Having scored a new job, my wife had to go to LA for a week for training. I figured I'd tag along and work from the road. Call it an experiment in working freedom. The objecy of this thread is to detail what one needs to trade while on semi-vacation. I'll also describe the challenges I faced during the week of trading on strange turf. I had about a month to prepare. Ordered a dell inspiron laptop from dell... 17" wuxga screen, 2gigs ram. other equipment purchased: Laptop bookbag to carry it with other gear Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I hate laptop keyboards. 24" Dell flatscreen 1920x1200 resolution, I needed it anyhow Underwater kinetics drybox bot from optics planet.com. This is a big, tuff, and heavy SOB to tote the monitor around.
I meticously cut away the foam for the drybox so the monitor rested in snuggly. Something i failed to anticipate was the stand. While buying the box i saw it was deep enuff to accomidate the stand along with the monitor, disassembled; however, the two would not fit in the box very elegantly. I packed the stand in other luggage and placed the keyboard w/ the monitor. Checkin at the airport went smoothly. I tipped very well at curbside baggage check. The monitor case was the 1st piece of luggage onto the merry go round at LAX.
I carry an Itronix GoBook III with a transflective screen and backlit keyboard. The screen is small, but it can be read in direct sunlight on the beach. It's got a Verizon EVDO card, high-end GPS and bluetooth on the mobo -- no external add-ons required. Thing is indestructible and totally self-contained for trading. Your setup is very nice, and far more trading specific. http://www.gobook3.com/
Best of luck, I worked with a dual monitor setup and used a Pelican case. I got everything in there but ultimately, again the stand (an ergotron 100) was a problem. I have reverted back to a single laptop (sony widesreen) and leave the extra monitors at home. I just changed my programs screens into 3 sections and have to switch back and forth. Turns out I actually trade better without the extra data. Right now I carry a wireless mouse and fingerprinter reader and a cooling pad (thermal non fan type). All fits into a carry on with enought room for clothing for about a week. --Cheers Luto
My wife's company chose a small botique hotel in beverly hills for us to stay for the week. Maison 140. Sounded good to me. Last week I checked the website and called regarding the broadband. I eventuallly spoke to corp IT and he reassured me that it would be solid. Bandwidth has tested better than my dsl at home so far. Upon seeing the room we were staying in, I noticed an immediate deficiency. While the desk would have been fine to write correspondence, it was definitely not large enuff for all the crap i brought. I managed to get another room with a slightly larger desk. Still i predict carpel tunnel syndrome by weeks end. The setup makes it hard to type. The lesson here is not to book in small trndy hotels. The rooms are tiny. You have to have a road warrior state of mind. I think a radisson would be better. Desk size is something to confirm for next trip. I'll post some picks of my road set up a little later as well as my accounts of my first trading day off home turf. Time for some martinis, this is somewhat of a vacation afterall, and then early to bed.
Hows the speed on that EVDO card, arb? Finding a hotel w/ broadband can be tricky. It would be better not to rely on them and just carry ur connection with u.
The external card works great as well. It's obviously best with a high tower-saturation. I've never had a problem in LA or SF. I think it's worth the peace of mind to have the redundancy. The card runs about a $100... unlimited service is $60/month. I get 400-600Kbps in metro areas.
I have a dell insprion 9300 as well (1.8g cpu). but i never really trade on it. my trading setup are two dual processor machines. also, do you have the overheat problem with your dell 24" monitor at 1920x1200? mine has that problem and have to put a little fan on the back