Best wireless provider for trading

S

saxon22

Well, 2007 is here and I was able to get a better position at my work. Apparently, in my free time which is a better half of a trading day, I am allowed to trade, BUT, I have to do it on my equipment and provide my own internet connection. I have a fairly new notebook (1 year old) that should handle my trading work load. However, what preoccupies me is the wireless part. As of today, there are 3 major companies: T Mobile, Cingular, Vrizon. All claim to have coverage in NYC and all offer the same speed which is 400 to 700kbps. Pricewise they are in the same ball park that is $59 to $79. My questions are:

1. Which one of the three has the fastest real world connection in NYC?
2. Would a speed of 400 to 700 kbps be enough to actively trade futures (ES, ER 2). I go in for 1 point and stay in max. 30 min or until I hit the point or -1), so no scalping or quick entry, exit movements. What I am afraid is the latency of quotes (use e signal) and latency of fills with wireless access (IB as a broker).

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions are welcome. :D :D
 
They all have some no-questions-asked money back guarantee - you just pay for usage for the trial. I would just try each one and see for yourself.

What may work for me in my area may not be the best provider for you in your area. For example, I live in a Chicago suburb. I am told that Sprint works great downtown, but maybe not as well as Verizon in the burbs. So the experience of others not in your area may be of very limited value...

It all depends on where you want to use it imo. I am thinking of going with Sprint...

nitro
 
I live in the Seattle area and tried the Verizon wireless setup. They are my cell phone carrier. I use DTN IQ feed. The problem I had was the signal isn't a consistent stream. It fluctuates in bandwidth. I was told this is normal for wireless connections. For most interntet needs this isn't a problem. However the main indicator I use is market delta(bid vol. - ask vol.) so reliable data stream is critical and my setup wasn't able to do it. After the first day while talking to tech support to see if there was something I could do to boost the signal, which I found out the signal wasn't the problem, I was informed that Verizon has a limit on how many bytes per week, month...you could do without them asking you to discontinue the service. Tick data is so intense that I would have gone over the monthly limit within a few days. This may not be the case in your area or with other carriers but this was my experience. I'm not that techy and there may well be better setups out there. I'll be interested on what others have to say on the subject and what you find out. I hope you'll post your experiences.
 
Quote from nitro:

They all have some no-questions-asked money back guarantee - you just pay for usage for the trial. I would just try each one and see for yourself.

What may work for me in my area may not be the best provider for you in your area. For example, I live in a Chicago suburb. I am told that Sprint works great downtown, but maybe not as well as Verizon in the burbs. So the experience of others not in your area may be of very limited value...

It all depends on where you want to use it imo. I am thinking of going with Sprint...

nitro
More...



They all claim the 400 - 700 speed. However, I wonder what is the real world speed and if it is let say constant 350 kbps, would this be enough to carry both E signal and IB at the same time? I would hate to spend close to $100 on monthly basis to find out I could get a feed that is 30 sec. late.
 
Quote from saxon22:

They all claim the 400 - 700 speed. However, I wonder what is the real world speed and if it is let say constant 350 kbps, would this be enough to carry both E signal and IB at the same time? I would hate to spend close to $100 on monthly basis to find out I could get a feed that is 30 sec. late.
More...
I wouldn't use it to trade realtime. I use it to Remote Desktop to my computers at my home office while I am at work, so that I can monitor the automated trading systems. But all the real work is being done on a inet connection that goes down maybe once a year for 10 minutes...

nitro
 
You are going to find that the latency is 200ms or more on Verizon EVDO. Not so bad for web surfing and email, but if you're depending on rapid response to price movements you are going to be 200-400ms behind all of your competitors.

If you're not scalping it may be ok.

Traveler
 
I was looking into this also. The Verizon terms and conditions are:

The Unlimited Data Plans and Features MAY NOT be used for any other purpose. Examples of prohibited uses include, without limitation, the following: (i) continuous uploading, downloading or streaming of audio or video programming or games; (ii) server devices or host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, automated machine–to–machine connections or peer–to–peer (P2P) file sharing; or (iii) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections. This means, by way of example only, that checking email, surfing the Internet, downloading legally acquired songs, and/or visiting corporate intranets is permitted, but downloading movies using P2P file sharing services and/or redirecting television signals for viewing on laptops is prohibited. A person engaged in prohibited uses, continuously for one hour, could typically use 100 to 200 MBs, or, if engaged in prohibited uses for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, could use more than 5 GBs in a month.

Note the 200 meg in 1 hour limit or 5 Gigs a month... they also disclaim "streaming" ... may need to keep looking. I heard Sprint may allow streaming, but have not been able to verify it.
 
Quote from Traveler:

You are going to find that the latency is 200ms or more on Verizon EVDO. Not so bad for web surfing and email, but if you're depending on rapid response to price movements you are going to be 200-400ms behind all of your competitors.

If you're not scalping it may be ok.

Traveler
More...



No scalping here. Just want to be able to follow the ES or ER 2 charts, and have IB ready when my setup comes up to execute. Once I am in, I always go for 1 to 1.25 pt. limit order with the same range stop. So basically, once I am in the rest is on auto. I do not let profits run or change my stop. Will it work???? I am getting my wireless card next week from Verizon.:D :D :D


Thanks for the info.:D :D :D
 
Verizon allows VPN. It is a way around their restrictive AUP. Talk on various message boards is that 10 Gig a month is what gets you kicked out. You'll get a warning first.

Traveler
 
Sprint. No question. Beats VZ in every major market by a mile. I saw a test in LA on one of the blogs with VZ clocking 200Kb with the identical Sprint PDA at 700Kb.

A buddy's account was closed by VZ for "sharing" ... he used the device a few times a week for email.
 
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