3 Keys to a Lightning-Fast Trading Computer

What’s up everybody? It’s Eddie Z here from EZ Trading Computers, and you’re watching Trading Computer Secrets.

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In this video, we're gonna talk about a few simple tips to optimize your computer and speed up your overall trading experience. One complaint I hear from traders all the time is: “My data seems to flash or burst on and off during extremely volatile markets and around news events. Sometimes my data and my computer even freeze. How can I make this stop happening?” Well, let me tell you, this is a great question. There are three keys to preventing data bursts, data delays, eliminating slippage, and freezes. Making these three key changes will improve your overall data speed experience and trading experience.

SIMPLE TIP #1 FOR A FAST TRADING COMPUTER

The first key is having a lightning-fast and most up-to-date processor in your trading computer. A processor that has a benchmark score of at least 25,000 or higher, is an absolute must. If you want to run a benchmark test on the computer that you are currently using for trading right now and get its benchmark score, then go to EZTradingComputers.Net/CPU after you finish watching this video. I'll walk you through it.

SIMPLE TIP #2 FOR A FAST TRADING COMPUTER

The second key to optimal speed is having plenty of RAM which is Random Access Memory. At the very least you want 16 GB on your trading computer.

SIMPLE TIP #3 FOR A FAST TRADING COMPUTER

The third key element is having the fastest and most stable internet connection that's available in your area. Let's talk about internet connection speed. In my opinion, the absolute lowest acceptable speeds are 50 Mbps download speed and 50 Mbps upload speed. These are minimums for trading and faster is always better. We want numbers like a 100 to 200 to 500 Mbps download or a 100 to 200 to 500 Mbps upload.

TEST YOUR INTERNET SPEED

How do you run a speed test on your trading computer? You simply click this tool: Above is our internet speed test and in the middle, there's a big green go button. Go ahead and click that. Allow the tool to load and take its measurements.

PING

The first number you'll see here is something called the ping. The ping is the reaction time of your connection. This is how quickly your device gets a response after you have sent out a request. It's kind of like the time it takes if you call somebody when the other person answers the phone and says hello, that's the ping. Now when it comes to trading, we want to see a ping under 100 ms. Anything below 50 ms is excellent, that is very fast. Your goal is to get your ping under 20 ms. We can tolerate up to about 100 ms. If your ping is over 100 ms, that's going to be below average and you're going to run into some trouble trading.

JITTER

Now the second number we just came up with is something called the jitter or jitter frequency. It is a measure of the variability in the ping over time or how stable is this ping? If the ping is not stable, you will have issues if you are streaming a movie or if you are streaming live trading data. This is very important. For jitter, we really want to see it be under 30 ms. If your number creeps up higher than that, you're not going to be able to maintain your real-time data stream in real-time. It is going to burst on and off. There might be some delays and inconsistencies. That could be enough to throw off your whole trading methodology. DOWNLOAD AND UPLOAD SPEED The big numbers we are looking at here are the download speed in my case, 945.5 Mbps, and my upload speed 946.1 Mbps. In my area, I'm able to get almost 1 GB of data uploaded and downloaded. Again, please don't cheap out! Do not get 20 Mbps download speed and 20 Mbps upload, just to save a few bucks. You are going to have issues trading. It is very, very important.

UPGRADE YOUR INTERNET SPEED

My suggestion to you is that you call your internet service provider and request the highest speed available that you can afford. Please don't cheap out and settle for a lower speed just to save 20 or 30 bucks a month. If your provider can't get you a speed of at least 50 Mbps, then go find a new provider. These days, you should be able to get 50, 100 or even 1,000 Mbps download speeds. For some people, unfortunately, you may only have a few choices like DSL from the phone company or maybe high speed from the cable company. Some people think that 4G or the new 5G from the cell phone companies is an option, due to their advertised speeds, but according to DigitalTrends.com, the average 4G network is only 15 Mbps and the average 5G network so far is only about 50 Mbps. Another option is satellite internet, but it is pretty slow in most cases with a speed of 3.5 to 5 Mbps. Elon Musk’s Starlink promises to solve the satellite problem, but that also remains to be seen. The biggest issue with satellites is a line of sight. Even Starlink's website says, if an object such as a tree, chimney pole, etc., interrupts the path of the beam, even briefly, your internet service will be interrupted. This doesn't sound stable enough to trade with to me.

STILL HAVING ISSUES?

Okay? So now you have a brand-new computer with tons of RAM and the fastest CPU, and; you've purchased a 1000 Mbps download from your cable company, but you're still getting data bursts and intermittent data. How can this be? Believe it or not, this even happened to me! The answer is in the final mile. The wiring from the telephone pole or the pedestal outside your house or your office to your computer. It could be that the wiring took a lightning strike and damaged the line, or even damaged a splitter like this. If the wiring in your house is old, it wasn't designed for high-speed data transmission, or most probably that wire degraded substantially over the years. Call your provider and have them check the entire final mile. Sometimes having too many lines splitting from the main line can also cause a drop in signal. There are many things that can happen in that final mile. You may need to have all the wiring replaced.