How to record your live trades on multiple screens

[True 17]

I read One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore and in it he mentions that they record their trades so that they can go back and review them after.  That sounded like a cool idea so I started looking into how I could do that myself.  I found a way to do it for free which was a plus and thought I'd share it with the community to hopefully helps others as well if they want to do it.  Basically what I do now is I record my screens while I'm trading and then I go back after and watch what happened during my trade when I'm doing my journal and/or also on the weekends for review.  This lets me see what I did right/wrong, see stuff I might have missed, see where I could've added to my position, or scaled out better, etc.  Essentially I'm able to go back and review my trade and see exactly what happened in real time.  Kind of like a like a professional athlete watching game film haha.  Like I said, everything I'm using is free so it won't cost you anything if you want to do it as well.  

The software I use to record the screen is OBS (free), which I'm sure most of the people that have been in this group for a while have heard of by now.  The problem that I then had though was that I have 6 screens, but I could only get OBS to record my main screen.  The solution that I found was that you then need to download a plugin for it called Advanced Scene Switcher (also free).  I'll include a link for it below.   Once you get that setup it records whichever screen that your mouse is in.  I only take one trade at a time so for me I just keep my mouse in that screen while I'm in a trade.  If I then go to trade from a montage/setup in a different screen it automatically switches the recording to that screen as long as my mouse is in that screen.  Obviously wouldn't be ideal if you were trading multiple positions on different screens, but for me with my one trade at a time it works.   I found a video that helps explain how to set up each screen for the Advanced Scene Switcher that I'll also include below. 

So I start the recording at the open and then stop the recording when I'm done for the day which makes it one long video.  I then use Avidemux for the video editing (again, free).  Its a pretty basic video editing software so I'm sure there's better stuff out there, but I just use it to edit the video down to each individual trade and save each trade as a separate video so I don't need anything special.  That way when I'm doing my journal, or on the weekends, etc,  I can find/review a particular trade as opposed to going through a long video of all my trades for the day.   

Anyways, I hope this helps some people if they were curious about doing something like this.  If you have any questions or need any help feel free to ask.

OBS:

https://obsproject.com/

OBS Advanced Scene Switcher plugin:

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/advanced-scene-switcher.395/

Video to setup Advanced Scene Switcher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg2bdjs6LdA

Avidemux:

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by True

[Lee W 82]

Nick, this is awesome. I’ve been using OBS successfully but have continued to look for basic editing software that I like. I didn’t want to go through using Adobe Premier for very basic editing. I’ve tried Windows Moviemaker. It works, but meh. Looks like you’ve found the solution. I’m grabbing Avidemux and giving it a try. 

Thank you!

[True 17]

2 hours ago, Lee W said:

Nick, this is awesome. I’ve been using OBS successfully but have continued to look for basic editing software that I like. I didn’t want to go through using Adobe Premier for very basic editing. I’ve tried Windows Moviemaker. It works, but meh. Looks like you’ve found the solution. I’m grabbing Avidemux and giving it a try. 

Thank you!

What up Lee!!  Yeah the Avidemux is about as basic as it comes.  You literally hit the A button where you want the video to start and the B button where you want it to end and then hit save.  That's it haha.  The only tricky part that I found, and its not really tricky, is then when you want to do the next trade you have to hit the A button twice where you want the next video to start.  Not sure how to explain it, but it basically brings the box that forms on the timeline all the way up to that point when you click it twice.  You'll see what I mean.  Oh and you may have to mess with the View tab to be able to see the video better.  It kind of defaults to this smaller view so I then go into the View tab and change it to Zoom 1:1.  For some reason that then zooms it in kind of too much, but I can see my 1 minute chart fine on that zoom and I just use that to then see where to edit the video.  Again, you'll see what I mean when you use it.  There's probably a way to adjust it, but I haven't really spent the time to figure it out because I can get done what I need to get done with it haha.

[Sapperstien 74]

Anyone found software that records multiples at once? I tried OBS but found myself in multiple trades at once

[ANTHONY_UK 6]

I use a software called FLASHBACK PRO RECORDER. I use a 42 inch dell monitor and a 27 inch all in one PC. The software  allows me to record both monitors or only one, whichever one i want.

I use the dell monitor to watch 4 stocks in play and once the recording is over i can zoom in on each specific stock and then save that as a separate file to re-watch, which is what i think you could do if you have more than 2 monitors but i haven't tried it on more than 2, so you'll have to try it out.  You can also slow the recording down to a quarter of the speed or speed it up 4x  and add comment text boxes at specif times to highlight areas of interest. I've been using it for a few months now so just send me a message if you need any advice on it. hope this helps

 

Anthony

[Christopher 129]

Thank you!

