they also shouldn't be in trading if you try to skip or ignore some of the possible problems -they will hit you sooner or later.it's applies to anything-stop loss,emergency phone line or PC or whatever..
One thing to add to the list - dual internet connections (or at minimum, a standby internet connection). The primary connection should preferably be broadband, while the backup could be a dial-up. When I traded full-time, I always had both connections active, and once, it really saved my ass. If your internet connection goes down, and you need to get out of a trade, try calling your broker !! Believe me, it's worth paying the extra $ 10 per month, for this feature.
Not bad other than the fact that you should never upgrade your video drivers if your machine is stable.
I'd go one step further than this and remove the fan from the CPU cooler and check that the fins on the heatsink are not clogged with dust. I did this recently on a couple of my machines and cleaning them out reduced the CPU running temperature by around 8C. Machines were 2 - 3 years old.
As someone who traded through rolling blackouts in California +1... but don't forget that (1) UPS units and their batteries also fail, quite often at the worse possible time, so its a good idea to have a 2nd UPS unit for the backup computer and to test them regularly by pulling the plugs out of the wall or by cutting the circuit at the breaker box. Also make sure you verify that you have as much backup time as you're expecting... don't rely on what the software or the unit says... believe it when you see it. (2) A backup broadband connection typically only runs an extra $40 per month and is well worth it. It also helps when one internet connection is sucking wind if you're willing to put a 2nd NIC card in your computer... then its just as simple as running a small batch file or issuing a "route add default..." from the command line to switch over. (3) Time and time again I've seen traders spend lots of money on high end UPS units only to NOT plug the monitors and broadband modem into the UPS because they were trying to get cute and squeeze as much backup time as they could out of the unit. Make sure EVERYTHING you need is plugged into the UPS. (4) Stay away from wireless keyboards and mice, but if you insist on using them, make sure you always have spare batteries handy (if you violate this rule you will truly feel like an idiot when it bites you in the ass).
The laptop takes care of most of the issues, the power, computer straight up failing, etc. If you have wireless mouse and keyboards, then like the last poster said, have spare batteries ready to go, I missed a big trade once because my mouse stopped working. Without a doubt though, the most important thing to have is some sort of backup internet. If you can't afford that, then you're not trading any sort of size anyway and getting stuck in a trade isn't going to kill ya.
Without a UPS you might be able to keep your laptop running... but how are you going to keep your broadband modem and router going? Unless you've got a wireless aircard to use with one of the cellular providers you're sorta dead in the water.
There is a lot of good info here, I learned, but I don't agree with the security ideas. If you are going to dedicate a computer to trading, get a hardware SPI firewall that can whitelist. I have that for my trading computer. I use IB for brokerage services and for data so I can set up the whitelist to just have two numerical url's. The trading computer is blocked for incoming and outgoing traffic on all other url's... that is security you can live with. Sonicwall was mentioned, they sell a unit that can whitelist... after you are set up like that you don't need to do the Windows updates or any of that shit, if it's running, it will keep on running. I never, ever, ever, ever, have glitchy or odd or slow or unstable behavior once a computer is behind the whitelisting firewall... all the talk is about blacklisting stuff like NOD32 and ordinary firewalls, that is because that segment of the security industry is entrenched but the pros have have been talking whitelisting a good bit in the last couple of years and I can verify that is the way to go... hackers aren't going to like it, I've had one guy argue with me here on ET about it, either he was a very cranky individual or a hacker...