Connection Speed

[friva 10]

Hi,

 

what is the minimum internet connection speed you think you need for your trading, and what is your trading style ?

 

I get:

ping: 42ms

download: 2.59 Mbps

upload: 6.86 Mbps

(http://www.speedtest.net) and I am comfortable with this

 

I trade discretionary, index futures and stocks.

I normally enter a position with limit orders and make less than 20 trades per day.

 

What about you ?

 

FR

[wrbtrader 10]

Hi,

 

what is the minimum internet connection speed you think you need for your trading, and what is your trading style ?

 

I get:

ping: 42ms

download: 2.59 Mbps

upload: 6.86 Mbps

(Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test) and I am comfortable with this

 

I trade discretionary, index futures and stocks.

I normally enter a position with limit orders and make less than 20 trades per day.

 

What about you ?

 

FR

 

Is that info you posted related to your broker server, location of the city where your trading instruments exchange is at or just a connection test of the nearest server your ISP has to you ?

[TheNegotiator 13]

Upload & download speeds aren't actually what makes the difference. The higher they are, the better the ISP's hardware generally is so it can help. But the important thing is lag/latency which is the time it takes for you to see that something has traded. This depends on the distance from exchange, the set up of your hardware, the ISP's hardware and if you are on a public ISP, the number of users currently online(and what they're doing).

 

You could trade off the speeds you quote if everything else was set up correctly, but that's not necessarily likely. The other really important thing is how the data feed provider sends the information. Generally, there are a decent number of providers who don't exactly give you a high quality service. However, all of this depends on how you trade. If you're a day trader, you'll more than likely want a fast and responsive connection, with high quality data and a pc which is correctly configured to use that data.

 

Hope this helps.

[friva 10]

wrbtrader, it's a connection test of the nearest server my ISP has to me

[Tams 20]

good read from InteractiveBrokers

 

speed is important,

more important is to find out the number of hops between you and your broker.

 

http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/education/faqs/technical.php#trace_route

[friva 10]

thank you Negotiator.

 

Where I can find more about how the set up of my hardware influences lag/latency ?

 

How do I check how good my ISP's hardware is when it comes to lag/latency ?

[friva 10]

thank u Tams. I'll read that

[TheNegotiator 13]

The first thing I'd be looking at is what I can control in front of me. Is your pc a trading only pc or is it cluttered with lots of other stuff? As for their hardware, you may need to do a bit of digging. Generally the best way is to speak to a friendly engineer. If you get one it'll probably be more lucky than anything though. As a rule of thumb, look at an ISP who advertises as providing low latency.

[wrbtrader 10]

Upload & download speeds aren't actually what makes the difference. The higher they are, the better the ISP's hardware generally is so it can help. But the important thing is lag/latency which is the time it takes for you to see that something has traded. This depends on the distance from exchange, the set up of your hardware, the ISP's hardware and if you are on a public ISP, the number of users currently online(and what they're doing).

 

You could trade off the speeds you quote if everything else was set up correctly, but that's not necessarily likely. The other really important thing is how the data feed provider sends the information. Generally, there are a decent number of providers who don't exactly give you a high quality service. However, all of this depends on how you trade. If you're a day trader, you'll more than likely want a fast and responsive connection, with high quality data and a pc which is correctly configured to use that data.

 

Hope this helps.

 

This is very true because I've lived in Chicago and traded the Eminis from the home of a relative that lives on Lake Short drive...I had consistent data stalls even though the CME and CBOT are located in Chicago.

 

In contrast, when I lived in Seattle Washington, while using a different broker and different ISP via the exact same computer...rarely did I have connection problems and I had a much better (low) lag/latency in Seattle in comparison to the results in Chicago. My point is that good or poor connection can be due to a variety reasons. Thus, it's not always the brokers fault for bad trades.

[Tradewinds 12]

Hi,

what is the minimum internet connection speed you think you need for your trading ?

 

Do you actually have any other better Internet Service Providers as an option? At one point, I couldn't even get high speed internet where I live. This brings up another interesting question. At this point, I wouldn't even consider moving to a place that didn't have a great internet connection because of trading. I'm wondering if anyone has actually moved just to get a better internet connection for trading?

[Tradewinds 12]

Trace Route, traceroute, trace a route to a website / ISP

 

In the article, it gives an example of using the "tracert" command to trace an internet connection route from your computer to a particular website. The "tracert" command can be issued from the MS-DOS command prompt. To get to the MS-DOS command prompt, find the "Accessories" folder under "All Programs" in the Start list. Click the windows "Pearl", formerly called the "Start Button". (You know, the Start button, the one you use to Stop your computer.) :rofl:

 

The syntax is:

 

C>tracert traderslaboratory.com

 

 

If you get to the command prompt, and it looks something like this:

 

C\Users\YourComputerName>

 

You can get to the c: root directory by typing "cd \"

 

It would look like this:

 

C\Users\YourComputerName>cd \

 

After hitting "Enter", the command prompt should change to this:

 

C\>

[Tradewinds 12]

Options for the tracert command will be displayed by the following command:

 

tracert -?

