Let's start with fine tuning your computer by:

• A)   First, make sure you have erased your Temporary Windows & Internet Files for your (generic) Microsoft, FireFox or Chrome Browser. Do NOT use other browsers.   They probably will not function properly with our website and we do not have the time to give you the tech support you need in order so you can debug your system.   Here is more details on how to clean up your computer.
  
  

• B)   Second, make sure your PC or MAC has the latest Java by clicking here: www.JAVA.com   This verifying / updating process will also resolve the "Your Browser is not Java-enabled" Error Message.
  
  

• C)   Java-based Trading Rooms and Wireless Connections do not mix very well.   Expect to see many connection drop-offs.   Try to login from a hard-wired connection and avoid being frustrated.   Save your sanity for your trades that won't go as planned.
  
  

• D)   If you are behind a company firewall and depending on its programmed settings, your access to any trading room may be restricted, not just to ours.   Check with your System Administrator that controls your firewall or login from home.   Chances are that you are inside a firewall that doesn't allow the applet ports to pass through.   These ports must be enabled before you can talk to our Chat Server: TCP:7777, TCP:7877, and UDP:7877.   If you have recently installed a new version of Norton Antivirus or recently enabled Windows Firewall, then this could be the source of the problem.   If this is the case, you'll need to add exceptions for the Chat ports.
  
  

• E)   There is no audio in our trading room. We offer On-the-Run Commentary in clear text format with Streaming Charts. Keep in mind, this is not Hollywood. THIS IS A SERIOUS WEBSITE DESIGNED & RUN BY ACTIVE TRADERS FOR ADVANCED TRADERS. As a proprietary derivative data vendor, majority of our bandwidth is set aside for our data.

• F)   Once you are on in our Virtual Trading Room, click on "Transcript Archives" button, in the lower right hand side, to read the conversation threads for the last 10 weekdays. If you have a One Day Pass, you will only see that day's transcript.

• G)   The Streamer is the first link under SuperPlatinum Menu. We post live eSignal or TradeStation charts that relate to the current conversation thread in the Trading Room. It automatically refreshes every 10 seconds in your browser.

Please also visit our Options Glossary page for general options terminology.

All Systems are GO
All Systems are GO is clear sign that all HA Servers in SoCal (i.e., Put/Call & PBT), and PCs at HA HQ in Chicago (i.e., AWACS), are tuned in to the incoming market data and all three Streamers (HFT1, HFT2 & PBT) are fully functional. In the mornings, before this signal is issued, please refrain from pinging Fari. It is denoted by a "rooster" sound in the chatroom.

AWACS
AWACS is nickname of Fari's souped-up Server PC workstation, custom-made by DELL, and located at our Chicago office (HA HQ). AWACS provides real-time vector direction for bogies (live high-value [price] targets for high-beta stocks or futures trades). AWACS features an all algorithm-driven high-speed-optimized code for NYSE BUY/SELL Programs Trading & an adaptive BLOCK TRADE Detection Protocol for ES & NQ Futures. This Sever PC is named after E-3 Sentry Aircraft.

BHO
President Barack H. Obama

BLOCK TRADE
BLOCK TRADE is when the volume of one trade exceeds the moving average of the trade volume of that asset by at least an order of magnitude over x minutes of look-back period. AWACS' and Hawkeye's precise parameters for ES and NQ are proprietary. It is denoted by a "cow" sound in the chatroom.

Bogie
Bogie refers to a false blip on a radar display. The term is also used to describe radar echoes that occur for unknown reasons, especially in the military, where such a signal might indicate hostile aircraft. In our trading vernacular, these are price targets that AWACS projects and then assigns a probability to.

BTH
BTH mode of AWACS one megawatt Pulse-Doppler Radar stands for Beyond-the-Horizon and it is for detecting aerospace vehicles flying medium to high altitudes. In our HFT trading room, our AWACS' and Hawkeye's outlier targets (those with low probability of reaching) are tagged as BTH.

BUY Program
We monitor large institutional program trading activity.  Buy Program is when they buy a basket of large cap stocks and hedge their position in the underlying futures market concurrently. It is denoted by a "freight train" sound in the chatroom.

Car
A car is a pit lingo for one contract in futures.

