its a personal choice i have 3 21inch on one computer and 1 17inch on a second computer. it does not cost much to set up so don't worry. i have 2 geforce pci fx5200 video cards which are great and each have 128 ram on it. you can buy them for under $80 if you shop it out. on each of those cards you can run 2 monitors and the picture is great. also if money is to tight to spend $80 you can buy a basic pci video card for $15 and run a second monitor on it.
Good point about the screen resolution. Also, be sure to run them at 85 Hz so you don't go nuts. I think anything above 19 gets cumbersome. As for how many, that depends a lot on what you are trying to do. If you are swing or position trading a small number of stocks, one may be enough, as it may be if you're trading one or two futures, or using a trading system that gives you signals. But if you're trying to daytrade stocks and futures, I would think two or three would be the minimum. One blown trade will pay for all the monitors you can fit on your desk.
Hi All, Is the Matrox Dual Head G550 AGP still a good buy? (1) I don't want to spend money for teatures I don't need for trading; (2) I DON'T WANT NOISY FANS on the card. Thank you for commenting. nononsense
I have the G450 and have no complaints. However make sure that the G550 will support the monitor resolution and the refresh rate you desire. Judging from the comparison chart http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/g450_vs_g550.cfmit is probably the same as the G450 in this regard: My card will support a max of 85hz with two monitors at 1600 X 1200 resolution. This is fine for me but would be limiting if you wanted to use a higher resolution with a high refresh rate.
O.K. ...the link didn't work properly; let's try one more time: http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/g450_vs_g550.cfm
Hi, tallone What kind of trader you want to be? day trader or not? If not, 1 monitor 19"-21"LCD is all you need. Keep extra money for trading. If day trading, start with 2 monitors; if you make money, you can use more monitors, if you want, but... more than 2 monitors are not realy helping. Being a pro trader, you are not following news and other distracting and useless information advertised because somebody must buy, somebody must loose... and SMART MONEY must make money. It is normal to start trading using EOD data, learn the markets, have time to analyse, to react, than go for day trading. Have a good trading.
Thanks to all who advised on the monitors. I bought an Nvidia GeForce FX5200 video card, which can drive 2 monitors. I plan to buy a 19" monitor for now (am looking at Envision, Samsung). Then, add another one later, once my trading style is established (I am new at this). BTW, anyone has any experience with Sceptre line of monitors? They are quite cheap, but are they good? Thanks again.
I think the G550 is a great card and I've had no problems with mine. I have the G550 and a G200 quad pci in the same computer. Works fine. There are 2 diff. versions of the G550, so look carefully if you're buying on eBay. The G550 does not have a fan on it.
I bought a AppianX for USD250 (4 monitors) - no support but cheap relative to new models which have better (but not needed for trading graphic capabilities). So look at it as 2 with scalability to 2 more. It would be very hard to go back to 1 even for non trading tasks. I intensely use 2 in trading, 1 is charting the other is order entry, and the other 2 save me from blocking my intense stuff with stuff I look at more sporadically. I made money hunched up over I but felt I was missing too much and the 4 have have paid for themselves. I particularly need 4 as 3 apps I run cannot be sized - require a whole window each.