They say that one of the best things about being a trader is that you can do it (trading, I mean) any time, any place in the world. I don't know about you guys, but I have to work most of the time, and my holidays are scheduled around the stock market. So my question is: If I used a satelitte modem could I be setting up position plays on a beach in Bali instead of strapped behind a desk? What sort of costs / problems are associated with getting a satellite connection? Anyone?
It depends on you trading style. If you position trade, just put on your trades with your signals, set your stops and head off to the beach. However, you can't exit when the market turns cutting your loss smaller. If you daytrade, you don't want to be trading at the beach off a small laptop monitor competing against someone with a 4 monitor setup and T1 line direct to the exchanges. Take a day off the market once in a while to relax.
Depends. Is there satellite modem service in Bali? While it covers a LOT of the world, it's not everywhere. They'll only put one up in a geosynchonous orbit that will cover a significant portion of the population, and that population must be able to make it financially worthwhile. TV revenues come from the advertisers, so that's more pervasive. Internet revenues come from the customers and there are an awful lot more people in the world who CAN't afford satellite internet thaN CAN. Problems: not good for scalping. If your trading style can deal with a 1.2-2 second round trip over what everyone else is doing, then you could be ok. The other problem is weather, usually it's only a problem in bad weather. Also, make sure that you have a good steady source of electricity. You'll want a good UPS/surge protector and probably a backup generator.
I've played with these ideas, not doable yet but not far off. I ve tried from my sailboat, needed a gyro setup to keep the dish(direct tv dsl) and the help of one of their installers with the proper equipt. to keep it properly aimed. Tried on beaches in Hawaii, Matzatlan , Puerto Vallerta Mexico with Iridium some time ago. The mkt is opening up for satilite biz. Virtually all of Africa except South Africa has no infrastructure and relies on satalite feed with a small number of puters where people go to do biz. Most of South and Central Americal are the same outside of big cities. Not a way to daytrade yet, that's for sure. But it's coming in within a few years.
Well, I carry many of my positions for 3 - 5 days, so a 5 second delay isn't going to hurt that type of trading too much. From the comments so far, it sounds as though it'll be financially viable and globally accessable sometime in the near future. Does anyone know what the current costs are like?
I just did some poking around on the net. It doen't seem like there is much point - the size of the dish makes the excercise moot. I was thinking that there might be a global modem service (for laptops) available - similar to phones that you can use world wide. Oh well, maybe in the future....
I have been working on this for a while, there is a company that recently released a version of DirectPC for RVs; they have a prototype for yachts, however I can not find the link. Their system was around $4K, that will work as long as you are in an area serviced by DTV. There are some commercial versions, $10K+ equipment, T1 type fees, however depends on the size of your yacht, large footprint. Internet access is available at a number of docks, chose your cruising grounds around the problem.
What size dish are you talking? I've used satphone systems on fishing boats.Mostly used as phone but did use it for internet connection. Run off 12 volt supply ,You can either use a whip areil which is about 4 foot high or a small gimble mounted dome(alot better),the dome would only be 6-8 inches wide by the same high. Not much good for laptops on the beach but ok for sailboats. Was expensive $1 a minute and real slow, max speed was only 9600bps because the satellites are so old. Westinghouse used to sell the phones so maybe ask them. Seemed to get a little scratchy once you were over 3-400 mile off the coast Maybe do some homework on Inmarsat-M too What i'm talking about was'nt Inmarsat tho
Actually that bps i quoted was wrong it was 2400bps not 9600bps Remember because it is so slow it increases the time you have to spend connected,even a simple web page takes ages to load,by that i mean a simple datek page might take 5 mins to load ok. What we had was close to this http://www.remotesatellite.com/products/fleettalk12.htm Take a look here seems to cover alot of whats available. http://www.remotesatellite.com/ourprodflashsatsys.htm http://www.satphone.net/pl1main.htm http://www.satphonestore.com/servprod/ Metoox if you ever go ahead with one of these type of systems and have to decide on either to use a whip ariel or the dome type go the dome...the whip you need to constantly tune and there in no way as good.