Traders PC suggestions Needed

Beginner Questions
1

Hey Mods, not sure where to put this, so Move it if you must, Thanks…

OK, One of the main problems with my trading career is my PC… Well, Its a laptop actually… HP G50…
I have issues with it now, the screen flutters, and everything gets blury, then I have to adjust it, and then adjust it again, like every 5-10 seconds sometimes… Sometimes, i can go the whole day without having to, but most days, I want to punch a hole thru it. Missed many exits with this problem… The thing is, I cant open it anyfurther, so the problem is getting really bad now…

ANyways, I have about $400 to spend, and I think I need to get my PC situation straight, because really, its stressful, and its detrimental to my trading…

I plan to use it for strickly trading. Would love a 2 screen setup, but my cash is really limited, but I need to get this done.

Whats some suggestions/?

Laptop? Desktop? I would really like to be able to carry it around, so something light and not bulky, but a long life battery, and a anti reflective screen, so i can see outside if I wanted to trade at the beach, :slight_smile:

Awwww, Ok, Im dreamin, But really, Throw me some Ideas if you have time…

Thanks,

2

Just buy a new laptop. New laptops these days are incredibly cheap.

3

Dunno why two screens would be enticing. I trade 12-14 pairs a night on an Acer Aspire One netbook with a 10 inch LCD display. Of course I don’t sit and stare at the charts all night either.

There are some amazing deals out there on laptops that fit your requirements of non-reflective screens, and plenty of RAM, and easy access almost anywhere.

I would focus on a SOLID net connection.

4

I trade on a gaming laptop with a 17 in screen, which is really nice but most likely out of your price range. But if you go the laptop route which is nice for traveling and still being able to trade . Most laptops have a port to attach an additional computer monitor anyway. So you could just wait until you have money to get another monitor and then just plug that in with the travel flexibility of a laptop. I love dual screens comes from my online poker playing days. It allows me to keep my charts up of trades I am currently managing while doing research or looking for new set ups. Or looking at news or baby pips.

5

Trading on $400 laptop is like trying going into a dog fight with a Eurofighter Jet plane with a WWI biplane.

I would reccommend falcon trading computers

6

Fellas, Thanks for the input…

The 2 screen thing, well, I do watch a few differant things, but also find it valuable to always have my pair open and inplace at all times. I dont trade more then EURUSD, Well, Usually, but learned a few more things this weekend about differant pairs to work with. My main focus was just learning the action so the pairs really didnt matter at the time. Im coming to a point in my career that Im starting to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.

I have RoadRunner cable internet, but Im wireless at the moment… Still pretty fast, most of the time, but the screen thing, Im done with it…

My goal in the future is to actually open a Day Traders arena if you will. Office atmosphere, your coffee, market boards, but a professional atmosphere, were people can come to, just like a day job, stay as long as they wish, and leave when they want, thats on them… Like a Traders hub… I am the type that wants to wear Suits all day, its just my characherists I have. I enjoy looking professional, I work better When Im Feeling professional.

Remember the 40’s and 50’s when everyone dresses proper? When the majority of the population cared what they looked like and what people thought of You?

Karma and Law of Attraction Im a big believer in. A proper looking Person might have a better chance at more things then the guy that dont care what he looks like.

I want to mingle and rub elbows with MY Kind.

I guess you can say, Im opening a Big Bank, but just not lending money, but I want the same atmosphere to work in.

Hey, never know, some day I might build a big glass building, Just for the penthouse office space for me and my team. Then go down stairs to race indoor Electric go-carts, IN MY BUILDING,…

This is just a quick upgrade to what I have now, and take the steps to build my wealth, and my Empire. But the end result, is, well, Out of this world.

Some take the acorn and put it on the desk, Im planting it to see the forest.

I would even like to run for Mayor in my City some day. OR, start my Own, :slight_smile:

OK, sorry for the ramblin, Im pretty excited to use my new tactics this week.

Anyways Fellas, thanks for the input… Im going to go check out hhgregg, Sams Club and bestbuy today.
Just wanted some input on something I might not know as of yet with the PC part of trading.

7

Yeah, the poker days… I played alot of Hold’em and have a few friends that are really really good at it… It just wasnt for me, mainly because I not a big fanatic
of people chewing gum, eating potato chips, chewin on Ice, its just really annoying to me, and trying to concentrate on my game.

Alot of the Online Poker was so rigged, actually, probably around 99.9% of it was rigged.

I really dug in, and found out about alot of crap, and that was about the end for me with online poker.

I had programs, that would tell me almost to perfection the card generators, and my next card. I had to a science, because, well, the big traders were doing the same.

