Lee,
I'm not going to try to give you advice on which Laptop to choose, but I'm going to question whether a laptop is appropriate to use as your primary trading machine.
If you intend to run charts, a direct-entry or Web-based trading system, and monitor SI and maybe a couple of other financial sites, I think you will be severly limited by the screen size and resolution.
If you were just going to monitor SI, and trade through a web broker, all with Web browsers, I would say a laptop would be sufficient. But to run Qcharts, or a Real-Tick III or Mytrack type trading system, you really won't be able to get too many symbols and charts going before you find yourself scrolling and switching windows all the time.
At the very least, get a real monitor to connect to the laptop when it is in its primary location.
I hesitate to recommend a cable modem, since it requires installing Network drivers, and you're just becoming comfortable with RAM, but you might find that you need more speed than a modem can provide. Start with a simple dial-up modem - computers all seem to come with one anyway.
And use a real Internet service provider, not AOL. You can add AOL on top of your Internet service for $10 a month if you really want it.
Scott |
