Broadband: any difference?

If you're just looking at quote speed, will it make any difference to upgrade from say 10-15mbps to 30? My cable provider just started offering an upgrade and I'll likely take it (just a few more dollars/month), but is this just going to increase bandWIDTH as opposed to increasing the speed at which I receive market info?

(BTW, is IB any slower lately? Just noticed that my Realtick T&S is moving a split second faster than the bid/ask on TWS, which seems backwards to me).

 

Actually, they have another level of service at 50mbps. Is this a case of "every little bit helps?" Or is it just useful for downloading movies?

 

Increased bandwidth will only help you if you are using the line to access a lot of information at once. If you are using WinXP, use the Networking feature of the Task Manager to find out how much bandwidth you are really using. The chart is a % based on your ethernet bandwidth (usually 100 mbps). Hence, if the max your system uses is 2%, then you are not using more bandwidth than 2mbps.

I think for trading, the bandwidth is not an issue. The latency to your broker is more important and this is not effected by the size of your pipeline (bandwidth).

I hope that helps.

 

FuturesTrader,
Of course you are right.
I doubt though that it will help the many.

 

Ok thanks, that was my suspicion. My network utilization seems a steady 0.02%

 

Thanks, I didn't know that about Windows XP. I just checked and I am running 100mbps, just like you said. So if I am 3 megs down and say 384 upspeed, you say I am only using a fraction of that for actual trading, hmm?

I believe that to check latency you have to ping their server right?

How would I do this for say a broker?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan

 

Yes, you are absolutely right. My main point is to check your task manager and find out how much of your bandwidth you are actually using first before upgrading. Latency is a separate issue and often cannot be controlled by the ISP and won't matter to anyone but the most active scalpers.

Thanks for point that out.

 

I don't think a faster connection could hurt in any way...

Ciao!

Stacy

 

Well, look at your Network usage chart and see how much %-age you are using for the 100mbps ethernet connection you have to your machine. If it gets close to 3% and your service is 3mbps/384kbps, then you will need to upgrade.

I have a 1.5mbps T-1 private line running X-Trader with 6 markets and nothing else on my trading machine and I hardly ever go over 250kbps. So the market data doesn't really need much bandwidth from the clearing firm. The cost of the lower (fractional) T-1 for me is almost the same as what I pay for the full, so I don't bother to switch.

As far as my internet, I use a 3.2mbps/768kbps and it never gets close to that while running CQG, Skype, etc.

I hope that helps.

 

Thanks Futures Trader 71, that does help.

Anyone know how to ping your brokers server? I guess I could research it on google and figure it out, just curious if anyone knows off the top of their head?