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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: - who wrote (227)	6/7/1999 10:50:00 PM
From: Eric P	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Excellent post, Steve. Thanks! -Eric

To: - who wrote (227)	6/7/1999 10:56:00 PM
From: ynot	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

steve, in the valley, is that with MCOM? been following their stock, too bad i missed the pop !@#$%^& how do you guage sentiment? do you factor news? what about sector 'rotation' or 'grand P&D' as i call it? thanks ynot :) ex SF inhabitant

To: - who wrote (227)	6/7/1999 11:11:00 PM
From: Robert Brooks	Respond to of 18137

PAT--That is an excellent summary of connectivity choices--an excellent reference. I am currently using an ISDN dialup on UUNET's backbone. In this part of Tennessee, cable modems and DSL service are not yet available. It is a vast improvement over the 56K modem I was using, but I still get some delay on data feed during peak times. I probably need to get rid of some charts and windows (this was MBTrading's suggestion), but by and large it is adequate for day trading. Eric--this a great thread. It has become my favorite. Thank you. RB

To: - who wrote (227)	6/8/1999 12:34:00 AM
From: Tom Cat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Palo Alto trader, Interesting summary for the different options of connectivity, but looking beyond, where do you think you can get the best Level II display? TC

To: - who wrote (227)	6/8/1999 9:48:00 AM
From: J. Stone	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Re: Ricochet. Up until late last year, I traded in a (now belly-up) SOES office in Seattle. We had a trader in the office who found that, when the office's system was down (a too often problem; hence, one of the many reasons the business is now closed), he could trade over the Web (via his back-up account at www.xcitetrade.com) just as fast using his Ricochet access. Ricochet is an impressive service. I just can't understand why it's taking them so long to roll it out nationwide... regards, JS

To: - who wrote (227)	6/8/1999 4:04:00 PM
From: Gig	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

Great and interesting contribution, but what about the quality of the connection? Bandwith is not all, IMHO. Since not all the systems are always available in the place where you are trading (think of trading in an hotel, or in a secundary residence), I am investigating the real performance for trading of the most common ones, at the low end. I have my principal station connected by dialup ISDN. I have two account nominally with the same bandwith, but one, with higher quality, costs to me four times the other, that I use as backup, and I can see the difference by using a ping/traceroute program. Indeed, it seems to me more effective having less hops with shorter times than a larger bandwith.I can use with the same accounts analogic modems too, and apparently I can have the data feeds runnings quite in the same way (few stocks, two graphs)even with a V32bis modem, while I can notice as well the difference in the accounts. I have just started experimenting a cellular modem at 9600 too, and even if it is obviously not raccomended by my broker, it seems working! So, if a large bandwith is fine to have the data feed running smoothly, few, fast hops could really made a difference in sending orders and getting executions messages. What is your opinion about?

To: - who wrote (227)	9/6/1999 1:01:00 PM
From: Matthew L. Jones	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 18137

Your post looked like a very thorough presentation on bandwidth. I would like to offer one other (not very well known option) that works wonderfully and costs less than most other options. I have a device called a Webramp which is essentially a router and a hub combined. I use a multi computer network for my trading and I believe in having system redundancy. I use three separate external 56K v90 modems driven by this "web ramp". This becomes a net server. The beauty is that I have three simultaneous 56K connections using three different ISP connections (two different ISPs-- I have two Earthlink accounts and one AT&T account). Truthfully I never achieve a 56K connection on any one modem, however it is common to have two connected at 49,600 and one at 52,000. The combined bandwidth is superior to ISDN and costs considerably less and is networkable for multiple computer setups. Additionally it provides me with the system redundancy in the event that one ISP gets overloaded or goes down momentarily. In terms of user friendliness, all I do is launch my browser and the device does the rest. I never worry about dropped internet connections, because the odds of all three ISP connections going down at the same time are nill. I also use two separate quote services (both have level 2) but they are provided by two separate quote vendors (one is S&P Comstock and one is PC Quote). I keep my order entry platform (RT3) running on a notebook computer and the modems, webramp and hub are on an UPS. Additionally, I have a modem connected to the notebook for backup in the event of extended power outages or for travel. I know that this sounds as though it would be expensive, however I studied the options in some detail and have found this system to be very reliable and cost effective. To summarize I have these benefits: 1) Better bandwidth than ISDN. 2) Phone Line redundancy. 3) Modem redundancy. 4) ISP redundancy. 5) Internet routing redundancy (due to multiple ISPs). 6) Ability to network multiple computers to trading network -- currently I have 6 computers on the net sharing the ISP connections and don't notice any slowdown although typically I am running two quote feeds, continual research web browsing, trading, web radio, all at the same time. 7) Costs: a) 3 phone lines (home) at $15 = $45 per month b) 3 ISP accounts at $20 = $60 per month c) One time cost of webramp $325 d) One time cost of USR/3-Com modems 3 @ $129 = $387 (although I believe these modems have come down to around $80 now) I hope this provides a reasonable alternative to using cable modems where available (costs unknown-- not available where I live), ISDN $150 per month with only one line and no networking capabilities without buying additional hardware, satellite receiver systems are very expensive and have the same networking limitations. After looking (and trying) several options, I have gone this way. I've been trading this way for 18 months with NO problems (if you can imagine). To me this is a business and not a hobby so the redundancy is a big issue with me. If my system is down, I'm on unpaid leave. I believe that those of us who trade for a living need to purchase the equipment and backup systems to keep us in business over the long run. Hopefully this helps add another alternative to the menu. BTW, great thread. I'm trying to work my way through as I just found it. Matthew L. Jones