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I'm suprised that the replies to this so far state or imply that it's okay. Anti-virus I'm ambivalent about, but you abolutely must have a firewall between your trading machine and the internet. This does not mean the firewall needs to reside on your trading machine.
I’d have to strongly agree! I realize this post is a bit old, but had me shaking my head with the inference it was ok to run a trading computer without a firewall or anti-virus. That’d be like trading without a stop and going on vacation.. Oh my..
You could probably get away without an anti-virus/ad-ware program, that is if you NEVER:
Surf the Web! or Install “ANY” software from ANY unknown source! This would include something as simple as an indicator that has an associated dll. Open source anything! Or even Plugging in a thumb drive that’s been plugged into any other computer that’s not your own.
Speaking from many years experience, you really just never know! Trust me on this one! So even if you’re extremely disciplined, and don’t trade with stops. I’ll bet you’ve been burned at least once. It’s really better to be safe than sorry. Just build an i7 with ssd (amazing machine!) just for trading. Didn’t feel a need for anti-virus thinking I would not use it for anything else.
Yea right, guess that’s why I use stops, cuz I’m just not that disciplined. Once I got behind the wheel of a machine like this, it was very difficult to use it solely for trading. You’ll end up here on BM’s, over at Ninja or whatever, in a webinar, and then one thing leads to another. I’m still extremely careful, but as much as I didn’t want too, I felt it best to at least stick a copy of MS Security Essentials on this beast.
As for a firewall. EXTREMELY ESSENTIAL! But not just for your trading computer, for Your Entire Home Network. For the most part, a simple Linksys router (brand name not important) with built in Nat protection is sufficient for the average person. But PUT Something hardware (with at least nat) in between your cable/dsl/sat modem and your computer(s).
If you’re really security conscious, or even if you’ve got an old 286/386/486/Pentium (Pentium almost an overkill) laying around doing nothing, I might suggest converting it to an even better firewall. Visit [FONT=Calibri][SIZE=3][COLOR=#800080]www.smoothwall.org[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] . Free Linux Based Open Source dedicated Firewall. Been running it for years now and am absolutely amazed every time I look at the logs. Get probably 6-24 pages every day of IP’s from all over the world trying to find or access an open port. You’d be amazed, if you only knew. There’s like a 9min video on the home page that will tell you about smoothwall, how to install and get it running.
Don’t care to bicker about the subject; just thought I’d share my opinion.
For the record, fill delays aside I just determined AVG was causing NT7.0.1000.2 to abend with the dreaded "NT has detected an error..." issue the 2nd time I tried to change any option ("Tools > Options ...") whether or not NT was restarted between the 1st attempt and the 2nd.
Up to that point the only solution was to "repair" the NT installation, change the option (which generally succeeded the first time), repair again and relaunch NT.
At the moment I'm not sure what other NT-related issues AVG might have been responsible for.
In any event I turned off scanning the " .../My Documents/NinjaTrader7 " directory in AVG via
I would also agree with this, although I personally only exclude the db folder in Ninja, and the data_f folder if you happen to use IRT or MP.. But then I've never had any type of problems for me to look into excluding anything else.
I would also suggest turning off Windows Search Indexing. In win7, control panel/indexing options. I personally disabled Windows Search from control pannel/admin tools/services/windows search.. Search still seems to work, but without any indexing.
Just a thought, and again.. IMO only!
Edited: Also, turn off ALL Auto Updates! (Windows/Java/Adobe/Virus/Whatever). You really don't want things trying to update while your trading!
I have my firewall and protection software up and running... I am also a lil nervous about security. There are a lot of nutty ppl out there that want to break into or just break your PC. I did find that Ninja does not play with Norton running and I had to exclude the My Documents Ninja files from the scans to avoid the crashes. My fills are not too bad... I use Mirus. You may have speed issues in your internet path. Run this test to your broker server city (Chicago, NY or wherever) Pingtest.net - The Global Broadband Quality Test your grade should be at least a B. If lower, contact your provider. I have stopped trading when I was a D. I called and they were confused, but then it got better and is consistantly a B now.
You should be able to go into your scan software and exclude the My Documents-Ninja directories from the scan. Since you know the source of the data, you will be safe doing this. Your scans can continue scanning your system.
