This post was contributed by a guest author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of Richard or MovetheMarkets.com
Good Trading begins with a good trading environment. One element of a good trading environment is having the right tools. I’ve been reading about Boogster’s Daytrading computer system. It’s a pretty nice setup, with bonus advice on LCD setups thrown in for good measure. But for my Prosperity Game, I need to kick it up a notch. For this round of the Prosperity Game, I will spend $2000 and $2500 all at the same time. If you step into my virtual office, you will see the following ultimate daytrading computer system:
ZenView Quad 19s Quad LCD Monitors (with DVI connectors) – $2299
There aren’t too many multi-screen displays available in the market, and of the few companies that carry them, this one stands out. Although purchasing 4 LCD monitors separately is cheaper, it will not offer the beneficial space savings offered by the stacking Quad LCD’s. This is not only more pleasing to the eye, but is also more practical, as it reduces the clutter on my desk. Usage of the monitors is broken down as follows:
- LCD1: I will use this monitor to track Market Sentiment as follows: displays real-time charts of Futures, ETF’s, TICK, TRIN, and select favoured momo stocks
- LCD2: Displays real-time charts of Canadian stocks and my watch list of 70 stocks.
- LCD3: Displays real-time charts of stocks that I am actually trading
- LCD4: Button Trader and a FF Browser with Yahoo!Finance, my blogroll, StockCharts, and BigCharts
Logitech® EasyCall™ Desktop – $99.50
The neat thing about this wireless optical mouse/keyboard combo is that it has a couple bells ‘n whistles integrated into the keyboard to provide for easy VoIP calls: speakerphone, one-touch calling, and connectors for a stereo headset. This is great not only for calling in any special requests to your broker, but also to just chat with your buddies when the market action is slow.
Anitec’s GI200 SLI PC – $2084.90
This clone PC is juiced up with the following configuration:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (2.67 GHz)
- 1.024 Gb DDR2-667 RAM
- 512 Mb DDR2 – 667 RAM
- 2x nVidia eVGA e-GeForce 7600GT KO Edition 256MB PCI-Express
- Seagate 320GB – SATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive
- LG GSA-H22N 18x DVD±Writer
- 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Network Adapter
- Integrated 802.11b/g Wireless Adapter
The reason I need a 2.67 GHz Dual Core CPU is because with so many charts and watchlists up on display, I need a CPU that has enough horsepower to process all the real-time data. This is the current problem that I am experiencing with trading from my laptop (which caused me to move an old desktop PC into my office) – with so many charts and watchlists up, just opening a FF browser with a couple of tabs will cause the CPU to increase to 100% usage.
The other cool item are the two(2) identical nVidia graphics cards. Having the same 2 nVidia video cards in one system allows them to be configured in SLI mode – this is where the two GPU’s are networked together to share the video/graphics rendering burden amongst the 4 monitors.
Nice set up those monitor stands are sweet. One thing I would recomend(although not a techy)is to upgrade the ram. I think the rule of thumb is 128mb per monitor.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thanks. I would love to have bought another 512Mb of DDR2 RAM, but unfortunately, I ran out of money ! (total cost of the ultimate daytrading setup is $4482.9)
I would also recommend this outfit, as I have an 8 monitor system running off one box and it flies.
http://tradingcomputers.com/
Besides looking very impressive, do you feel like you get a lot out of 8 monitors? I guess you can have lots of big charts open, rather than lots of little ones? I’ve never been too stressed for space with 2 monitors, but maybe if I had the room I’d find a way to use it.