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So glad that I have a server with @sam028. There was an area wide internet outage this morning after I got all my systems up including the VPS with Sam. Then the outage hit and I'm sitting in the dark so to speak. Tried connecting with my iPhone and the internet was down there as well. That turned out to be isolated to my phone but at the time I was truly in the dark. Because I have an automated strategy running on the vps and have never had any problems with the strategy I felt like everything would be ok but I absolutely hate leaving my strategy unsupervised. You never know what could happen. Good news is that I was able to get my phone connected after a while and saw that everything was in fact running as it should. In fact, soon after I got connected by phone my strategy entered a trade just as it was supposed to do. What a relief it was to find that the vps and my strategy were working perfecting even though from my end I was having connection issues. Thank you @sam028 for providing a reliable service.
Given the exact same automated strategy running on a VPS with a <1ms latency to the order gateway, vs running on your home PC with 100ms latency to the order gateway, the logic is simple:
The VPS order will be "in front of" any orders that come after it.
If the VPS and your home PC, all things equal (impossible), were to submit the order at the exact same time -- the VPS will always have the speed advantage, which of course often translates into better fills.
It is also strategy dependent, a strategy that is looking at the inside bid/offer depth and waiting for there to be very few resting orders before trying to jump in for example will probably see a significant difference when compared to just a normal strategy that fires orders at the end of a 'insert random xyz bar type here of xyz length' bar close.
Think of it like a line at Disney Land to ride a rollercoaster.
Sometimes, during peak holidays, the line is really, really long. This would translate into a period in the market where a lot of people are interested in doing business at that price.
Imagine if you had the ability to just walk right up to the beginning of the line. With a VPS like Sam's, you aren't going to be first in line, but you will be in front of 99% of retail traders clicking buttons or that have algo's running from their home PC. The advantage would be measurable.
But other times, it's 10 below zero and there really isn't a line to begin with - so your advantage isn't as apparent because there is really no one to cut in front of.
If you use an ATM or a Chase strategy, it is also beneficial even for discretionary traders.
Again the logic is straightforward, the VPS -- when the ATM triggers and tells it to move the stop or target -- will have a latency advantage, so it will enter the queue at that price point (market price) "in front of" anyone that has more latency (ie: standard retail).
So if you entered a discretionary order from home, and from your VPS -- on the DOM manually -- and had the ATM then take over to manage the trailing stop or chase a target, etc, the VPS will definitely get better fills and over time, it should be measurable.
I recently became a customer of Sam's Speedy Trading Servers. So far, I have been extremely pleased and wanted to say a few words about my experience.
First off, Sam is great with his communication. I don't think I've had to wait more than 5 minutes for any email response. He really seems to understand his customer's needs and urgency.
I first contacted Sam in somewhat of a "panic" because my trading server became unavailable. Even though it was very late in the day, Sam was able to set me up with a VPS about 2 hours after my initial request. This made an outstanding first impression on me!
I purchased Speedy's "Medium" level VPS in Chicago at $60 per month. The server's internet connection is both low latency and high bandwidth, and it's the fastest connection that I've ever personally used. On speedtest.net, the VPS showed a 3ms ping time, 200+ Mbps download speed, and 200+ Mbps upload speed. The VPS itself is is not a beast of a machine, but it's more than powerful enough for running a single account and strategy on NinjaTrader. For those of you who need more horsepower, Speedy offers different price levels with faster servers.
To anyone who's serious about trading, but currently running strategies on a home computer with a residential internet connection, I would say you are taking a huge risk. What happens if there's a power outage, dead internet connection, or utility work in your neighborhood? I could rattle off another 50 things that could go wrong from home that an enterprise level data center is designed and equipped to handle.
With that, I highly recommend Speedy's VPS. I have used other hosted VPS services and can honestly say that Sam provides level of support that I haven't seen from other providers. Sam is a true professional who really cares about his customers. The VPS bandwidth and hardware are top-notch (Chicago data center had 100% uptime in 2012).
If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer them!
I have to say that in the short time using Sam's VPS for my automated trading, I can already see a huge difference in the speed of my fills. I've had limit orders filled on the VPS that I know for a fact wouldn't have been filled on my old server.