[Sapperstien 74]

On 7/9/2019 at 5:39 PM, True said:

I read One Good Trade by Mike Bellafiore and in it he mentions that they record their trades so that they can go back and review them after.  That sounded like a cool idea so I started looking into how I could do that myself.  I found a way to do it for free which was a plus and thought I'd share it with the community to hopefully helps others as well if they want to do it.  Basically what I do now is I record my screens while I'm trading and then I go back after and watch what happened during my trade when I'm doing my journal and/or also on the weekends for review.  This lets me see what I did right/wrong, see stuff I might have missed, see where I could've added to my position, or scaled out better, etc.  Essentially I'm able to go back and review my trade and see exactly what happened in real time.  Kind of like a like a professional athlete watching game film haha.  Like I said, everything I'm using is free so it won't cost you anything if you want to do it as well.  

The software I use to record the screen is OBS (free), which I'm sure most of the people that have been in this group for a while have heard of by now.  The problem that I then had though was that I have 6 screens, but I could only get OBS to record my main screen.  The solution that I found was that you then need to download a plugin for it called Advanced Scene Switcher (also free).  I'll include a link for it below.   Once you get that setup it records whichever screen that your mouse is in.  I only take one trade at a time so for me I just keep my mouse in that screen while I'm in a trade.  If I then go to trade from a montage/setup in a different screen it automatically switches the recording to that screen as long as my mouse is in that screen.  Obviously wouldn't be ideal if you were trading multiple positions on different screens, but for me with my one trade at a time it works.   I found a video that helps explain how to set up each screen for the Advanced Scene Switcher that I'll also include below. 

So I start the recording at the open and then stop the recording when I'm done for the day which makes it one long video.  I then use Avidemux for the video editing (again, free).  Its a pretty basic video editing software so I'm sure there's better stuff out there, but I just use it to edit the video down to each individual trade and save each trade as a separate video so I don't need anything special.  That way when I'm doing my journal, or on the weekends, etc,  I can find/review a particular trade as opposed to going through a long video of all my trades for the day.   

Anyways, I hope this helps some people if they were curious about doing something like this.  If you have any questions or need any help feel free to ask.

OBS:

https://obsproject.com/

OBS Advanced Scene Switcher plugin:

https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/advanced-scene-switcher.395/

Video to setup Advanced Scene Switcher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg2bdjs6LdA

Avidemux:

http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/

 

Hey I cant get the advcanced scene switcher to show up in OBS. Im trying to record 3 screens at once. I downloaded and extracted it but then the file doesnt run or do anything (.dll) Help? 

[True 17]

I don't remember exactly how to do it since its been a while, but I think you have to move the advanced scene switcher file that you downloaded into the plug-ins folder of the OBS folder.  Something like that.  Also I remember it saying something about needing to remove the original scene switcher that comes with OBS, but i couldn't find that file so I never did and it worked fine.  Maybe newer updates got rid of that file?

 

EDIT:

Here's the instructions on the download page.  Like I said, mine didn't have the other scene swithcer file that it says to remove, but other than that these are the instructions that I basically followed.

Installation Windows:
 

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the Windows folder
3. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.dll in the OBS Stdio plugin folder. (For example C:\Program Files (x86)\obs-studio\obs-plugins\32bit or C:\Program Files\obs-studio\bin\64bit - this path can be different for you!)
4. Install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017
   x86: vc_redist.x86.exe
   x64: vc_redist.x64.exe
   (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads)
5. Make sure to remove any previous versions of the plugin (called SceneSwitcher.dll)
6. Configure the settings (see later section)

Installation MacOS:

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the MacOS folder
3. Rigth click the OBS application and choose "Show Package Contents".
4. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.so file to Contents/Resources/obs-plugins.
5. Make sure to remove any previous versions of the plugin (called SceneSwitcher.so)
6. Configure the settings (see next section)

Installation Linux:

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the Linux folder
3. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.so file into the OBS Studio plugin folder (usually /usr/lib/obs-plugins/).
4. Configure the settings (see next section)

Spoiler: Settings (outdated)

Additional Information and Notes:

Don't run both, the built in scene switcher and the advanced scene switcher. Otherwise both will try to switch based on their settings and cause many unnecessary scene switches.

[Sapperstien 74]

On 1/2/2020 at 4:50 PM, True said:

I don't remember exactly how to do it since its been a while, but I think you have to move the advanced scene switcher file that you downloaded into the plug-ins folder of the OBS folder.  Something like that.  Also I remember it saying something about needing to remove the original scene switcher that comes with OBS, but i couldn't find that file so I never did and it worked fine.  Maybe newer updates got rid of that file?

