What is your set-up? Do you trade on a laptop, desktop, PC, Mac, Web-based, mobile platform? How many monitors do you have going at once? Do you just use the charts on your trading platform or do you have a separate charting package? Do you pay for separate news feeds?
This is a poll to help me get an idea of what’s “typical” for an individual trader.
I have a Mac laptop, am currently looking for a broker with a platform that is not too complicated and preferrably web-based and/or Mac friendly. I plan to use charts in my trading platform and separate charts and news feeds from forexpros. I am considering getting an ipad to act like a second screen. For instance, I could have charts up on my laptop and news feeds/economic reports on the ipad.
I’m also curious about how critical the hardware/software is. If you have done your research and figured out what your entry level, stop loss and limits will be and set up your trades in advance, it seems that the broker is really the only part of the process that needs to be quick and reliable, but I may be totally wrong about that. Please educate me.
Thats eight questions… five in the first paragraph! :23: How is this ‘poll’ of yours going to produce results i.e. results that can be meaningfully interpreted? If I trade using three 21" monitors for instance does that make my decisions ‘bigger’ than yours? LOL!!!
Typical kid! LOL!!! As a card carrying ‘Ludite’ (might need to look that word up) its not about the technology… PC, handheld or otherwise. Its about the quality of the trade! In your world, which is best? WII, XBOX or Playstation? There are nuances I’m sure but ultimately the PLAYER would be the correct answer.
I reluctantly have a cell… don’t text, twiiter, tweet, take pics. or surf… but I’m dam good at taking and making calls! LOL!!!
I’m a little more the tech guy than Mr. Carter, but I can back that up. Just one pc might be right or even the new cell phones if your broker has an app for it. Okay, in realitly I have three computers engaged in trading. One overseas which is a vps. So, I do not know how that looks like, lol. I just connect to it to check if my bots are running. Then I have my workstation which is 5 years old (still good enough for trading) plus a netbook for the silent times at night (also good enough for trading). A big screen might be nice, but only with a reasonable resolution. You might get trend lines as lines and not dots, right? If you have those larger screens then you can draw on a chart better and can see more details. That’s it. Nothing special.
I won’t deny that I’m new. I’ve only been trading on a demo account for one month. I agree that the equipment is not the most important part by a long shot, but it is confusing to figure out which options I should be considering. Since it’s not the most important part, I am looking for recommendations so that I don’t have to spend a lot of time doing all of the research myself.
I guess the short answer would be to use Metatrader 4 or 5, but I really would prefer to use a web-based trading platform and the web-based platforms I have looked at have terrible charts. I can also see the benefit of having two monitors and maybe one that is big so that I can see those little pips on my charts.
I would love to hear other thoughts on web-based trading vs desktop and what type of equipment/platforms folks are using or thinking about using.
You can use charts on MT (or any other chart app) with a demo and use the web platform to trade if you have a broker which uses one. Thus you would have access to both worlds. Just don’t make it too complicated. If you have too many apps, then it’s rather hard to follow whats going on with your trades or markets.
I could not get on with the online platform that my broker uses for the Mac and I was comfortable with the PC platform and charting software which was free (tradestation and marketscope 2).
In regards to hardware I like the appearance of the iMac so I now use a 27" iMac and link to a windows server in the attic using RDC or parallels VM running windows 7. The main 27" screen displays all my charts and I use display link to extend my desktop feeds and quotes to my iPad.
I also use a laptop when away from home to trade as the iPad application from my broker is not up to the job.
