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I put all that in first post in this thread. I also have been updating first post with any new info or observations.
I updated post you quoted to send people to first post if they want detailed info.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Thanks. You are paying quite a lot. I rent a Single Xeon 3470 with 8GB, 2x146GB SAS 15K, HW RAID 3Ware, for $139/mo in Chicago, and I know @sam028 offers VPS on Dual Xeon's for like $40-50 a month, much more powerful than your machine and half the cost. In both case < 1ms ping to Zen Fire servers.
But in the end if your happy that's all that matters
I looked at Sams option but wanted dedicated but would be interested in who you are using if dedicated. Although if I was doing a VPS I would do it through Sam as he is doing a VPS the way it should be done.
I really like Steadfast Networks but am open to others as Steadfast is higher. If you are in getting 1ms bet we are in same vicinity if not even same building. Could you post who you use here or send me a private PM? Thanks for you input as always looking to improve and have no qualms about switching if get more bang for the buck with a reliable company. That looks like a very nice setup you have for the price. The atom seems to work fine but I am a geek and would like more power.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
Actually Steadfast contacted me so we are going to try to work something out. I think they have a stellar network and are geared specifically to traders. Apparently they have some new machines coming online that may more meet my needs. So I will see what happens and give an update.
I would suggest not going with the Atom processor. I had no noticeable problems but I think if had to many charts running in a fast market could give it problems. I was not happy with Steadfast initial response to me but I will give them a chance to make things right.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
Okay here is the low down with Steadfast Networks.
I ended up moving from the Atom. Even though it may run NT okay most of the time I think it is under powered. So I bumped up to a Core duo machine that should run NT7 with ease. Unless back testing I do not think NT really uses more than 1 or 2 cores anyway. I wanted to get away with using the Atom even though I knew better. I liked the cheaper price but if going to pay money for server really is better to pay extra and get what you need. I am a penny pincher but in the trading world there are areas you should not pinch. Actually the cost is quite small compared to trading profits and a year can be paid for in a few trades so why pinch.
My initial exchange with Steadfast on the matter was not so good but was a misunderstanding. Steadfast bent over backwards to keep me as a customer so I am happy. I do like the fact they concentrate on traders. They do not focus on leasing servers for web hosting. I think they did at one time but now concentrate more on the financial markets.
Their prices are not the highest out there but not the lowest either. But I think you get a much better network than most. I have spoken with others about other Chicago based server providers that even have very low latency and offer some better deals hardware wise but have nightmare stories about servers going down, disconnections etc. However, Steadfast Networks has a very good reputation among users which is why I am willing to pay more. There are times you get what you pay for especially in server market. If anyone takes a look at Steadfast you can't just look at hardware specs you must look the quality of what they provide and where they provide it.
I will update again in the future any network or hardware issues that arise or don't arise and how Steadfast responds.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
After 3 months of using a dedicated server in Chicago with sub 1ms ping I can say it makes a significant improvement to my fills. I typically use limit orders on my bot. When I was using my own machine at my house even with decent residential latency it just does not compare to being in Chicago.
I use range bars and if a limit gets jumped on bar open and next bar prints my entry orders will cancel by design. So I would quite often miss entries that never would get filled. To many jumped orders creates problems with my expectancy. I am happy to report after switching to a server in Chicago in 3 months I have not missed one entry. I get filled every time like clockwork.
So whether using market or limit orders this is something any serious auto trader should pursue. Your good fills will more than pay for your monthly server costs.
Note: the above is on CL which is all I am trading right now.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."
I use the same entry/cancel method. Do you issue the limit order on the current bar close/First tick of the new bar, or do you have a stop/limit order in the market, waiting where the new bar will open before the current bar even closes?
monpere currently all the conditions must line up on on bar close of of trigger bar. When all conditions are met on that last tick (bar close) of trigger bar order will enter on first tick (open) of new bar.
When I manually traded my strategy I would put a stop limit in market ahead of time as you mention. I have never coded my auto strategy to put order in ahead of time. The strategy would essentially have to forecast what would happen on that last tick. This can be done but would require a lot more coding. I did like getting those orders in ahead when I manually executed my strategy. However, with the kind of fills I am getting I don't miss having to get them in ahead and just enter with a regular limit.
"The day I became a winning trader was the day it became boring. Daily losses no longer bother me and daily wins no longer excited me. Took years of pain and busting a few accounts before finally got my mind right. I survived the darkness within and now just chillax and let my black box do the work."