 

EDIT:

Here's the instructions on the download page.  Like I said, mine didn't have the other scene swithcer file that it says to remove, but other than that these are the instructions that I basically followed.

Installation Windows:
 

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the Windows folder
3. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.dll in the OBS Stdio plugin folder. (For example C:\Program Files (x86)\obs-studio\obs-plugins\32bit or C:\Program Files\obs-studio\bin\64bit - this path can be different for you!)
4. Install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017
   x86: vc_redist.x86.exe
   x64: vc_redist.x64.exe
   (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads)
5. Make sure to remove any previous versions of the plugin (called SceneSwitcher.dll)
6. Configure the settings (see later section)

Installation MacOS:

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the MacOS folder
3. Rigth click the OBS application and choose "Show Package Contents".
4. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.so file to Contents/Resources/obs-plugins.
5. Make sure to remove any previous versions of the plugin (called SceneSwitcher.so)
6. Configure the settings (see next section)

Installation Linux:

1. Extract the folder
2. Open the Linux folder
3. Copy the advanced-scene-switcher.so file into the OBS Studio plugin folder (usually /usr/lib/obs-plugins/).
4. Configure the settings (see next section)

Spoiler: Settings (outdated)

Additional Information and Notes:

Don't run both, the built in scene switcher and the advanced scene switcher. Otherwise both will try to switch based on their settings and cause many unnecessary scene switches.

Any chance you could send/link a video of what it looks like when its working? I cant get it to work. I even did what the video showed me. And downloaded the other C++ file. It just wont auto switch for the screen Im in and only record that. Thx

[hailchaser2 185]

I'm using a basic laptop for trading, connected to a monitor for extra space. I don't know very much about computers. I'm afraid if I start trying to record my screen with OBS or the DAS recorder, it will be too much for my laptop. I'll give it a try tomorrow in SIM so if it does mess up my order speeds it won't hurt my account.

Or am I worrying about something that won't even effect my entry execution speed?

Edited March 22, 2020 by hailchaser2

[JasonH 47]

32 minutes ago, hailchaser2 said:

I'm using a basic laptop for trading, connected to a monitor for extra space. I don't know very much about computers. I'm afraid if I start trying to record my screen with OBS or the DAS recorder, it will be too much for my laptop. I'll give it a try tomorrow in SIM so if it does mess up my order speeds it won't hurt my account.

Or am I worrying about something that won't even effect my entry execution speed?

If your DAS Time and Sales and Montage L2 look to be updating normally, then i don't think you have anything to worry about. If your laptop was so overwhelmed that DAS Trader was struggling to keep up, then you might have an issue where your trades may execute some number of milliseconds later than normal. Personally I would not use any computer or laptop with less than 8 GB of RAM to trade from. And if you have 8 GB of RAM, and not a bunch of unnecessary programs running, you should be fine.

Edited March 22, 2020 by Jason

[hailchaser2 185]

21 minutes ago, Jason said:

If your DAS Time and Sales and Montage L2 look to be updating normally, then i don't think you have anything to worry about. If your laptop was so overwhelmed that DAS Trader was struggling to keep up, then you might have an issue where your trades may execute some number of milliseconds later than normal. Personally I would not use any computer or laptop with less than 8 GB of RAM to trade from. And if you have 8 GB of RAM, and not a bunch of unnecessary programs running, you should be fine.

Thanks, Occasionally my Tape and L2 stutter right at 9:30. I don't trade in the first minute anyway. I only use this laptop for trading, so I email screen caps to myself, go to bearbulltraders site, and my CMEG account, I also use it for my trading excel sheets. 

I have a Lenevo ideapad330, after reading your comment, I did a little research. Looks , like it only has 4 GB RAM, but is capable of using 12 GB RAM. Evidently there is a slot to just add more RAM. So I guess I will get the extra 8 GB and watch some youtube videos on how to do it.

Thanks again.

[JasonH 47]

@hailchaser2 That additional 8 Gb of RAM make it feel like a brand new computer

[hailchaser2 185]

11 minutes ago, Jason said:

@hailchaser2 That additional 8 Gb of RAM make it feel like a brand new computer

should I do the SSD change while I have it open?

 

[JasonH 47]

@hailchaser2 DAS Trader really isn't a disk intensive piece of software so it's not that important. Your laptop already has a 1 TB HDD right? I wouldn't worry about the hard drive.