I have multiple computers and laptops. I use all of them in a regular trading day anyway. Each has all the trading platform software installed. No one failure will take me out. I have both cable modem and DSL. Yes it is a waste of money it seems. The redundancy costs $300+ a year. But think about it: if your cable modem (or the cable service provider) blacks you out (in my area it happens about 3-4 times a year, 2 to 3 hours minimum outage each)... one trading loss can cost you thousands of dollars. I don't have a backup power generator in the backyard. A bit too complicated. If the electricity goes out (about once a year), I will call the broker (landline, cell) to close out the positions. The backup plan is to drive with my laptop to FedEx Kinko's to continue trading. 5 minutes away. If the trading platform (server side) goes out... I use multiple brokers so if my main trading platform is out, I can still trade though with reduced capacity. If Globex is out, or Nasdaq is out... hell man! Nobody else can place orders, what do you worry about?
So that you know, several years ago (I think it may have been 2003), Globex went down. It went down late one morning, and was down the rest of the day. Sometime that late that night they finally got Globex back up. Meanwhile, the pit kept trading. So did the NYSE and NASDAQ. So if you were in the ES, you had no way to close it, but the pit was trading the big contract, and stocks were trading. In those days, ECBOT was a separate system, so you could hedge with the YM. And of course, if you had a broker who could do pit traded contracts, you might be able to hedge in the pit (keeping in mind they are 5X as big as ES). And finally, you could trade ETFs. Since the CME now owns both Globex and ECBOT, I'm not sure what would develop there is Globex went down. Either way, it's a reason to think about your broker, and what they're capabilities are. If your broker can do pit-traded contracts, that might be an advantage some day in an emergency. Likewise, the ability to do both stocks and futures and/or options might be advantageous. By the way, and aircard and a charged battery in your laptop saves the drive to Kinko's. OldTrader
My trading computer is a laptop with a Clearwire modem. I use clearwire when traveling and for backup. I normally trade with cable modem with my charts on an external monitor and my execution software on the laptop screen. When power goes down the laptop switches to battery mode then I simply switch to clearwire where I can choose to close or complete the trade from the laptop.
Over the years, I've tried lots of different things including all sorts of dual wan routers. At the end of the day, the most reliable setup I've found for me personally is to use two completely separate computers with completely separate internet connections logged into two completely different brokerage accounts. This way if either your primary internet connection goes out, or if your broker's servers go down, you're able to easily hedge off your position with your backup clearing firm. And don't forget to get two good reliable UPS units to guard against power failures... and also don't forget to plug your dsl/cable modem(s) and any routers you might be using into the UPS units... quite often I've heard of traders plugging the computer into the UPS units, but plug the modems and routers into the wall thinking they're squeaking out a few more minutes of backup power only to find out that in the event of a power failure, their computers are still up and running but they can't get internet connectivity. The same goes for the monitors... another common mistake. And most importantly... test your setup at least once a month by either pulling the plug on the UPS units or by cutting the power at the breaker box... make sure that even without power you're still up and operational and that you're able to maintain connectivity to your broker's servers. You'd be surprised how often the UPS units either need to be replaced or have a new battery installed.
Help me out here. As I understand it, UPS units might work for a matter of very little time depending on how much of your system you're attempting to keep up. So I'm not getting where the value of this tactic is. I can get substantially more time out of a laptop operating on a battery. What am I missing? OldTrader
Battery on laptop is good, but you still need the UPS to maintain internet connectivity. If you have an aircard you may be OK, but sometimes the airwaves get blocked due to increased cell use. During the blackouts of 2004?, I couldn't get cell service. Having a UPS is a good idea because its battery backup will give you roughly 10-15 minutes of time. Just enough to close out existing positions-- or establish new shorts. LOL I keep my modem and router, hard drive and the control monitor of 4 monitors plugged into the UPS. The bare minimum. Doesn't draw too much power and definitely worth the $150.
All good points you make. I personally run my desktop and cable modem off of one ups, with laptop plugged into non back up side and on the other ups I have my dsl modem only. In the event of a power failure, my dsl will still run roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes and my lap top battery will last about 2 hour and 30 minutes.
Thanks for the bit of history, OldTrader. You are right. We should saveguard ourselves as much as possible and as much as practical. The only way to saveguard against Globex out, it seems, is to have a brokerage firm that can do pit trades. This may not be an issue in the future when pit trading is being phased out. And that's a good suggestion. I should check that out.
It seems to me that unless you trade the ES in 5 lot increments, its going to somewhat inefficient to hedge off your position with the full sized S&P. It might be worth considering using SPY, which is traded on a completely different exchange... and can also be traded electronically.