Like I explained to my wife the other day. Did you ever look into the cockpit of an airliner? Lots and lots of instruments. But the pilot doesn't look at all of them all of the time. They are there so that he/she can see them when that information is needed. There is all kinds of stuff I like to check out quickly, and I don't want to have to switch windows in and out. I have four CRT monitors, two computers. I would really like six nice LCD monitors, but my equity curve won't support the cost right now.
hypothetical---- you are looking to invest 10-12 million of the 30 million you just inherited, you interview and visit several money manager's trading rooms--- the first manager has 9 LCD screens, a bloomberg terminal, 5 additional world news feeds, etc , etc, etc. the second manager has one computer with one monitor----- who are most people going to trust knowing nothing more ?? one cannot have too many monitors, etc. knowledge is power. best, surfer
I'd rather give my money to a guy in his pajamas with one monitor and a 60% annual return over the past ten years than a slick MIT math whiz in a Savile Row suit with twenty monitors and a 3% annual return.
I sometimes traded in a translucent windows screen on my desktop at work. I told co-workers that it's my screen saver
that's awesome. i just discovered transparent windows in an IRC app called trillian. i'd never seen them before, and now that i've used them, i'm surprised transparency isn't an option in the view dropdown on all windows apps. it's so useful, it should be standard for everything.
I recently began trading on a independent basis - personally, I could not conceive of trading using a single PC, multi-monitors or not, to do the type of active trading most of the people on this board do. At a minimum, as an intelligent, risk moderating adult, an active trader needs to have 2 PCs, networked through a gateway to a broadband signal (i.e. ADSL, CABLE). This will allow the trader to dedicate one machine to their broker account to trade with. This will minimize the real risk of system slowdowns and crashes and have a second machine available as a backup. The trading machine probably only needs a single monitor (I use a laptop). The second machine can be used for data, charting, news, chat (see NITRO post for a good list ) The number of monitors is probably about as personal a decision as the kind of automobile you drive, the food you eat or clothes you wear. It is a matter of what you need, what you want to spend and/or what you can afford at this given place in time. I think debating this issue is kind of moot. A better use of the energy out there is to review some of the monitors out there for those of us who are looking to upgrade as we up the P&L...