 

[-d] Do not resolve addresses to hostnames. Makes the search display results faster.

[-h maximum_hops] Maximum number of hops to search for target.

[-j host-list] Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).

[-w timeout] Wait the specified number of milliseconds for each reply, timeout.

[-R] Trace round-trip path (IPv6-only).

[-S srcaddr] Source address to use (IPv6-only).

[-4] Force using IPv4.

[-6] Force using IPv6.

[friva 10]

Do you actually have any other better Internet Service Providers as an option? At one point, I couldn't even get high speed internet where I live. This brings up another interesting question. At this point, I wouldn't even consider moving to a place that didn't have a great internet connection because of trading. I'm wondering if anyone has actually moved just to get a better internet connection for trading?

 

Tradewins,

I bet somebody did already.

I myself am serirously considering moving to get a better internet connection for trading.

Net Index by Ookla says that if I move to a small city 15 km north east the average connection speed there is 4x what I have now.

[nila 10]

It is a good information about internet speed.........

Like the same way , i check my internet speed everyday..........both downloading & uploading speed through this site

My speed test results are,

upload speed:0.52 kbps

download speed:1.96 kbps

It has the best & accurate results for my internet speed test!!!!

[friva 10]

also to get to the MS Dos prompt:

 

click start

click run

type: cmd

return

[friva 10]

Options for the tracert command will be displayed by the following command:

 

tracert -?

 

[-d] Do not resolve addresses to hostnames. Makes the search display results faster.

[-h maximum_hops] Maximum number of hops to search for target.

[-j host-list] Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).

[-w timeout] Wait the specified number of milliseconds for each reply, timeout.

[-R] Trace round-trip path (IPv6-only).

[-S srcaddr] Source address to use (IPv6-only).

[-4] Force using IPv4.

[-6] Force using IPv6.

 

Tradewinds, can u pls clarify ? Are you suggesting to use eg the following syntax:

tracert-d traderlsaboratory.com

?

[cjforex 10]

A few other things people forget:

 

1. Latency is a double edged sword. Your latency is the delay for a quote to get from the broker to your platform, whereas the price may have moved during that travel time (first edge). Then there is the time to transmit your order (second edge).

 

2. What is the latency during your peak trading hours. If you are on a shared retail connection like cable, there are times of peak usage when latency can get much larger. How frustrating is that.

 

3. How often does it go down during the day, and for how long. Often more than you think. Imagine trying to exit a position and your internet goes down. Ugh.

 

CJForex

[wrbtrader 10]

A few other things people forget:

 

...

 

3. How often does it go down during the day, and for how long. Often more than you think. Imagine trying to exit a position and your internet goes down. Ugh.

 

CJForex

 

Hi,

 

If someone is counting how many times their internet connection goes down per day...something is seriously wrong with their computer system or ISP. More importantly, they shouldn't be trading until the issues get resolved.

 

As for myself, I have connection problems while trading about once per month that may last 1 - 2 minutes. To me, that's acceptable.

 

In addition, I will go as far to say that if someone is considering trading for a living, they should do an in-depth research into the best places to live in their surrounding area (city, state or country) that has the best internet connections. Simply, if someone wants to trade for a living and they discover they live in an area where there are too many consistent problems due to the fault of the ISP...you need to move.

[cjforex 10]

You need to download a tool and test it systematically. I sit on my home internet all the time and rarely notice it going down.

 

Install a free tool like ServersAlive and have it ping every 5 seconds out, save log, and log up and down.

 

Then you will see exactly how many times per day it goes out. You can leave the tool running and measure a solid week.

 

You might be surprised how many times it goes up and down without you even noticing. There is no such thing as a "better" retail internet feed.

 

Before I began trading remotely, I had three internet connections, Cable (cheap for speed and main connection), DSL (expensive, so as a backup, buy the cheapest tier), and my cellular as worst case scenario.

 

Cable especially has latency issues during different times of day.

 

So measure, know, and never be surprised.

 

CJForex

[peterfred 10]

Internet speed doesn't really matter a Trader. But below average speed would definitely affect a trader by a partial margin. so it is always better to maintain a speed up to average. Here is my speed result,

Download: 0.202 Mbps

Upload: 0.642 Mbps.

I got the speed test result from for free.