Steve, Except for the problems caused by my Broker (which accounts for the large majority), and now and then a glitch with the internet, (very infrequent), the only problem I have that is caused by my own technology is I run out of processor. AMD 233 just doesn't keep up when Dell trades 600K shares a minute.
>>Don't leave the system monitor open all the time. It can sometimes take up to 15% of your resources
I've heard this, but it doesn't seem to apply. If I open "system monitor" a second time, and then close the second one, cpu and memory usage aren't affected noticably. Maybe that's not a valid test...
>>Also, when looking at your memory usage, if you are using close to 64MB then Windows will be doing a lot of swapping of memory to the hard drive.
I used to have too many things running, and like you say, free memory would get too low, and the system would hang. That was when I used to run AOL in addition to my regular browsers, plus RealPlayer live radio. Those two ate up a lot of RAM. Nowadays I usually have at least 8 megs of free memory. When I'm in a "swamped" situation with a fast-trading stock, free memory is fine (i.e. >8meg), but cpu usage is 100%. I was surprised when I first noticed this because the tech guys at Watley are always saying it's your memory that runs out, but I'm pretty sure it's the cpu. Probably, unless you have cable or T1, you will never get into that situation. On the other hand, you say with your 128K connection you have very few problems--does this mean that Level II never lags T/S? I think it's possible that, even though you have a pretty fast connection, it is slower than your cpu, and that is what keeps it from getting behind.
How long have you had ISDN? How much is it where you are--it's ridiculously expensive in Rochester, NY--$130 for 64K, plus the ISP charge, just outrageous. Then you need the modem, etc. It was about $100 to get hooked up to Time Warner (cable), they supply the modem, and it's $50/mo for service. Extremely reliable and unbelievably fast. It's nice the way it connects too: 4 seconds from the time you click the icon.
What were the problems you had before you got the ISDN hookup? How stable is the MB system? I'm looking for a new broker.
>>My rt3 setup takes about 21MB of memory, I just checked it. The more windows you have open, the more memory it requires.
I just checked mine,(after market hours, but I don't think it makes a difference) and it uses 10 megs on a page with a market minder, position minder, order minder and account info (multi-quote), which is a rather light load, and 11 megs on a page with one market minder with about 50 stocks, 7 open charts, 2 level II's, 2 T/S, and a position minder. I wonder why yours uses twice the memory? |
