Thinkorswim platform: speed issue

Discussion in 'Retail Brokers' started by Option Trader, Feb 6, 2008.

  1. My processor is 1.4 ghz, and 768 MB of RAM, with a high speed internet connection. Tek support recommended to me a faster processor (??) and 2gigs of RAM, which is what you have. I would like know if anyone else has a problem who has YOUR speed & size of RAM.
     
    #11     Feb 6, 2008
  2. Did you ever try to pull out the modem for 30 seconds, then replug it (that was the first advice to me from tek support)?
     
    #12     Feb 6, 2008
  3. MrGecko

    MrGecko

    Yeah I had the very same issue today as well...

    (infact I have paid a visit to ET specifically to investigate reviews of other products)

    ... I've had this problem with TOS charts before... I think I remember reading a thread about the prices being accurate and only the charts being off a bit...

    http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112442&highlight=TOS+lag

    anyhow its a shame; the platform is great, but lagging charts are a showstopper for me.
     
    #13     Feb 6, 2008
  4. RL8093

    RL8093

    I have done this in the past when there were legitimate internet issues. I have eSig charts and, as I mentioned, I have seen the issue w/ ToS when I've had a 2nd broker up - which did not have any issue nor did eSig or Briefing...

    This particular issue has been random & fairly infrequent for me and is not the primary reason I'm looking at other brokers.

    R
     
    #14     Feb 6, 2008
  5. There have no doubt been some "networking" issues over the past several weeks with various data-feeds given that we are now seeing 60-80,000 updates PER SECOND!!!

    You should go to your DOS prompt and run a "trace-route" ( type: tracert, then one space, then the IP address of the server ) that you connect to for trading.

    See what kind of milliseconds you are getting on the hops that are in the middle of the Internet Superhighway; usually lines 4-12. If you are around 90 ms or less you are doing fine. Above 100ms is not good.

    As for your hardware, your computer is really behind the times. A 1.4 GHz processor is not going to cut-it anymore . Try one of the new Duo2-Core processors from Intel that comes with an L2 cache of 4 MB's and a 1333 front side bus.

    My guess is that your L2 cache is not even anywhere close to 1/4 of a MB and your processor is totally overloaded. Rather than spend more money on memory, just get a new computer with a faster processor.

    Also try to stick with Windows XP.
    Vista has a ton of "bugs" still and is not worth it.
    It also is a memory "hog" and needs at least 2 Gigs just to run.

    Hope this helps.
    :)
     
    #15     Feb 6, 2008
  6. Thank you. Much appreciated.
     
    #16     Feb 6, 2008
  7. don't worry. as soon as this bear really digs in 90% of these 5k capitalized day traders trading 500k shares a day will be gone. its the title trading and swift hyper traders and 10 million black box boys clogging the lines
     
    #17     Feb 6, 2008
  8. trading apps like tos are just dumb terminals. they require little cpu power, except when running analysis. for streaming quotes, even a pentium 500mhz would be fine.

    i've run tos on a pentium-iii mobile 1.2mhz (2002 technology) with 1gb and it runs fine, with cpu usage at <10%. i've even run it on a machine built in 1999 with just 500m ram and it ran just as well, although it starts up a bit slow.

    your 1.4ghz machine is way more than enough. next time you see the problem, open up task manager and see what your cpu usage is. bet you anything it'll be low.

    your bottleneck is with your isp not the cpu or ram.

    i laugh at the people who buy a quad-core just to display quotes. what a collosal waste of money. thats like running 93 octane in your lawn mower. :D
     
    #18     Feb 7, 2008
  9. bad advice, he's gonna end up wasting a lot of money on a new computer and i can say with 100% certainty it will not fix his problem. his computer hardware is fine. if there's a problem, it's with his isp or perhaps a software/driver issue. i've run tos on far slower machines and it does not hiccup.
     
    #19     Feb 7, 2008
  10. Ok, but who's right?
     
    #20     Feb 7, 2008