C.E.P.
Circular Error Probable, in military science of ballistics, is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's accuracy. READ MORE

CI Indicator
The Central Intelligence (CI) study is ideally suited for trend- and momentum-based trading. It's configured to respond properly for intraday trend detection during the opening hours of the trading day. This is the ideal momentum indicator for day trading high-beta stocks, sector ETFs or futures on a gap-up or gap-down day.   READ MORE

CI Diff Indicator
The Central Intelligence Difference (CI Diff) study is an anticipatory derivative indicator of the CI Indicator. For high leverage trades, the CI Diff Indicator acts as an early warning for upcoming trends in the CI Indicator.   READ MORE

COHIBA DAY
As traders, we need to reward ourselves for first, great P/L performance and 2nd good discipline in light of the price action, every day that we excel at both. Fari loves Cuban Cigars and thus the word COHIBA DAY for days he coins enough shekels. Chicago is an expensive city to live in!!

Comrade Paulson
Former Treasury Secretary Henry Merritt "Hank" Paulson, Jr. US Gov twice awarded him the Order of Lenin, first one, in March 2008, for the BSC bailout, and the second one, in September 2008, for FNM / FRE / AIG Bailouts.

Dual CI Indicator
The Dual CI (DCI) study can be used to look for non-conforming bullish and bearish divergences. Because the inputs of the DCI indicator are user-definable, the user can manipulate and / or optimize it for different markets and / or different bar intervals. A divergence occurs when a price revisits a recent channel breakout high or breakdown low while the accompanying indicator fails to do so. Market technicians call it a non-confirmation. Divergence typically provides entry points with an acceptable risk-to-reward ratio.   READ MORE

Daily Resistance Levels
Daily Resistance Levels (DR1, DR2 & DR3) denote three increasing measure of market overbought conditions.  Each day, a number of traders begin their trading day with plans to fade, or sell into, these levels.  The Resistance lines are usually drawn in RED.   READ MORE

Daily Pivot Level
Daily Pivot (DP) is synonymous with 'fair value'.  This is the neutral price zone or expected value.  Pivot line is drawn in YELLOW.  READ MORE

Daily Support Levels
In like fashion, Daily Support (DS1, DS2 & DS3) denotes three increasing measure of oversold conditions.  Similarly, each day, some traders' plans include fading, or buying at, these levels.  The Support lines are usually drawn in GREEN.  READ MORE

Directional Volatility Indicator
The Directional Volatility (DV) study is an indicator that helps you avoid being in the markets during Small Range days and, rather, focus on taking a 70% chunk out of a directional move during the Big Range days.   READ MORE

ECM
ECM stands for Emergency Coded Message, part of our Flash Message Traffic for our battlegroup commanders. Watching Crimson Tide one more time will be very helpful.

ES
ES is the symbol for E-mini SP 500 Futures (trades electronically only, 24 hrs a day on GLOBEX).  It is one-fifth of the Big Contract (SP, which is traded in a pit at CME).  Unless indicated otherwise, all references in our trading room communications to ES is to the front month contract.

Fair Value
Fair Value is the theoretical value at any given time, that an equity index futures front month contract, i.e., ES, should trade above its underlying cash index, i.e., SPX, due to the time value of money.  Intraday, its value may change by a small amount. Four times a year, on Equity Index Futures Expiration Day, Fair Value, by definition is zero.  That is why roll to new contract approximately a week earlier.

If the actual value, i.e., $PREM, deviates from Fair Value by a large percentage, it often triggers BUY or SELL Program Trades by big market participants.  We continuously compute Fair Value for both ES & NQ futures, in real-time, as inputs, among other internals, for a proprietary Excel worksheet running in both AWACS and Hawkeye.

Handle
A handle is the pit lingo for one full point move in futures. In ES that is worth $50, in SP $250 (5x ES). In like fashion, in NQ it is worth $20 and in ND $100 (5x NQ).

Hawkeye
Hawkeye is nickname of Fari's second souped-up Server-PC workstation, custom-made by HPQ, and located at our Chicago office (HA HQ). Hawkeye acts as the primary backup for our coveted AWACS Server-PC to provide real-time vector direction for bogies (live high-value [price] targets for high-beta stocks or futures trades). Much like our AWACS, Hawkeye features an all algorithm-driven high-speed-optimized code for NYSE BUY/SELL Programs Trading & an adaptive BLOCK TRADE Detection Protocol for ES & NQ Futures. This PC is named after E-2D Hawkeye Aircraft.

High / Low TICK Readings
Very HIGH ( > +1000) or Very LOW ( < -1000) TICK Readings often mark the exhaustion point in an intraday move, in normal markets. Be ready to modify your short-term position (or sentiment) by going flat or reversing. In very bullish or bearish markets, these levels are automatically modified by our AWACS and Hawkeye Server-PC workstations.

