The benefit of the Ryzen 5900x is the much higher single thread capacity and clock speed, which translates to a much smoother remote desktop experience. We have experimented with EPYC and have several nodes for customers that are interested, but have found that the higher single thread rating in Ryzen means that chart trading through remote desktop feels almost indistinguishable from trading locally, with no freezing and minimal input delay. For many of our customers, smooth chart trading is the most important aspect to them. For example, many like to scalp trade around the open on their phones while at work, and minimal input delay for scalping over rdp is key.
Yes the servers are all built by ourselves, and we own & manage the hardware and network. All servers only use ECC RAM. ECC, or Error-Correcting Code, RAM helps protect the system from potential crashes and inadvertent changes in data by automatically correcting data errors. ECC RAM is more expensive than non-ECC RAM, but we find that the added protection is provides is critical in trading applications.
FREE Storage Upgrade for all new VPS sign ups this week. Anyone that signs up for the Medium plan this week will be upgraded from 60gb to 100gb NVMe SSD for free. What is NVMe SSD and how does it differ from regular SSD? For running trading applications on a server, NVMe SSD has a significant advantage and performance improvement over regular SSD. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communications interface and driver that defines a command set and feature set for PCIe-based SSDs with the goals of increased and efficient performance and interoperability on a broad range of enterprise and client systems. It communicates between the storage interface and the System CPU using high-speed PCIe sockets, independent of storage form factor. Input/Output tasks performed using NVMe drivers begin faster, transfer more data, and finish faster than older storage models using older drivers, such as AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) a feature of SATA SSDs. Because it was designed specifically for SSDs, NVMe is becoming the new industry standard for servers in the data centers.
Your servers appear incredibly expensive especially given they are vps instances. Hetzner charges a fraction for their offerings. Screen based trading makes very little sense through a remote server connection. The additional hop(s) add even more latency than just connecting directly to the broker or data service. For anyone who does this more seriously (algorithmic trading) a vps is not stable and equipped enough imo. Hetzner offers a multiple of the ram you offer for about 45 dollars a month and that is a dedicated server. They allow windows installs with a user's own license hence adding no additional cost. Just saying. For latency sensitive strategies a proximity located dedicated server is the best bet unless going colocated at much higher cost.
Thank you for your post, and I want to apologize in advance for this long response, but I just wanted to clear up some confusion. We have thousands of daily active traders using our servers, and we've heard nothing but positive comments from our users. Many of which switched from other VPS providers like ChartVPS or Speedy Trading Servers. The increased cost is because all of our VPS are dedicated resources. Because the CPU threads are not shared with others, you have the full power of the Ryzen 5900x to keep up with multiple charts, during peak market volatility, and with any indicators. Most of our customers that switched from other providers like ChartVPS switched because their charts lagged or froze during high volatility. However with us, your dedicated resources make sure your charts never lag or freeze, and always keep up with fast moving markets. We differ from Hetzner in multiple ways, but the two primary differences are location and CPU. Our servers are located in Chicago, with <1 ms latency to order gateways. Especially for running automated strategies, our servers will improve order execution and minimize slippage. Hetzner on the other hand is a European company, and only in the last couple of months opened a US location in Ashburn, Virginia. Virginia to Chicago is about 35-50ms latency, not ideal for automated trading. Additionally, the Hetzner's newly opened Virginia location is only offering cloud VPS. Dedicated servers are only offered in Europe, not in the US. In their US location, their VPS use AMD EPYC for CPU. The problem with AMD EPYC is that the single thread rating is low. A high Single thread rating is one of the most important factors to reducing chart lag and eliminating freezing while trading through remote desktop with NinjaTrader. Ask your VPS provider which CPU model they use, and compare it to the Single Thread Rating of our Ryzen 5900x CPU (you also get dedicated CPU threads in your VPS, not shared): https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Ryzen+9+5900X&id=3870 The primary use case for trading through remote desktop is that you can connect to your trading workspace from anywhere, and trade from any device. For example, you can continue trading with NinjaTrader while you're away from your home computer by trading through your phone, tablet, work computer, etc. If you're in the US, send us an email and I will set you up with a free trial server so that you can see the power of our servers for yourself. There is no noticeable lag or input delay when trading through remote desktop on your phone/tablet/Mac. That means that you have to install your own Windows Server operating system, and buy your own Windows Server license. With Hetzner, you're also responsible for managing your Windows Server, applying security updates, firewalls, and debugging problems. Not only is it more expensive with Hetzner because you have to buy your own Windows Server license, but you're also going to be taking time away from focusing on trading because you have to manage the server yourself. In conclusion, Hetzner is just not a good comparison. Our closest competitor is https://www.speedytradingservers.com/, which is run by a moderator from futures.io. For example, compared to Speedy Trading Servers, we have similar <1ms latency but offer a much stronger server at half the cost. The biggest difference is the CPU and RAM. For example, Speedy Trading Servers uses Intel Xeon E5 2678v3 and E5 2690 CPUs. Our servers only use the new AMD Ryzen 5900x or higher. The difference in CPU means that a single one of our CPU cores is equivalent to multiple Intel Xeon CPUs. This means that you can run more charts, more indicators, more automated strategies at the same time, and charts don't freeze up especially around market open.
Fair, Hetzner is probably not a fair comparison with your service. They are targeting different clientele. Having said that I do not believe in trading off a mobile phone, if others find value, all the power to them. Monitoring markets with a mobile phone or tablet adds value, imo, and the occasional trade off a tablet or mobile phone makes sense but someone serious about markets does not trade on a mobile phone or tablet. That's been my experience over the past 10-15 years a VPS by definition never allocates static resources. They are dynamic and when demand surges each instance has resources allocated away from it. That is not to say that there might be guaranteed minimum thresholds that are provided but certainly are those resource allocations not static, otherwise it would not fit the definition of a VPS. Windows licensing costs are paid no matter what, you just price it into your offering. I find it more flexible when the user can choose whether to "rent" the license for an instance or whether to supply one oneself. In terms of latencies and proximity to Chicago gateways, that makes only sense when the broker is located there or when a user directly connects to an exchange where the matching engine is located in Chicago. A user that trades, for example, through Interactive brokers is much better off to proximity locate in Greenwich, CT. Same for most data services that do not offer execution of orders, most of them are not located in Chicago. So, I would say, a user has to really investigate where a service's gateway is located at before jumping to connect through a dedicated machine or VPS. More importantly whether the trading approach is really that latency sensitive. Most screen based trading is not for basic scientific facts. Just my 2 cents