mammon, have a look at dwt.co.za as an option. They're focussed on smaller daytime traders. shop around and make sure you get good service. If you're a big time trader, then Cortex is fine. On futures, it's a whole different ball game. Your best approach is to make sure you have real time trading platforms and charts. Each futures trader has his own combo of indicators. At a minimum if you're going to trade ALSI futures, you need to watch realtime FTSE and TOP. It's no guarantee but our market tends to mimic the FTSE. The DAX also correlates pretty well. FTSE and DAX tend to lead us a bit. I also keep an eye on ASX, DOW, Forex movement and commodities as the ZARUSD relative to our market value is also a leading indicator of movement (people forget that a chunk of the money on the JSE is foreign and they measure value in their own currency). Also, nothing like sentiment to move futures: When oil suddenly spikes up and XAU goes up, then you can expect volatility. Lastly, the macro economic indicators of the FOMC, BOE and ECB usually have definite movement potential on futures and if you do your research well then you can position well with a bit of luck. The one thing that I can honestly say futures is NOT is a happy trigger finger. For futures you MUST have a strategy and stick to it. If you guess futures, you're going to lose