Gecko Charts: Daily, weekly and monthly futures bar charts showing retracements, MACD,  Fibonnacci, and many technical formation tools to aid you in your commodity chart analysis and paper trading.

One problem we have ALWAYS had is being on the same "page". I mean literally on the same page, you know? The problem stems from our various data sources and providers. Now since I left those (only good for the outhouse) US Chartco charts, I have always used DTN. I like DTN. Their bookkeeping is worse than Shaggy's, but for clarity of charts, features such as price scroll bar, zoom in, drawing retracements, indicators, alarms and a vast array of news and weather maps, it's just hard to beat. 

Problem is, DTN will cost ya about 80 bucks a month and you have to erect that satellite dish somewhere. There is DTN "on line" but it bites. And I can't suggest to brand new traders that they commit to a 12 month DTN contract unless I know that they will be dedicated enough to put out the coin for that length of time.

Now (we) have been through the gamut of data providers wanting us to try this and try that all in the hopes that (we) will recommend that service to you. TFC charts, bar charts, global charts, navigation charts, the whole bit. Never did I find anything that compares to the accuracy and attention to detail like DTN.

So here we were all these years not being on the same page as we all had different data providers. Every so often a student would send me a chart that they were looking at and I would compare that to my DTN. NO WONDER so many of you are having a hard time figuring this out! I would look at their chart and I couldn't even see what I was describing in the e-mails! Holy monkey dung, batman! No wonder it's been tough on youse guys.

What we need to do folks is all get on the same page. We all need to be looking at and seeing the same thing. But, we might have this figured out. A while back the Pitmaster sent me "Gecko charting software". He wanted to know what I thought of it. Now being a computer test crash dummy that I am, it just laid around here because I really didn't have time to get Shaggy over here to load it and for me to sit down with the operations manual trying to figure out how it works.

Well today, folks, I did. I sat down with the operations manual which is as much a short course in learning commodities as it is a "how to" book on the Gecko software utilities. Let me be humble about this. This Gecko charting "system" is fantastic. The best I've seen, the easiest to understand and use of all the trading systems and software I've ever come in contact with.

I sat down with the "dreaded book" today and one hour later I was able to make this charting software walk and talk. Let me tell you some of the things it does:

Everything you need is on the main menu tool bar. From there it drops down into sub categories and you just click on what you need. Click on a window and you can choose the charts you want sorted alphabetically, sorted by groups such as grains, meats, metals, softs or sorted by exchange like CBOT, CME etc. Then pick a market, a year, future or past up to 25 years back, daily, weekly or monthly chart and then the thing pops up for you. 

Now what's too cool for students is that you can make the price bars show up one day at a time by single clicking, make it run them ahead slowly, or fast forward, fill in right to present day, stop at any time or back up. What's so cool about this is that you can click one day at a time, wait until you see a tradable technical formation and paper trade it. Then click again to see if you were filled, if you made money or lost. You can do this anywhere in any time period on any chart.

The data window shows the date, hi, low, close volume and OI for any market you choose, and a quick glance shows you the "hits" on highs and lows that I'm trying to teach you to track. The price bar is always active showing these same figures at the bottom of the chart as you move your cursor around and the day you're on turns the blue price bars into red so you know where you're at. And yes, you can zoom in on this sucker to where it makes your dog howl.

You can put in every conceivable indicator from MACD to candle sticks. What else does it do, what else does it do? Let me tell ya.. The thing even tells you your risk to reward ratio IN DOLLARS. Yep. You place the cursor and click where you'd enter the trade and then place and click where you'd want your stop loss. This tells you initial risk. Then click on enter price again and then on where you expect to exit. It shows you, in dollars your profit potential vs. risk. Then the dang thing tells you, or gives you an option of what kind of order to place.

There is the trend tool, the multi trend tool, Gann fan, pitchfork fan, it draws channels, does the 50% retracements and the Fibonnacci retracement levels. It has a tool that shows 1-2-3 formations, draws wedges, pennant formations and then tells you the potential dollar amount of the trade. Unbelievable. Don't stop now Mikey, don't stop now! Let me tell you something, kids. This software even figures options for you. Tells you the cost and profits or losses. I've got to hand it to the Pitmaster and crew, that have put out a fine product built with the new trader in mind and incorporated a vast amount of great ideas and a fine working instrument.

And let's not forget about the educational aspects of this thingy. It teaches you all about indicators and how to use them, a glossary of terms, what kind of orders to use and when, contract sizes and trading requirements and the list of cool things is just endless.

Now you'd think this Pitmaster fella was about to marry my sister or something, right? Nope. He wanted me to evaluate this material for him without bias, promises or trades. I have done that. It is nothing less than awesome! From now on the charts that I send you in the nightly mails will be those kindly provided by Gecko charts. And from these you'll be able to see what all they can do.

What's the dang thing cost? First of all it's a monthly subscription thingy. Oh gosh your thinking.. This must be a few grand I'd need to lay out for this. You kidding? Think small...Very small. Very, very small.

Now for the bad news. Gecko is not instant or even ten minute delay. It is updated at the end of the day at around 6 PM Eastern time. This makes it hard on me because I usually begin the e-mails at 3:30. Starting at 6 PM would keep me, Shaggy and Peggy working till past 9 or 10 PM each evening. More so, it does not have any news included or if it does I haven't found it. But it is still excellent for you folks and especially new traders.

Bottom line? I like Gecko, I like it a lot.