Looking to trade off a Laptop while traveling

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earlybirdstango

Hoping for some good advice.

I am planning what every trader dreams of but never gets to. Trading while traveling!

Currently I use 3 17inch monitors for my station, but I have crammed all the necessities onto 1 17inch monitor in preparation to trade off a laptop.

I am having an issue in buying the laptop, I dont necessarily know which one would be the perfect match. Dell has many 17inchers and Toshiba even has an 18 inch laptop, but what should i be looking for specifically to make sure its MADE for trading? Any suggestions which to buy?

Also I hear a lot of talk about staying with XP instead of Vista, but I read that's a thing of the past.

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
Just buy a 17" Toshiba or HP with 3GB of memory and you are good to go, no need to buy a machine "made for trading"!

XP is available on a few models, I run Vista and have no issues, do you use Vista or XP on your desktop?

suds
 
I am using a HP dv9730us laptop (running Vista) as my primary trading computer. Bought at Fry's for about $800 in March 2008. I like it in general but this laptop had been sent back to manufacturer twice for repair. hard drive problems and motherboard problems. So I am not that confident in HP laptops now.

I also bought another Compaq laptop (still using the Compaq brand name) at about the same time and so far no issue. This one was at a lower price even (about $550 on sale at the time). HP owns Compaq (I thought they don't use the Compaq brand name any more...).

Whenever I travel, I bring both laptops plus 2 external 19-inch or 20-inch LCD monitors to trade from the hotel room. With wi-fi commonly available these days, it's quite convenient. I bring along a LAN switch too in case there is only a landline high-speed internet in the room available. I will share that connection between the 2 laptops.

I suggest that you buy a laptop that supports an external monitor (look for the SVGA outlet on the laptop, usually on the side), and bring an extra monitor with you.

Vista versus XP: I have no problem using Vista only. Perhaps it depends on your trading platform.

My travel tips: When using wi-fi, not all rooms are equal in getting strong signals. Talk to the hotel receptionists to see if they can put you in a room that is closer to the wi-fi routers (they sometimes know based on guest complaints). After checking in the room: test the wi-fi connection before unwinding. Because comes 6:30 am/9:30 am the next morning it is not the time to learn that the wi-fi is only half-working. Bring some extras: power strings, RJ45 cables, mouse, power cords, etc..
 
I recommend running your trading software on a home desktop or a co-located server, and controlling it with remote desktop software such as 'gotomypc.com'. That way you can use a cheap laptop that contains no sensitive data. I traded this way for months, and was pleased with how well it worked. I was using an automated trading system (ATS).
 
Quote from rwk:

I recommend running your trading software on a home desktop or a co-located server, and controlling it with remote desktop software such as 'gotomypc.com'. That way you can use a cheap laptop that contains no sensitive data. I traded this way for months, and was pleased with how well it worked. I was using an automated trading system (ATS).
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Completely agree.
 
What kind of traveling are you doing? In a month I'll be backpacking across Asia/Europe/Africa/SA for the next year or so and I'll be trading as much as I can during that time. If you need ultra-portability and the highest possible screen resolution then I suggest a Thinkpad X301 which is what I bought (though I didn't buy it there). Plus it's a Thinkpad so you know it'll be reliable and tough and has world-wide warranty support

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4113787&CatId=17

1.4 ghz core2duo, 4 gb RAM DDR3, 64 gb SSD, 1440x900 (resolution of a 19 inch monitor), DVDRW!, 3 lbs, long battery life, lots of wireless options, ethernet port.

At 13.3 inches theres no other notebooks with that resolution. And I don't know of any others that include a built in optical drive. Nobody want's to carry around an external optical drive. Though it is quite pricey it's well worth it for my needs.

I was also considering this one but the resolution is only WXGA and no built in optical:

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...655&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=23-31330353-2

But if ultraportability isn't a issue than any laptop will do really. I like this Sony because it has a 1600x900 resolution in a 16 inch laptop and is a bit thinner and lighter compared to laptops it's size (I bought one for my sister)

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10113572&catid=

I'll be blogging my trip. You can check it out here http://thenomadictrader.blogspot.com/. Maybe you can pick up some tips on trading and traveling in the future but there's nothing there now.

Hope that helps.

Edit: I also recommend using colocation too. You can use windows remote desktop connection (RDC) which is very fast an secure and already comes with windows (unless you use Home). I'll also be using Radmin which has lots of options and let's me use any resolution I want (even that of a 30 inch monitor) or you can view multiple monitors if you have them on your main computer. RDC will only use the resolution of your laptop as far as I know. I'll also be bringing my blackberry bold with RDM+ which is another remote application. Isn't technology great? :)
 
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