I have been trading for a couple of years now, both manually and with Algos either written by myself (bad Idea) or using systems developed by professionals. Initially I was trying to run on a machine at home that I would remote into as needed to check how things were going. What I learned:
- Home Internet issues: when just watching TV or browsing the web having a connection issue is an annoyance, but trading with real funds, one issue can cost thousands of dollars.
- Home PC Issues: Yes you can get a good PC at a cost, and set it aside and do nothing else with it, but this is a investment to make. On its own this is not a show stopper.
In short I got burnt a few times, I honestly got burnt enough that I did not feel comfortable trading this way. With this my first attempt to fix this was to setup a Remote Desktop using Microsoft Azure. Essentially what this is doing is running a PC on a server (somewhere), it functions just like a normal PC and you access it via a remote desktop program, which is usually on every windows machine. SIDE NOTE: Ninjatrader does not run on a Apple Operating System, setting up a remote virtual desktop allows you to use a Apple but also trade with NinjaTrader.
The Benefits of a Virtual Desktop are:
- Internet Connection: There are zero issues with this in my experience, flawless
- Cost: Cost of the setup depends on the performance that you want for your Virtual Desktop, it ranges from $60 to hundreds
This setup worked well, I did have some issues with my Azure setup as I am not a IT guy and more or less learned how to set things up on the go. I did run into a case where hackers tried to get into my setup, but the Azure team helped.
About a year ago I found a service that offered the same benefits as Azure but also had a couple of additional perks, this company is ChartVPS. Additional benefits:
- Support: The ChartVPS team is very helpful and also is built around supporting trading, there are zero IT skills needed
- Cost Effective: ChartVPS is a bit less expensive then Azure.
- Location: they were able to offer me a server in Chicago, which is where the trading happens, this makes transactions a few ticks quicker.
All in all, if you are considering trading with automated algorithms there is just no other way to go than a virtual desktop and with that I have nothing but great things to say about ChartVPS.
For those interested in trying this use HONESTINFO3 as the promo code and you will get 3% off of your monthly fee PERMINENTLY. If you have any questions on this topic please reach out to me at Information@Honest-Information.com.
Honest Information 