What would be considered a good ping number - as per speedtest - website? Also, will cable internet produce more latency than fiber? Thanks for all replies.
Ping time depends on where you are in the world... e.g. a ping time that's considered awesome for someone trading NYSE from Hong Kong is considered terrible by someone trading from Chicago... Fiber is usually faster than cable.
I think that the ping time is not all that relevant. The more important number to keep an eye on is the overall throughput, measured in Mbps (mega bits per second). Speedtest gives you that measure. With the DSL, the highest is around 5 Mbps. Sufficient in most cases. Cable can go from 10 to 20 Mbps. Fiber is even higher. Most hotels I stayed at, via wifi, can only do 0.5 Mbps to 1 Mbps. Bad if you have a lot of charts.
I've said it on here a bunch of times before, ICMP is not a reliable measure of speed through an ISP network, they typically give it a low priority.
But if you consistently get good ping times you can be fairly confident your other data will receive similar or better treatment. In my experience bad and/or inconsistent ping times correspond to isp's who are not providing the type of service a trader needs. As do dropouts. On the other question: speed vs latency. As long as the speed is enough, latency is what counts for traders.
I´ve traded in arcades for years and have tried to switch to home trading a few months back. Have a 100 mg fiber-optic line and ping time to my clearer´s server of around 40ms. Most of the time the connection was quite good and I didn´t notice any differnence vs. what I was used. Only when my markets got busy (mainly following big announcement regarding the European debt crisis) things slowed down significantly, locking me out of the market for something like a few / several seconds (a problem in the offices didn´t experience). I don´t think the problem was with my side of the connection, but as I am a complete IT-nob I actually don´t have any way to find out. How can I find out if the problems lie at my end or if the clearer is trying to save a few quid on their infrastructure? It´s quite an important decision for me as I am seriously reconsidering relocating again as I have to trust my connection for my trading style... cheers
If its related to market conditions it is caused by your clearers' servers congesting. Internet congestion is more likely to be time of day related (all the kids get home from school etc etc) or sporadic. Market related information makes up a tiny fraction of internet traffic so it doesn't slow your connection or your ISP's equipment.
that´s what i suspect. I´m actually going to switch to a different clearer and see how things work out. is there anything i can test/check/ask ahead of starting to trade? I´m thinking of number of connected remote traders for example or other things that could impact performance.... Are there any rules of thumb on how much traffic a server can handle? thanks again.
I think I'd ask for references amongst their customers. There are no rules of thumb as server farms are scalable - if they do it.