updates for trades and quotes in a scrolling window. As new data is sent from the exchanges, the Time and Sales Window will update with the new information at the top, and the older data will move down the window.

Creating a new Time and Sales Window
From the menu bar, click on File, New and then Time and Sales on the sub menu. Another way to open the Time & Sales window is by right-clicking the mouse in one of the symbols in the Quote window and click the line for Time & Sales.

Once the window opens, type the desired symbol in the Symbol Box and hit enter to get data.  You will get the Date, Time, Exchange, Price, Trade Size, Bid, Bid Exchange, Ask, Ask Exchange and Bid / Ask Sizes.

Futures Size Volume Display
The size is represented by contracts.  For example, the Time & Sales window below shows that 5 contracts of YM M6 were traded at the price of 11282.  The previous row shows a Bid Size of 46 contracts and an Ask Size of 5 contracts.

Stocks Size Volume Display
The size is represented by lots of 100 shares each. For example, the Time & Sales window below shows that  10,000 shares (100 times 100 shares)  of DELL were traded at the price of  30.10. The previous row shows a Bid Size of 10,900 shares versus and Ask Size of 21,100 shares.

Date/#Days Ago Field
This field can have specific date or enter a number to indicate number of days back from current day.

This new field allows you to quickly hop back to a specific day within the 30-day limit.  There are 3 methods to specify which day you want to access: 

1. Type in the number of days you wish to go back 
2. Type in the exact date you wish to jump to
3. Utilize the calendar drop-down menu to pick a day.  (be sure to hit enter after you've entered or selected the day you want).

Time Field
Lists a starting time for search which will give all data from then up to current time.

This field allows you to specify the start time for the needed data.  This is most helpful when researching a contested order or fill, and you know the approximate time that you need to start looking from.

Price/Range Field
Gives all data within a range for the specific day/time filters used or will search for a specific price.

the price/range field is a quick filter to scan for a particular price or range of prices.  if you need the time & sales to display all the items at one price, just type that one price in and hit enter.  if you need a range of prices, then type in the minimum price first followed by a dash, and then the maximum price, followed by enter. you can also use > and < characters to indicate a criteria for result up to a specific price or greater than a specific price.

time and sales right-click menu 
upon right-clicking the time & sales window, you will see the following menu.



properties
the properties window allows you to change the colors, font, view style, and direction of real-time data.



colors: to change the color of a line, select the line, and then choose the foreground and background color.
font: to change the font used, click the font button and then choose the font, font style, and size.
view: there are three ways to view data in the time & sales window.
           short view - combines the bids, asks, and trades all in the same columns.
           long view - separates the bids and asks from the trades. quotes are on seperate lines from the trades.
           bbo view - separates the bids and asks from the trades, but quotes are on the same lines as the trades.

filters
the filters window, accessed via a right-click, contains more filtering capabilities that can be applied to time & sales data.  you can choose whether or not to display trades, bids, and/or asks using the first 3 boxes.  

price/range: use this field to display all trades from either a specific price or a range of prices.  ranges can be entered using a dash (i.e. 1.50 -1.60).

You can also use equals to, greater than, and less than characters to further refine your range search.

= 5 Is the same as typing 5: Accept all ticks with price (or size) equal to 5.
< 5: Accept all ticks with price (or size) less than 5.
> 5: Accept all ticks with price (or size) greater than to 5.
<= 5: Accept all ticks with price (or size) less than or equal to 5.
>= 5: Accept all ticks with price (or size) greater than or equal to 5.

exchanges:  filter trades and quotes by exchange using the exchange code. for instance, type nyse into this field to view trades (listed stock) only from nyse as opposed to other regions.  to specify multiple exchanges enter a space between the exchange code (i.e. nyse nasd).

trade volume minimum:
if you would like to filter the time and sales window to look for large blocks of shares, use the trade volume filter.  just turn it on with a check in the trade volume box, and then type in the minimum number of shares per trade you would like to have displayed. 

trade and quote specific exchanges:
use this setting to display quotes and trades from a specific exchange (region).  for instance, if you are looking at a listed stock and only wish to see quotes and trades from the nyse, enter nyse into this field.  for a list of available exchange codes that can be used in these two fields please click here. 

match bid and/or ask exchanges: 
with it set to or, the quote pair will be displayed if either side matches the exchange filter.  choosing and will force both sides of the quote pair to match the exchange filter.  if you set it this way and use nyse as the filter, you’ll only see quote pairs where nyse is both sides.  the default is the or choice which is how the filter currently works in previous builds. 

with the filter set to and, a user could miss some nyse quotes that are part of split pairs, so the last addition is the ability to pull in the last quote from the filtered exchange to fill in the side of a split pair that’s not from the filtered exchange.  this can only be selected when using the or filter as you need to be able to pull in the split pairs.  if a user were to use nyse as the filter and a pair came in with pse on the bid and nyse on the ask, this filter would bring in that split pair, but replace the pse side of the pair with the last bid that came from nyse.  this would create a synthetic pair that shows the best nyse pair.  this should match the level 1 quote of an =n symbol since it also will only be displaying the last nyse side of a quote pair.



cpu/memory considerations when using filters
if you are utilizing filters, keep in mind that the narrower the search and the more active the symbol, the more intense the cpu and memory draw. when a filter is set, the t&s window will go out to the tick server and look at the most recent 300 ticks. once it finds enough matches to fill the screen (with say 50-100 results), it'll stop and just monitor the data streaming in. if it can't find enough matches, it'll keep looking 300 ticks at a time, to find more. so, if you have multiple t&s windows open in your page/layout and are using filters, try eliminating some filters or broadening the criteria. 

date/days ago field
using the drop-down menu at the top, under the "days of data" area, the amount of data that is loaded into the time & sales window can be changed.  it's best to leave the default setting the way it is, because as you increase the amount of data loaded into the window, the longer the data will take to display.  1 day is typically sufficient, because you can quickly jump to specific days by using the date/days ago field we mentioned earlier.

search
the search window accessed via a right-click contains more filtering capabilities that can be applied to the time & sales data.  it looks very similar to the filters window, the main difference being that once all the criteria have been entered, and the search button is clicked a static time and sales window will pop-up with the results of your search.  this would be the ideal method to use for researching a particular trade dispute.  one other additional feature of the search window is the ability to specify the exact days and time for your search.  just put a check in the date/time box, click in the begin and end boxes, and either type in the dates and times you need, or select them from the drop-down boxes. 



dynamic toggle
the dynamic toggle triggers the real-time streaming data on and off  into the time & sales window.  turning this toggle off can be handy if you wish to stop the flow of data while looking at the time & sales data in more detail or you want to conserve resources.  this can be turn on or off and accessed from the time & sales options from the top of the menu bar.

  

columns
this feature allows you to select which columns you'd like to have displayed in your time & sales window.  you can either edit the short columns view or the long columns view and also change the alignment of the data within the columns.



exporting time & sales data
to export the viewable data, you can right-click and select copy. this will save the displayed data into the window clipboard, which can then be pasted into the document of your choice.