HOUSTON
HOUSTON is where the trading gods oversee our Markets. They watch over us, as Johnson Space Center at Houston, does for NASA space flights. We coordinate our trades, provide them feedback and thank them when they move our markets according to our plan!

IFR
In aviation, IFR stands for Instrument Flight Rules. In trading, that is new school. It means trading based on charts, quantitative measures, put/call ratios, technical analysis, etc.

Intraday Volume BreakOut Indicator
The Intraday Volume BreakOut (IVBO) study helps you identify upcoming moves during seemingly sleepy hours of the markets, hours often used by smart money / hedge funds to mask their true trading intent (i.e., accumulation / distribution).   READ MORE

JDA
JDA stands for Jimmy Dean Algos. That is when prop shops' (sausage makers) algorithm-driven trading takes over, most likely during slow markets. Retail traders are better off avoiding those pricepoints.

JDAM
The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is a guidance kit that converts existing unguided gravity bombs, or "dumb bombs", into all-weather "smart" munitions for precision strikes. In trading, we try to enable the HFT Subscriber, via our proprietary trading indicators, charts and on-the-run commentary by time-tested & proven professional traders, to improve his/her win to loss ratio by precision entries and exits.

LBR Flag Pattern
LBR Flag Pattern works well during market sell-offs.  Prices drop very fast at the outset, make a small reaction, typically hit a 18 or 50 period moving averages and then head south again in a big way.  Usually completes during the last hour of trading.  But the set up could take a couple of hours.

McClellan Oscillator
The McClellan Oscillator is a market breadth indicator used by financial analysts of the New York and NASDAQ Stock Exchanges to evaluate the rate of money entering or leaving the market and interpretively indicate overbought or oversold conditions of the market. Developed by Sherman and Marian McClellan in 1969, the Oscillator is computed using the exponential moving average (EMA) of the daily ordinal difference of advancing issues (stocks which gained in value) from declining issues (stocks which fell in value) over 39 trading day and 19 trading day periods. The simplified formula for determining the Oscillator is: Oscillator = (19-day EMA of Advances minus Declines) - (39-day EMA of Advances minus Declines). Critical levels to watch are +150 for overbought and -150 for oversold.

Monthly Resistance Levels
Monthly Resistance Levels (MR1, MR2 & MR3) denote three increasing measure of market overbought conditions.  Each day, a number of traders begin their trading day with plans to fade, or sell into, these levels.  The Resistance lines are usually drawn in RED.   READ MORE

Monthly Pivot Level
Monthly Pivot (MP) is synonymous with 'fair value'.  This is the neutral price zone or expected value.  Pivot line is drawn in YELLOW.   READ MORE

Monthly Support Levels
In like fashion, Monthly Support (MS1, MS2 & MS3) denotes three increasing measure of oversold conditions.  Similarly, each day, some traders' plans include fading, or buying at, these levels.  The Support lines are usually drawn in GREEN.   READ MORE

MA
MA stands for moving average.  We use simple MAs.

Max Q
Max Q stands for the point of maximum dynamic pressure during the ascent of a rocket.  In trading, it means going thru a heavy resistance area and/or greater than three sigma channels on the charts.

MIV
MIV stands for Market Implied Volatility.  Please see our Glossary & Tutorials for more detail.

MOC
Orders MOC stands for Market On Close.  MOC orders are what NYSE specialists & NASDAQ market makers track during the last half an hour of each trading day.

NFP
NFP stands for Non-Farm Payroll.  It is released as a part of the Employment Report by US Dept of Labor at 0730 CT on the first Friday of every month.  This is the most important economic data affecting the US Treasury Bonds, Notes, Stock Index Futures and US Dollar prior to the Cash Markets' Opening Bell.

NQ
NQ is the symbol for E-mini NASDAQ-100 Futures (trades electronically only, almost 24 hrs a day on GLOBEX).  It is one-fifth of the Big Contract (NQ, which is traded in a pit at CME).   Unless indicated otherwise, all references in our trading room communications to NQ is to the front month contract.

OC
OC stands for Option Chain.  Simply, it is all of Call and Put contracts for all the months, including long term options (LEAPS) for a given underlying asset.

PBT
PBT stands for Proprietary Basketing Technology. This product is only available by invitation. It is a browser-based package with dedicated server, streamer, chatroom and historical charts archive. It is ideal for stock index futures traders who trade size.

PCR
PCR stands for Put/Call Ratio.  Unless indicated otherwise, all references in our IM communications to PCR is to the DOLLAR-WEIGHTED Put/Call Ratio($wPCR).   Please see our Glossary & Tutorials for more detail.

