Remote ECHO Traders

why everyone always thinks he needs to have the top notch hardware for being able to trade.
It all depends on what your style is like.
You using tons of charts? then i'd go for more ram. I'm using 512mb, but 256 would be sufficient as well with winxp.
Trading software generally doesn't waste too much of CPU power so it doesn't need to be a >1GHz processor.
And how cares about disk space? you can be fine even with 3GB.

T-1 what for? are traders fulltime movie leechers or what? ( ok some are =))
It's not the bandwith that is decisive.. furthermore it's the ping time.
And with fastpath enabled DSL lines you can have faster pings than with T-1.

conclusio:
you don't always need the state of the art setup to trade successful although it's beyond any doubt nice to have bot no "must".
Get what you can afford and you're fine
 
Originally posted by lescor


Systems go down in offices too, so you are at risk no matter where you are. Trading remote, you are probably have a better chance of a being bumped from your internet connection, but it's only 30 seconds from the time you pick up the phone until you are out of your positions. When I've had to call, I've always gotten through immediately.

One thing thing that impressed me about Echotrade was when their system went down right after the open, and it cost me about $600, they recognized that it was their fault and they wiped out all my trades for the morning. Firm-wide, it cost them about $15,000. I haven't heard of any other firm eating losses when it's their fault.
Interactive Brokers recently rebated me $1K for a problem they had early August. They did that for 460 members - that's 460G's.

IB is everyday becoming a Pro Shop in disguise...

nitro
 
Originally posted by lescor
Not all kinds of trading requires the extra few milliseconds you gain with a T1 line. And if your stryle requires it, you can get it at home if you want to spend the money. There are lots of people making "big money" trading from home, despite the cetainty of your statements.
Both of you are correct - there is some trading that can only be done on a T1, and sometimes you need a PTP T1 - I am aware of this kind of trading and milliseconds count.

However, to say that one cannot trade UNLESS they have a T1 is grossly mistaken. I know several traders that traded in the pit of the MERC now trading from home on high quality DSL. I know several professional Daytraders that trade from home on quality DSL. For God's sake, I have traded from home on a dialup account.

nitro
 
Originally posted by Tom Frey
why everyone always thinks he needs to have the top notch hardware for being able to trade.
It all depends on what your style is like.
You using tons of charts? then i'd go for more ram. I'm using 512mb, but 256 would be sufficient as well with winxp.
Trading software generally doesn't waste too much of CPU power so it doesn't need to be a >1GHz processor.
...
Hmmm - I have with 1GB of memory and dual Xeons that are at 100% the entire time the markets are open...

nitro
 
Originally posted by MVP
WHen you are remote, there is NO accountability. ANd you are subject to connection reliability.

Remote trading will cost you money. And no firm gives a shit if your systemis down. You are just one of many who they will lose as a customer. Its a game of numbers. And eventually, you'll get hit with a ugly loss because of trading remote.

Be smart. Unless you have your own T1's, go with a trading office.


This is one of the more senseless comments I've seen on this site. Reputable remote firms take very good care of their remote traders. Losing even one remote trader can cost a firm $15-$50,000 a year--or more.
 
Originally posted by MVP
Looks like remote trading suits amateurs just fine.

Big Money traders require T 1's - NOT DSL, NOT cable.

Be real... you are just another number to any firm.

And remote is not reliable.


I couldn't disagree more. I know dozens of remote traders and, in general, they lose their connection maybe once every 4-6 weeks, and then only for a few minutes--hour tops. Most have redundant ISP's so it's not even an issue.
 
Originally posted by lescor
Not all kinds of trading requires the extra few milliseconds you gain with a T1 line. And if your stryle requires it, you can get it at home if you want to spend the money. There are lots of people making "big money" trading from home, despite the cetainty of your statements.

Neither!

You not only have huge traders from home, you also have small and midsized fund traders from remote locations clearing through their desired brokerage's offices. These funds (hedge, mutual, pension and money management) come to these firms with huge trading numbers and extract almost "at cost" commission/fee structured deals. You can be sure that they have multiple comm and backup comm systems.

Comm speeds, yes they matter significantly. However, the other MOST significant detail are the software footprint and processing issues. Within that category are the compliation dates of the software, namely being able to take advantage of the latest Pentium instruction set extentions, and the latest processor features. Also, within that discussion are the memory usage and paging design of the software flow. Hence, its the atcual bolts and nuts of the software that handles processing that mouse click into profits, not just the connection speeds.
 
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