Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Budget? I'd stay away from anything Apple unless you're already a die-hard fan (I do own and have used both; it's just that unless you're planning on dual booting into Windows to run trading software yet are also familiar with MacOS/OSX, the premium may not be worth it).
That being said, I personally own a MINISFORUM DeskMini UM480 XT (with 32GB RAM) that I picked up a year ago for under $300 as I wanted to replace my backup computer with something with a little more horsepower that would be able to run pretty much anything non-gaming-related (i.e. trading ). It's literally small, silent and has been on 24x7 without any issue thus far (despite being sourced from China). My primary desktop is a monster by comparison but it's nice having the smaller machine available as needed. That particular model might be hard to obtain anymore, but there are MANY alternatives out there - I'd just be sure to get one with at least 32GB of RAM.
Thanks for your great feedback/insights. Can you share share with me what you are using for your primary trading PC? Also, what are your thoughts on using VPS for trading?
Both of your questions, which hardware and thoughts on VPS, depend on your trading style and which software you are using.
I personally use Ninjatrader on a MacBook with Parallels. That is working absolutely fine. No need for a Dual Boot. It would even work better on the Mini M4 due to the better specs.
I personally don't like to use VPS. I don't like the laggy feeling. If I would run something automated, I would think about it.
VPS depends on your trading methodology and how sensitive you'd be to any potential lag-related issues. For discretionary trading, I'm personally not a fan of using a VPS at all unless there'd be some reason to be closer to the exchange (e.g. for HFT). My own desktop is way overkill for trading but I do a LOT more (developer-related & gaming) tasks that require additional horsepower (particularly for machine learning; it's a home-built ThreadRipper Pro system with 32 threads and 128GB RAM FWIW). If I were 100% automated and needed millisecond-to-exchange response times, then sure, a VPS makes sense.
It depends on your trading style. If you don't process tick data, you get away with any newer modern mini PC/Laptop.
But If you process tickdata showing footprint or any orderflow visualizations etc, then you better get a faster (new generation) CPU and 32GB Ram.
I work on a Mini PC, the smallest from Minisforum.com. It's faster than my old desktop PC and fits in the palm of my hand. Highly recommendable. Works flawless with tickdata.
VPS is laggy in interaction when working, no fun to work with unless you are using it for trading styles that don't need much mouse interaction. The benefit would be that your market order would be executed faster if your server is closer to Chicago than the place you are working from (eg Europe).
But if speed is the goal, a server side order like in Sierra Charts Teton would still be a faster solution.