Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Non-Tech : MB TRADING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Captn who wrote (1448)	10/10/1998 11:00:00 AM
From: TraderAlan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7382

Captn, If you take the time to read them, this and several other threads already have answers to most of your question. Other threads: exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com exchange2000.com Alan

To: Captn who wrote (1448)	10/11/1998 10:22:00 PM
From: LiveWire	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7382

Hi Captn, Sorry for the delay, but I am traveling and SI was down last night and this morning. I'll do my best here to give you all the info that I can. I will try to answer any other question, but I will be a little out of pocket for the next 2 weeks. I will be on a business trip to NYC. I am a part-time software developer, and part-time day trader. I am currently using a Pentium 150 w/128MB RAM, ATI XPERT@PLAY w/8MB RAM, 21" Phillips 201B monitor at 1600x1280, 7GB of hard drive space, and 128KB ISDN. I have the high memory because I am a software developer, and I have found this to be very beneficial in my work. I was using a 17" monitor, but found that I preferred to have more real estate for RealTickIII. 17" will do fine, but 15" just won't work in my opinion unless you only watch 1 or 2 stocks at a time. The 8MB video card is required to get good high resolution and color on the 21" monitor. I have found that my Pentium 150 may not be speedy enough for RealTickIII (RT3) and real time data feeds. I would suggest a minimum of a P233 w/64MB of RAM, definitely no less than 32MB. Look for a system that has at least 512K L2 cache. AGP (Advanced Graphics Port) is also recommended if you get a new system along with a video card that supports it. A 17" monitor will suffice, but a 21" is exceptional. Check egghead.com Liquidation for a Philips 21" 2120DC. If they still have it in stock, it was selling new for $499. I got my 201B there at the same price, but they are now out of stock. If you get a 21" monitor, an 8MB video card is highly recommended. Check megadepot.com for some good prices. The ATI XPERT@PLAY is great, and the Diamond video cards are great too. AGP if your motherboard supports it. I recommend at least an ISDN line so that you can do other internet activities at the same time you are receiving real time feeds. I have 128KB ISDN dialup account, but a 64KB would do fine. 28.8KB is minimum and 56KB analog (you'll only get 33KB-45KB throughput) is recommended. I used a 28.8KB line for a while, and it worked OK, but my system was sluggish and it was slow accessing the internet for anything else. I use a 3COM Impact IQ external, which I also got from MegaDepot for $189.99. I plan on upgrading to a minimum Pentium II 350 mainly for software development, but I am sure it will help my problems with RT3. The problems that I experience with RT3 are that if I have one or more very high volume stocks on L2 and graphs, the system slows down to where I get sluggish response changing active windows in RT3. I have actually had my system lock up twice where my mouse would not function, but the screen still updated with the real time feeds. For about the first 10-15 minutes when the market opens, I usually cannot trade on RT3 if I have high volume stocks in the L2 and graphs. It takes a while to get caught up with the data. ISDN has helped with these problems some, but the system just can't handle the amount of data I am receiving. I usually receive 60+MB in less than 7 hours. The only so-called "idea" tools for finding plays that I currently know about are the Weasel, and RIM. RIM can be found at profsoftware.com, and is partnered with the Executioner at executioner.com with whom I trade. I hear many people are satisfied with both MB Trading and the Executioner. I have no opinion on the quality of the idea tools, yet. I do know that RIM is extremely fast, and cover 5,000+ stocks with many available studies. I hope I covered everything. Let me know what you do. Good Luck, Steven

To: Captn who wrote (1448)	10/19/1998 2:16:00 PM
From: wily	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7382

Capn, I've been using RTIII for about a year now. I started with a 33KB dial-up, and a few months ago cable internet came to my town and I got that. RTIII is a completely different animal with cable, which delivers about 700KB. I have 64MB RAM, and that doesn't seem to be the limiting factor. As others have noted, it is at the open, when volumes are high and then, only on very busy stocks like Dell, or a stock with breaking news, that you get bottlenecks. Used to be, with the dial-up that the connection was the slowest link. Now, it's my processor, which is AMD 233. I'm not a tech wiz, but the "system monitor" program in Windows seems to reflect accurately when the cpu is overloaded. My screen fades out and the program stops responding. At these times, system monitor says cpu usage is 100%, so I take that to mean that it is not keeping up. At the same time, system monitor indicates that I have plenty of free memory. Cable internet is well worth it if you can afford it. It's only $50 where I am, plus it leaves your phone line free. My brokerage has been AB Watley, but I will probably change soon. I'm wondering if anyone else has had a bad experience(s) with them. I'm more a position trader, so it is not so easy for me to switch between brokers.