Anyways, when the Poker craze started, and I decided to not play, I came up with a business in making poker tables.

I made 4 really nice round tables. Sold 3 of them for $300 each, and kept one for my Office.

Its so nice, I just couldnt sell it, I had to keep one for myself, because I probably wouldnt ever make another, cause it was alot of work.

Never made one, but let me tell ya, they were really sweet looking.

All Oak, with wood finish along the inside of the seamless, padded rail, and padded playing surface.

Its definitly a heir loom for my boys… I will post a pic if i can dig one out.

Just another business I started, and decided, the amount of work/reward wasnt nearly enough for my goals.

I havent played Holdem in like 3 years, and I live 10 minutes from the Casino, lol…

8

If you know how to build computers you can make one for nearly 1/3 the cost. Mine was about 600$ for all the parts except the monitors and would probably retail for around 1500$. If yours would be strictly for trading you can probably make a very good one for 400$ but you’d need to spend a bit on the monitors. My monitors are about 150$ ea so you can see that they can easily cost as much as the computer. If you are willing to build your own PC (it’s very easy to do btw) check out this site: Pricewatch - Web’s first Price Comparison site. Find the lowest price, deals and store reviews on tech and more You’ll find great deals on everything especially CPU and mobo combos. Another route you could go would be to buy a cheap ish laptop and a monitor that’ll give you two displays

Another thing to keep in mind is that if it is soley for trading you don’t need any fancy graphics card. Charts are all 2D, so you don’t need anything special. Just a card that support 2 and maybe 3 monitors should you ever want to get a 3rd.

9

This! I built my first PC at the age of 14 so anyone can do it! :smiley:
I’d happily explain anything if you need help.

10

Oh yeah, the good ole homebuild pc’s lol. Frankly, I built thousands of them. At my career and a dozen for myself. Since a couple of years I just buy laptops and no desktops anymore. Why?

  • You have a battery and do not need usv
  • You can sell the whole thing easier at Ebay
  • It’s portable, takes no room, has a screen included
  • Takes less energy
  • New laptops are as powerful as desktops for almost the same price or even lower if you include monitor and keyboard/mouse/touchpad

For $230 around you can already buy a dual core netbook and if you buy a monitor with it, you have a 2 screen solution. Or you just buy the netbook for $230 and you would have 170 left for trading.

What do we have here? A dual core with 1.6 Ghz and everything on board what you need:

Acer Netbook PC, 10.1", Black - Walmart.com

11

Hey Fellas, well, I would build one, but I just dont have the time to wait for everything, then build it , then install everything. I actually have a custom one sitting here, that needs a monitor, almost new, was nothing i expected…

I have gotten it narrowed down to

Samsung - Laptop / Intel® Core™ i3 Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Silver

$402 out the door, bestbuy

12

It’s really easy to pick up a second screen cheap at an office supply store, and so forth, during winter holiday sales. Looks like that thing has an HDMI output? I picked up a second monitor from Staples last year for 89 dollars, for one of my setups. Currently run triple monitors on a proper stand with an alienware aurora / 5870 eyefinity ~ mine’s the older DVI/HDMI card so sometimes that third monitor on the HDMI -> DVI converter box gets scrambly. But what it means, is that I never have to shut off MT4, or Oanda, or even a second MT4 with a better feed than Oanda’s, or Dealbook… it’s really good for a learning environment. It’s just always there. Strongly recommend a second monitor if you like just sort of keeping an eye on the market when doing something else. I can’t imagine going down to two screens, now… let alone one.

If I ever get into the big leagues, the first thing I’ll get is a dedicated internet connexion and a dedicated, solid system. 6 monitors, even. I may not need all that, but sometimes just making yourself feeling secure, comfortable and at ease will translate into rational decisions. I really like the idea of a nice office area for trading!

And must confess, I have a predilection for extremes in clothing myself ~ either really bad (surfer~ish) or more respectable (for instance, for shoes, Ferragamos or Ballys at minimum, but understated stuff so only the people who know the difference can tell). Oddly ~ like a lot of things in life ~ shoes, clothes, even cars… more money up front is actually the cheaper way to go in the long run. I doubt I’ll ever be wealthy enough to afford too many disposable or cheap things…

13

Good stuff Desmond, and keep rollin, you’ll get whatever you want…

It does have HDMI, so thats the plan now, just add another or 2 monitors…

Guys, again, thanks for all the input, much appricitated…

Great Profits to all this week,

14

Huiiii. Then you need at least something like this: AMD FX processor brings eight cores to battle, we go eyes-on (video) – Engadget lol. I bought a quad machine for my development workstation (trading is just a side part) and I’m happy with that and my two screens regarding speed. But 6 screens would need a lot of graphics ram/power and cpu performance.


