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If you have the DVD for Windows 7 Pro you can load it on any computer as long as you never had Windows 10 on that computer.
You don't need Microsoft support - there's plenty of help on the internet. But if you're only wanting Microsoft support, then you have to get Windows 10. There's too much spyware and junk on Windows 10 IMO.
Totally agree, as I almost lost a laptop after a lousy unsollicited update of W10. But it miraculously re started again a week later, finished the update and re started working. How far do you think one can go with this W7 pro?
Scott Taffel is the owner of Falcon Trading Computers. When I talked to him a few years ago, I found that he designed computers with ninja trader in mind. They test different combinations to see what works best with ninja. I have bought 3 computers from them and they are great. Whatever Falcon uses, is the best as far as I know.
go to https://falcontradingsystems.com/ they list the components in their computers. I bought my laptop in 2011 from them and it has a 7.3 Microsoft index rating. I get lifetime tech support with very little wait time.
I am a loyal, lifetime customer.
I can tell you my real-world experiences with this, hopefully that is helpful in your decision.
I use an AMD Threadripper 1950X (16 cores 32 threads) overclocked to 4GHz, 32 GB RAM, and 1070ti Graphics card, with a M.2 NVME as the main boot drive
What I can say is that in the case of my system, I STILL find ninja to be quite slow, in some particular aspects, and certainly NinjaTrader becomes bottlenecked before my system does.
What you need to know is that NinjaTrader only uses ONE core per instrument. So if I am looking at 4 instruments (ES CL GC NQ for example) then I am utilizing just 4 of my PC's 16 cores. I'm assuming you understand cores but in case not, just think of a core in your processor as its own little mini-processor. So in theory if you are sure you're sticking with Ninja trader, you only "need" as many cores as instruments you trade. So if you trade 4 or less instruments a quad-core processor will be fine. Then what you would want to achieve is the best possible clock speeds on those 4 cores.
The reason why this irritates me in NinjaTrader is because I use a huge amount of tick data, I trade using volumeprofile, cumulative delta, relative volume, and the footprint chart. When you start to use these tools with a large data series (lets say 20 days or more), NinjaTrader has a very difficult time loading that tick data up. I would love for Ninja to have the ability to recruit more cores for processing your historical data, then settling back on 1 core for the real time data. They use 1 core to make sure there are not discrepancies from ES chart x to ES chart y, because in theory the data could be out of sync between the 2 cores)
For comparison I have used InvestorRT with my same indicators and chart setups, and in some cases triple to quadruple the data amount (90 day data series on IRT vs 30 days on NinjaTrader). And IRT will load the charts up in literal seconds, 30-45 seconds would be an exaggeration.
However, my NinjaTrader charts will take upwards of 10-15 minutes to load up at times.
In summary, it depends a lot on how many instruments you trade and what tools you use. If u are looking at mostly minute bars, and don't use much tick data, then anything around 4ghz will be lightning fast. However if you have a pretty intense trading workspace with lots of tick data and you are looking to upgrade your PC to handle it more effectively, you may want to consider if NinjaTrader is the platform for you. I would really recommend against building a PC solely based on what's optimal for NT8, I would think more about what is EVERYTHING that I will want to do with this PC.
For CPU, if you do a lot of multitasking, go for more cores, but if you only have NT8 open during the day go for the fastest clock speeds you can get because NT will not utilize more than 1 core at a time per instrument.
For RAM, 16+ will be fine, I'd go for 32 just so you never have to worry about a video playing in that background or anything (I can comfortably have NT8, Bookmap, chrome with youtube on, Adobe Photoshop, and record my screen with OBS all at the same time with no issues at all)
For GPU, any GPU that is "decent" for gaming, will do more than what you need for trading platforms, you have a lot of solid options here, if you do some gaming or if you run 4+ monitors, go with something like a 1070ti or 1080ti, if your setup is a little more simple then you could save some money here and go for a cheaper option.
Ask yourself, how many instruments do I trade? how many and what kind of indicators do I keep on my charts? what else do I keep open on my PC in addition to trading? How many screens do I want to power? Do I game casually? What else do I use this PC for (video/sound editing etc)?
I would try to make a well rounded decision as opposed to optimizing for NT8 you may turn out disappointed.
I asked ninjatrader once what is more important,,, cores vs speed, never got a good answer.... As many have said the graphics card only matters with your monitor(s) setup. I have 4th gen intel and it uses all the cores initially which is 4 cores.... Don't know how many cores it would use..... Next computer will prolly be amd threadripper with 24 or more cores.... we'll see how it does. But also I'm looking at going to windows server 2019 from win 7.... I will Not use win 10 except perhaps in a vm to see how it does for testing purposes. Since I am playing with linux I am trying to figure out how to run a virtual machine with widows in it and passthru my video card for multiple 4K monitors.... a work in progress.... I would also be interested in a vps system so I just connect remotely and don't have to run windows.... ever again... Lol's
I'm not sure that a "connectivity problem" to the broker/fcm server is the cause of not getting filled, but maybe I'm wrong or misunderstanding. Interested in learning what you mean by not getting a fill due to connectivity issues. Cuold you define "when I don't get a fill" ? A limit order where price touches and bounces off without a fill?
Also agree that latency (rather than bandwidth) is most important factor for internet connection. Test latency by running a traceroute to the ip address you're connecting to (broker's server), and use an app called TCPView to determine the ip address and port you're connecting to. Use Youtube videos to learn how to do this.
NT8 needs to more efficiently manage incoming tick data. Bookmap and I/RT are the work horses, along with sierra. Since NT8 can connect to Rithmic, I'm not sure why it cannot backfill order book data in its market depth map the same way that Bookmap does. But it probably goes back to the internal architecture of NT8. There's got to be a better way of architect'ing it without losing the ability to end users to write custom scripts.
PS. on gpu, the 1660 SUPER is the sweet spot. But go with 2070 SUPER before getting a 1080Ti, imo.
Broker: Broker: Trade Future 4 Less. Data Feed/Order routing: CQG
Trading: DAX; ES; Bund Futures
Posts: 77 since Oct 2018
Thanks Given: 49
Thanks Received: 57
Hi - Consider using SIERRA CHARTS isted of Ninja Trader - I abondon Ninja Trader many years ago. - I find NT a bit retail orientated, a bit like MT-4 in the FX retail industry.
So -- Ninja Trader and other normal programs can run on WindowsServer? I have never used WindowsServer OS. I do hear it is a like a million times more simple and stable.
