I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with wireless internet while trading futures! I have been using wireless with my demo but my broker said they didn't recomend using wireless! Any thoughts?
Wireless is going to be slow and not reliable but in a pinch something is better than nothing. It is not recommended because it is not reliable and it's slow. It's also not quite as secure as being wired - but you can secure wireless pretty well.
Depending on circumstances, lots of people's wireless is faster than other's wired connection. If you are not scalping and using limit orders anyway, wireless is just fine. But it helps if you have wired access for back up.... Also, people traded 10 years ago too, when wired was slower than most wireless nowadays. So everything is relative....
Too much latency with wireless, plus any type of signal interference to your wireless connection could stop or delay your ability to execute trades enough to cause losses. However since you're trading with a demo and you probably dont know how to trade profitably anyway then its no big deal. If you start trading with real money... HARD WIRE CONNECTION ONLY
All of the above advises are good, IF you are a short term trader (ie: 5 min or less time frame). But if you're an intraday swinger (ie: 15 minutes, or more time frame charts) using limit orders, then it shouldn't affect you that much. Schaefer
Another anecdote/data point: I use wireless internet in my home office plus a wireless keyboard and mouse. I trade for a living (but not scalping/day trading) and the set-up seems to work fine. In most cases, as I'm releasing the left mouse button, I see my limit order show up in the NBBO or some other quote screen. That's fast enough for me. And sometimes as I'm releasing the button my "filled trade" siren goes off (IB TWS) and I get up and do my victory dance. The latter is highly recommended. It forces me out of the chair, which is good for circulation, the back and the neck, and I'm sure my neighbors love it. One of these days, I'll have to get a Cramer-esque buzzer and flashing lights.
The question is too broad. It is like saying: all german cars are great cars. No. It depends on the make and model. I use wireless Internet at home on 2 of my production workhorse computers. Using a Wireless N router and wifi adapter. Each computer gets a minimum of 10 Mbps. Just about as fast as connecting direct to the cable modem. Worked fine for 2 years. Your broker may be thinking of trading from an iphone or PDA at a Starbuck's or using the 4G/whatever-G network. That may be a different story. I would not want to trade for real using a wireless network provided by somebody else.
A wifi router will have no effect on your trading. If do not use WPA or an unsecured connection for your router, it is as secure as a wired connection because it is almost impossible to hack without physical access to the PC. Wifi is also very reliable. The latency is only a couple of milliseconds higher than wired-this only effects HFT, not discretionary trading or automated trading that does not rely on high frequency trades. My wireless at work has a 4ms latency overall! Are you speaking about cell modems? They are unreliable, and have high latency. Mike
We live out in the country and the only internet option is satellite so I wasn't sure if this could be the problem because it wouldn't connect with qcg but I have had no problems with strategy runner or global zen trader!