What firm offers the best trading platform? and why? Does any one platform offer a significant advantage or is it just because you learned on it?
Are you planning to trade from a broker based office, or remote? If you are planning on trading via remote, what kind of a PC do you have, and what kind of a broadband set-up are you using? This is just for starters.
well it depends, Im not looking to trade within a group but if the executions are faster in an office than online, that would be a huge selling point for me. Im mostly a nasdaq scalper. At home, I have a P4 2.2 mhz 256mb 1 21" monitor I hear so much talk about platforms and I'd like to know whether one is truly better than another. Its my understanding that if a platform does not have a particular function, it can be created either by yourself or by calling the technical support of the platform designer. That leads me to believe its probably speed or familiarity that keeps a trader loyal to one platform thoughts?
First off, you would need to increase your 256mb of RAM to atleast 512mb, and preferably 1 Full Gig. Using Windows XP-Pro is important as well . . . What kind of a broadband connection are you using, and what is the current download speed you are getting? The reason I ask these questions is because there are some "latency" issues regarding being a remote trader, as opposed to trading out of an office and using a platform that is connected directly to a server. You need to make sure that you are on an even playing field from a Hardware standpoint before you then get involved in trying to decide which trading platform is the best for pure scalping. For sheer speed, Assent's "Hammer" is probably the fastest trading platform for scalping. However, if you are into using charts, the charting on Hammer will disappoint you and you will have to spend another $165.00 per month from a third-party charting vendor like Realtick or E-Signal.
why do you recommend xp pro ? why not xp home ? i currently have win 2000 pro good question on my avg download speed. I use a cable modem now i will take your advice on the memory and upgrade to at least 512mb
You can as well stick with Win2000, it should do equally well. I use both XP on my 2 latest computers and Win2000 on an older one. Up till now, I havn't seen any need to upgrade the Win2000 one. I trade daily on it. Good luck, nononsense
The cable-modem should be fine. You can always check your download and upload speed via a Speed-Test from: www.dslreports.com