Buy Used Workstation For Trading?

Mtrader said:
What a relief! :)

I never understood why ET traders always want to buy cheap? The trading gurus from ET can spent any amount as they are all very profitable.
I buy the desktop I need and don't care about the price. I care more about the service. If I cannot trade 1 day I miss profits to buy several desktops, so the choice is easy for me.
The difference between buying the best quality and a bargain is smaller than my average daily profit. I prefer to spent my time on trading instead of losing it on finding bargains. And most traders on ET apparently make much more money then me. :confused: So they should do the same. Stay with your core business: trading and making money. Try to find bargains there!
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I sincerely enjoy getting a good deal. It's not like I buy crap either. Also, I know people who buy top end stuff and it fails almost as often.
Think of the guys who could afford to buy 5 brand new 911s but choose to play mechanic on a 1980s 911 instead. It's not all about money - there's fun in doing things yourself and learning while at it.
 
lawrence-lugar said:
A $5,000 computer...what the heck are you buying?
I consider a brand new ThinkPad P70 Xeon laptop that costs almost $3K already really expensive and overkill for trading purposes o_O:confused:
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Didn't say I paid 5K. Under 5K I don't spent time on bargaining. I just buy what I want to buy. Laptops, desktops, screens, software...
For the heavy work I have a desktop as the power I have is not available in laptops. For the light work I use a laptop I7.

My point is that on ET a lot of traders pretend to make a lot of money. But they are busy hours in trying to save 100$ when buying a PC. That does not make sense to me. It is like pretending to be able to by a Mercedes and finally end up buying a LADA, because the Mercedes is overkill and the LADA gives you more value for the money. And for just driving around the Lada is OK.
 
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vanzandt said:
Lose twice as much money twice as fast?
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I am impressed by this proof of intelligence. You clearly see things of which I didn't even knew the existance. I will trade from my old commodore 64 again. It will improve my performance. Thanks for the hint! LOL.
 
d08 said:
Think of the guys who could afford to buy 5 brand new 911s but choose to play mechanic on a 1980s 911 instead. It's not all about money - there's fun in doing things yourself and learning while at it.
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Funny you mentioned Porsche 911...I was just eyeing one on eBay: 2005 Porsche 911,
has alot of miles. but i don't necessarily mind. i'm a cheap/bargain-priced buyer
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Porsche-911-997-Coupe-/262684106851
image.jpg
4_1.jpg

(sorry for hijacking this thread topic slightly; going off course)
;)o_O
 
Mtrader said:
Didn't say I paid 5K. Under 5K I don't spent time on bargaining. I just buy what I want to buy. Laptops, desktops, screens, software...
For the heavy work I have a desktop as the power I have is not available in laptops. For the light work I use a laptop I7.

My point is that on ET a lot of traders pretend to make a lot of money. But they are busy hours in trying to save 100$ when buying a PC. That does not make sense to me. It is like pretending to be able to by a Mercedes and finally end up buying a LADA, because the Mercedes is overkill and the LADA gives you more value for the money. And for just driving around the Lada is OK.
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If you're making loads of money from trading, how come you're not managing a fund?
 
Scataphagos said:
Rambling thoughts...

Besides the money saved purchasing used, you can get high quality and reliability.

I've been using Dell Workstations for at least a dozen years. Was thinking about how many hours I've had them running and part failures experienced.

My system runs 4 workstations. I've been running Dell Precision (Dell's best quality line, IMV) for at least the last 10 years. And before that, I ran Dell Dimensions which were also good and reliable.

So... ~2500 hrs/year x 4 machines x 10 years = ~100,000 hours. (Actual run time is longer, just picked "100K hours" as a nice round number.)

Failures...

1x SSD... Intel... replaced under warranty
1x PSU... Dell.... replaced under warranty
1x RAM Stick... Dell... replaced under warranty
1x Motherboard... Dell... replaced under warranty
2x Optic Drives... "Non-Dell part" issues, no warranty replacement, but only ~$25 each.

10 years... 4 computers... 100,000 hours, only 6 minor repairs. THAT'S why traders should at least consider work station-class computers for trading.

FWIW...
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That's not that impressive. I've been building my own PCs going all the way back to 1996. I've never actually had any component fail on me aside from one OCZ SSD which I was using on my Linux box (and given that it was made by OCZ, that should have happened).
 
lovethetrade said:
If you're making loads of money from trading, how come you're not managing a fund?
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I never said I make loads of money. But if I like to buy a car I pay cash, and if I want to buy 2 cars I also pay cash. So spending 5K because I like to have an overkill PC is not an issue for me.

I don't manage a fund because I make money. If you make money you do it for yourself, it would be stupid to give these profits to someone else and only keep a small management fee and an incentive fee. And I hate disclosure documents, CFTC and NFA regulations, clients calling every hour to ask if I did not miss the last move... Been there, done that, so I know how it is in real life.
Is it an obligation to manage a fund if you make money, or is managing a fund the only proof people make money?

I know very rich people who work day and night. I also know very rich people who only party day and night. So completely different behavior although both groups are very rich. People can choose the life they want to live. Some want to have a lot of money and miss life, some want to have life and miss some millions. I opted for the second choice, and the older I get to more I see that it was and still is the best choice.
Only poor people dream about millions or starting a fund as they don't know how it is to have some money on the bank.
 
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