Seperate PC for Trading and Other

[Jachyra]

Quote from Bolimomo:

LOL! With all these precautions and redundancies, the only remaining single point of failure is YOURSELF! What if you are heavy in a position and the market runs against you, and you have a heart attack? If you fall unconscious in the hospital for a few days, you can end up having big losses during a market melt down.

So... make sure your spouse is trained how to handle the emergency. Give your spouse the authorization to trade. Call the brokerage firms to close out all your positions (if any). (Or get a trustworthy trading partner.)

LOL...

Good point... make sure you're trading at a firm where they automatically liquidate your open positions when they decline a certain amount of money, just in case you become incapacitated. Both of the firms I trade with will automatically liquidate my open positions if any of them hit a hard money management stop that I specify.

 

[Bob111]

Quote from illinimatt81:

How many of you use seperate PCs for trading and other uses (music, email, web, etc)...debating the merits of keeping my 5 year old 2.8 GHz, 1 GB, P4 as a PC for this purpose once I build my new system...

i do.
i'm also using cascaded NAT to separate fun and trading networks

http://www.grc.com/nat/nat.htm

but on other hand computers are cost close to nothing today...for like $100 you can build system 2-3 times faster than your present P4,and it will consume much less energy,create less heat and will work much faster

 

[mtt]

Quote from Bolimomo:

Definitely maintain different PCs for trading vs everything else if you can afford it.

I have multiple PCs and laptops. I restrict the trading computers for "production" use only. Anything put on them must be tested first. I use a "crash-and-burn-and-I-dun-care" laptop to test new applications (especially trial ones or freeware), browse the web, Google, research and develop/test-drive new TradeStation indicators, etc.. You can never be too careful these days. I heard a few weeks ago that there was a site that spread viruses and all you need to do it to visit that site. Kaboom. It is never fun (been there done that) to get your computer crashed because of adware/viruses while you are in a position and the market is dropping fast!

I agree with this. Have one computer dedicate to trading alone and the other one as your junk computer. You never know the day you'll be hit by something.

 

[theDudeAbides]

Trading desktop -
*Trading apps
*eSignal
*Internet: 3-4 trusted websites only (e.g bloomberg, wsj)
*Turbo Tax and financial statements

Personal laptop -
*Email
*Chat
*Web surfing
*Photos and documents

The above is probably overkill, but if the laptop gets hit, I don't care. If something happens to the desktop (unlikely), I can reinstall Windows and the two or three apps I use in an hour or so.

 

[CoralReef]

Its also a smart idea to have a dedicated porn pc.

 

[Mr J]

Quote from theDudeAbides:
The above is probably overkill, but if the laptop gets hit, I don't care. If something happens to the desktop (unlikely), I can reinstall Windows and the two or three apps I use in an hour or so. [/B]

I don't think it's overkill. It's a small cost to avoid a potential serious pain in the arse. There's also the comfort in not having to be overly paranoid about every little process running on the computer.