Day trading through a wi-fi connection at home?

[virtusa]

I discretionary day / scalp trade the NQ. Few months ago, I went back on all my trades to check precisely how efficient were my entry and exit times. I also did a MAE MFE analysis for this period of time.
I use Journalytix and that helps a lot.

After I upgraded my internet router and went from a "basic +" cable to fiber, I was able to reduce my slippage or bad execution, by 0.28 tick per R/T, on average.

I also tested another broker + data + another trading platform, and the best combo gave me 0.76 tick per R/T, also on average.
Of course, I can't say if I am just better than before (...) or my upgrades really work.
So, it seems not much, but at the end of the year, 1 tick on the NQ ($5) and a lot of trades, is actually a lot of money.
Hope this helps.

I think you can never really calculate if less latency is better or worse. At least not if you buy/sell at market price.
I trade the ES and I see many times that at the moment I buy or sell at the market, the price just went up or down 1 tick. You can never predict if the next tick will be up or down, an also not when that next tick will come. So you never know if you finally got the price you clicked on or another one. You can only be sure about the advantage of less latency if, when you enter the market, there will NEVER be a one tick move in the wrong direction.
Only if you put an order in the market before it is touched you can try to see if the lower latency gave you an advantage. And even then it depends on where you are in the row with your order. I even think that your place in the row has more impact than the latency.

As daytrader saving one tick would not really change my overall performance on the long term. If your profit or loss depends on the one tick you should stop trading and look for a better trading plan.

 

[virtusa]

Yeah. I'd be surprised if the new apartment complex I moved into don't upgrade to fiber eventually, but for now it's old school broadband. Will just have to do some tests as soon as I'm installed.

Thank you.

With NT brokerage, you use Cloudflare. So your connection is already faster than any normal connection on internet.

 

[Fonz]

...So you never know if you finally got the price you clicked on or another one...
...As daytrader saving one tick would not really change my overall performance on the long term. If your profit or loss depends on the one tick you should stop trading and look for a better trading plan.

Great advice, thank you. You know things, for sure

 

[mervyn]

As daytrader saving one tick would not really change my overall performance on the long term. If your profit or loss depends on the one tick you should stop trading and look for a better trading plan.

Yea, when market is on the move, always jump in front of other folks to get filled.

 

[Fonz]

Great advice, thank you. You know things, for sure

I like to quote myself

Very few of us day trade or scalp.... and actually make money from it, obviously.

OP, if you discretionary trade like me and your orders are anything else than limit, they are impacted by the time you see something and the time your order is executed.
During that time, you have your thoughts and reactions, mouse click, hardware, Internet speed, the software used, and the company sending your order directly (?) to the exchange.
1 tick on the NQ is $5. An average of 20 orders of 1 contract or 5 orders of 4 contracts would be $100 per day. If you are successful, you probably trade heavier than that.
I trade on average 150 days / year.
Best!

 

[Handle123]

Hello, guys,

I'm relocating to a new apartment and have a few alternatives, but it seems difficult to get a physical cable connection between the router and my office in the alternatives I have at hand.

In my old flat I had the router just beside my computer, so have been using cable pretty much always.

So, how good is a wi-fi connection in 2020?

I mostly day trade manually. No low latency stuff, but obviously a good and stable connection is a must.

If wi-fi is a no-no, I might simply have to find somewhere else to live.

Thanks in advance!

Speedy Trading Servers | Low latency hosting for algorithmic trading

 

[d08]

The connection quality of wi-fi is not the issue. It's the security of the wi-fi networks that's the problem. Any data that you transmit via your wi-fi network is not secure and can be easily stolen. So you are not supposed to do any banking or financial transactions over it. If I were you, I wouldn't.

That's utter nonsense, your knowledge seems to be dated by about 20 years. WPA2 is relatively secure, unless you're doing banking transactions without SSL/TLS (which simply does not happen). Almost all data moves through SSL/TLS.

 

[d08]

The internet connection where I live was just upgraded to fibre with 1000/1000 Mb/s, but where I'm moving it seems like they just have regular broadband with a coaxial cable.

The standard speed delivered to where I'm moving is 30/30 Mb/s which I assume is way too low, so I suppose I need to upgrade it. I actually don't know the speed of the old connection, but I assume it can't have been more than 100/100 Mb/s on a regular broadband and that worked fined at least with cable.

How important is speed and how to know how much is needed? I assume I could do some tests as soon as I'm moved in.

Oh, and I won't be pinching pennies. Cost isn't an issue within normal limits. I need a good and stable connection.

Thanks.

30mbps is far more than you need. It doesn't even matter in trading but all things considered (like software updates in the background), you should aim to have at least 5mbps. Whether you have 30mbps or 300mbps is completely irrelevant for trading, in fact the 30mbps connection can have better latency than the 300mbps, which does matter in manual trading.

 

[d08]

Speedy Trading Servers | Low latency hosting for algorithmic trading

That doesn't do anything for manual trading. Likely makes it worse as you're just adding another step.
It only helps automated trading, when the VPS is near the brokerage.

 

[virtusa]

That doesn't do anything for manual trading. Likely makes it worse as you're just adding another step.
It only helps automated trading, when the VPS is near the brokerage.

Exactly.
Even @Ninja Mobile Trader VPS confirmed this in an other thread. The PC that places the orders determines the time needed. Market orders are send from the PC at home, not from the server close to the exchange. So using a server will not help. It only works if the orders are placed on the server some time before they will be executed.