How do floor traders keep track of prices?

I was wondering...when floor traders look at price changes from those "scoreboards" at CME, NYSE, etc., how do they keep track? Do they record them in their notebooks and make a chart of them? Highly unlikely...so if they don't use electronic charting on the trading floors, what do they do in order to make a good execution?

Depends on the pit I'd imagine, but a lot of them have local terminals w/ bar charts. There's also a mental component, take a look into tape reading.

The proliferation of PDAs and hand-held tablet PCs probably helps too.

Nod. That poses a good question tho... those terminal hand-helds you see floor traders walking around with, are those just order terminals or do they have a charting capability too? Of course none of that stops anyone from bringing in a 2nd system for charting, but it does make me wonder...