15

Buy a Windows Tablet PC

16

If you want a sturdy, reliable laptop to work with, Lenovo IdeaPad or ThinkPads are your best bet. ThinkPads, being the higher end, business-geared machine is relatively more expensive but definitely worth it. Don’t let its looks fool you, it’s not meant to look cool or colourful, but it’s a beast. You can use that when you’re on the go.

At the same time, the graphics card inside has a DVI and VGA output which you can attach two monitors onto it, pretty much giving yourself a 2 monitor setup at home.

Living in university, and with little space, that’s the best way to go.

Then I’ve also got a 200W 5.1 computer speaker system just for the sake of it. External keyboard and mouse as well.

Here’s a picture of my setup:

IMG_0123.jpg700×523 35.3 KB


Lenovo IdeaPad Y570 is the laptop I’m using.
2 LG E2060 20’ LED monitors
Das Keyboard, random mouse, Logitech speakers.

Hope that helps!

Regards,
Clark

17

Eight screeeeeens… heh I would actually like that a lot, even the 3 I’ve got now get pretty littered up with 5 or 6 nice, clearly sized charts running all at once.

For a long time in my life I tried the ‘shoestring’ method, figuring, why get fast internet when DSL would do the job, &c… this old PC good enough ~ all those arguments. And… it was true! Except, well, what’s actually cheaper? Four throwaway PC’s because they overheated or something failed, or one solid one. I have to hand it to mac’s and alienware, they don’t seem to die too easy. Cheap Dells… it’s like a drug habit. Great for one or two years and then you need another fix. Some tiny internal fan goes bad, or a heat sink kinda comes loose, and… there you are. Decent computer every 5 or 6 years is far, far cheaper and you really don’t miss out that much, plus you’ve still got an old workhorse at the end for a spare server, kids, whatever.

One side effect of three screens: a clean desk. No need for anything other than the phone and a paper clipboard with some handwritten quick notes on it. Been running like that for a very long while now. Very helpful for focusing.

The real ‘evil’ for trading, that has sort of ‘got’ me, was the interruption technologies such as skype, IM, that sort of thing. I tend to offload all that from the computer to the phone unless focusing on a conversation. Something about having it on the physically separate device really helps. Imagine an IM come up smack in your face when trying to get your head around a trade, or worse yet: scalping.

Which leads me to another pet peeve. I have a chart up, and then Firefox has to ‘remind’ me about an important update by blocking my chart view with a massive rectangle. Later on: Win 7 griping about updates, and telling me that the computer is rebooting in 15 minutes unless I act. Not ten minutes later: McAfee, fussing about an update. Ah, and look, there goes Java! And then Adobe Reader!

I’m wondering if a ‘pure trade station’ computer wouldn’t be a bad idea… Eight screens, why not? Eight times the hundred dollar LCD variety, seriously do~able. The stand would cost probably 300ish. Once invested, a fairly long term, handy thing. Though perhaps that same real estate could be more effectively useful on just 3 or 4 larger monitors. As for graphics capability, I ran ‘Dirt 2’ (a racing game) across 3 screens at 5040 x 1050, and the images were dynamic, high frame per second and near photo realistic. That’s on a 2 year old ATI 5780 + midrange i7 cpu. Ever since then I can’t recommend 3 screens enough. The productivity gain (in my case, at least) was huge.

18

Yeah, laptops are so easy to sell. I gut my desktop every 8-10 months. CPU/ram/video card/mobo usually, depending on whether a socket is still in or video card is still good. PSU and the like when necessary. Getting money out of old parts is difficult and it usually takes a while. I buy a laptop a year or so, and have zero problems getting rid of them everytime I buy I new one. Macbooks/MBPs in specific are really easy to flip with a minimal amount of loss provided you bought it used.

If you are not a hardcore power user and don’t require a beefcake desktop, stick with a laptop and a 22-26" monitor. You will most likely be happier for it. Just don’t forget to buy a keyboard and mouse for it for when you have it @ your desk. Makes life easier.

19

Just what exactly is better?

It’s not the brush, it’s the painter…

20

It depends on what you monitor during your trading. It’s usually not necessary to have two screens but when you do have them and can have leave one screen there that ticks over with secondary information it’s very convenient. I was never pushed about it before until I got two screens in work. You get used to the convenience very quickly and it does help to keep some information presented that might otherwise get forgotten about.

As for buying a PC I’d go for a desktop over a laptop any day. You get more bang for your buck out of a desktop typically and they last longer in my experience being quite a lot easier to maintain.