PDI
PDI stands for Poor Dumb Immigrant.

PPT
Plunge Protection Team aka the "President's Working Group on Financial Markets" was established by law in 1988 to buy the markets should declines get out of control.   It is suspected by many market watchers that PPT has become far more interventionist than was originally intended under the law.   There are no minutes of meetings, no recorded phone conversations, no reports of activities, no announcements of intentions.   It is a secret group including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Head of the SEC, and their surrogates which include some of the large Wall Street firms.   The original objective was to prevent disastrous market crashes.   Lately it seems, they buy the markets when they decide the markets need to be bought, including the equity markets.   Their main resource is the money the Fed prints.   The money is injected into markets via the New York Fed's Repo desk, which easily shows up in the M-3 numbers, warning intervention was near.   As of April 2006, M-3 is no longer reported.

Quadruple Witching Friday
Simultaneous expiration of Stock Index & Equity Options, and Stock Index & Single Stock Futures.  Occurs on the third Friday of last month of each quarter.

R/T
R/T stands for real-time.

Sausage Alert
Seventy percent (70%) of the time, markets are NOT trending and they are range bound. In those days, the retail traders do not make money. Rather, they feed the Grinders (sausage makers): pit traders, prop shops, market makers, etc. And of course, the brokers are smiling all day. The other thirty percent (30%) of the time, in time-honored words of Gen George Patton, we shall skin them.

SELL Program
We monitor large institutional program trading activity.  SELL Program is when they sell a basket of large cap stocks and hedge their position in the underlying futures market concurrently. It is denoted by a "gong" sound in our chatroom.

Sigma Channels
In statistics, Sigma means standard deviation from a mean. In trading, when we say "GOOG is at +2 Sigma," it means Google is trading at 2 standard deviation above its mean, hereinafter its 20 day moving average (i.e., it is at Upper Bollinger Band). As avid students of volatility, we monitor prices using +3, +2, +1, -1, -2 and -3 Sigma Channels. This method tells us how "stretched" the prices are. A good long trade normally is when prices move between +1 and +2 Sigma Channels. Conversely, a good short trade normally is when prices move between -1 and -2 Sigma Channels.

Anything beyond +/- 3 sigma channel is an outlier event.

TF
TF is the symbol for Russell 2000 E-mini Futures (trades on ICE).  Unless indicated otherwise, all references in our trading room communications to TF is to the front month contract.

TFG
Current Treasury Secretary and former NY Fed President Tim F. Geithner.

Triple Witching Friday
Simultaneous expiration of Stock Index & Equity Options, and Single Stock Futures.  Occurs on the third Friday of first two months of each quarter.

Uncle Ben
Uncle Ben stands for the venerable Dr. Ben S. Bernanke, former Chair of Economics Dept. at Princeton, who is now serving his second term as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System.

VBars
VBars stands for Vertical Bars. It is part of our Proprietary Basketing Technology package used by our pro ES & NQ traders. It often marks a short-term bull or bear trap.

VFR
In aviation, VFR stands for Visual Flight Rules. In trading, that's old school. Trading by feel and guts, often gauging the fear and greed of the herd, mainly based on previous market experiences.

VWAP
VWAP stands for Volume-Weighted Average Price, the ratio of the value traded to total volume traded over a particular time horizon (usually one day). It is a measure of the average price a stock traded at over the trading horizon.

WLSN
WLSN which stands for West Loop Soup Nazi, is a small dive in Chicago West Loop, with great ethnic soups (very similar to Seinfeld Episode shown here) where Fari often escapes to for lunch. In Q2 2009, WLSN doubled his prices and stopped accepting US Dollars. Menu is now priced in Euros only. LOL. Exact GPS location is classified, courtesy of NSA special covert ops directorate.

Weekly Resistance Levels
Weekly Resistance Levels (WR1, WR2 & WR3) denote three increasing measure of market overbought conditions.  Each day, a number of traders begin their trading day with plans to fade, or sell into, these levels.  The Resistance lines are usually drawn in RED.   READ MORE

Weekly Pivot Level
Weekly Pivot (WP) is synonymous with 'fair value'.  This is the neutral price zone or expected value.  Pivot line is drawn in YELLOW.   READ MORE

Weekly Support Levels
In like fashion, Weekly Support (WS1, WS2 & WS3) denotes three increasing measure of oversold conditions.  Similarly, each day, some traders' plans include fading, or buying at, these levels.  The Support lines are usually drawn in GREEN.   READ MORE