Recommended Download/Upload Speeds fro MCFX/FXCM auto trades

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willwill7
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Joined: 15 Jun 2008

Recommended Download/Upload Speeds fro MCFX/FXCM auto trades

Postby willwill7 » 20 Mar 2009

In talking with my internet provider they are pushing me to upgrade my program so that I have

A download speed of 2 Mbps per second
and an
upload speed of 300 Kbps per second...

Is this even enough for running 10 or so range bar charts on auto-trade?
If not what should I be looking for. I hate when a trade does not get filled as a result of latency (or at least I think latency is the cause) with my satellite internet provider...

Thank you for your thoughts...

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RobotMan
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Postby RobotMan » 20 Mar 2009

with my satellite internet provider...
Hi willwill7,

I am not an internet guru, but there probably a few on this list who are. But what I do know, from years of trading online, is that satellite is the worst way to go. You definitely want a landline (whether copper wire or optical fiber) heading into the internet backbone, even if you use WiFi from your computer to a router.
Bandwidth is a pretty trivial factor for trading - latency is much more important. Number of hops, ping times and packetloss is what you should be looking at. Even DSL is fine nowadays if it is set up rock solid by a competent technician and uses CAT-5 wire all the way from the demarcation box to the modem.
I use cable broadband and have a fractional T-1 (shared) as backup. Both are rock solid and reliable. I consider it a small price to pay and don't get any headaches anymore.
I use a program called "PingPlotter" to monitor a data server farm and can see the health of my connection during trading hours. It looks at all the hops and shows packetloss and latency for each one.

Hope that helps. I'm sure others will chime in.

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TJ
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Postby TJ » 21 Mar 2009

...satellite is the worst way to go.
You definitely want a landline
agreed.

...Bandwidth is a pretty trivial factor for trading - latency is much more important...
again, agreed.


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