I wanted to provide a quick post regarding some great service. So to prequalify my position, I have no financial interest in the following business nor do I benefit from this posting in any way, only wanted to share with others that are looking for the same thing.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting and dealing with Speedy Trading Servers . If you have a need for speed, and yet are on a budget, this has got to be one of the best bargains around! I just finished a week of hard testing of one of their mid tier servers and cannot believe the results. I ran a comparison of two identical round trip PING speed test into the RMS gateway, one from my home in Southern California, and the other from the Speedy Trading server in Chicago. Since seeing is believing, I did a quick screen short of both and have attached. 3154us VS 77293us ! Hey, I have T1+ speed, and am on the backbone and one hope off the west coast hub, so my SoCal numbers are good!
Look, I know of people that are co-located with a cross connect and they are faster than 3154us, but it costs them big time. For the average automated trader, you really can’t do any better than this set up that Speedy Trading Servers provides, this is a real value for service here!
VBPR, HappyFace
PS: Hopefully a few of you caught the reference to Golden Earrings: Radar Love in my string title, which should be the theme song for speed seeking auto traders everywhere!
The following 9 users say Thank You to Happyface for this post:
Ping times don't make money. Have you compared fills on the ES. That's money. Also why do they password protect the prices page. How much does it cost?
From my experience ping times can make you money on an automated system. I went from using home internet lines 30ms - 40ms ping. To using a server in Chicago with sub 1ms ping. Makes big difference on fills especially in CL. ES maybe less so because so much liquidity but even there at times can make a difference.
"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."
The following 3 users say Thank You to liquidcci for this post:
I wanted to use Speedy to optimise my fills, however you need decent bandwidth if you are running your charts from their server. I live in a rural area in UK and my bandwidth was just not good enough to update my screen. I would love to have used them, they were courteous, very responsive and technically savvy, but I'll have to stay with my medium-latency home system for now.
May be better suited to discretionary traders with high bandwidth, or automated systems traders.
The following 4 users say Thank You to keymoo for this post:
I'm going to have a free trial on their systems next week, so I'll post my experiences with their VPS after the trial.
They say bandwith is crucial, especially if you are using complex indicators...but I think that my 16.000 mbit/s internet connection should be sufficient.
The following user says Thank You to Daytrader999 for this post:
Keymoo, you were helpful to me on my prior string regarding limit order, I thought I would address your bandwidth point from my POV. My ping tests above is a round trip and therefore also measures with upload and download speed. However, I thought I would run a standard bandwidth test so everyone can compare in Mbps measurements. Again this is utilizing the same online bandwidth test both from My SoCal computer and the SpeedyTradingServer this morning:
I have again attached the screenshots on both of these.
Keymoo, in my prior string about Limit Order fills you provided some detailed posts (which were most helpful). In one you referenced “First In First Filled” as to order handling. Although speed is a MUST for auto traders, it is also important for anyone that wants the very best shot a good order fill at the price you want it to be filled. I look at it this way, always give your order the best possible position in the order queue! You actually helped me understand that being in best possible position in the order queue directly equates to trade fill efficiency. Trading is like 50% trade strategy and 50% trade order management, especially with limit orders. Getting in the front of the order line is a big part of getting filled and making any trade strategy work more efficently.
In addition to the obvious speed and bandwidth, there is also another factor in play and that relates to service interruption risk. You can have interruption in your broadband, electric, viruses on your home computer, etc., etc. Under a remote server set up, even if your electricity goes off at home office, you can access the server via a number of remote access apps for smart phones and iPads and/or the closest WiFi. I have friends that come to BBQs and monitor their remote servers trading from their iPad. It almost like the days before mobile phone when you were tethered to a hard wire land line phone.
It take no real bandwidth for your home office computer to remote view a server, since all the charts and program load is on the server.
Get a remote server already, and leave the old home computer at home with the old hard wire land phone (yes I still have a hard wire land line also, ha!)
Happy Trading everyone!
VBPR, Happyface
The following 2 users say Thank You to Happyface for this post:
Yes, 80 $/month looks pretty good. Here are the prices (just in case I am not the only dummy who was clicking on the drop-down menu instead of the word "prices").
@Happyface, speedtest is not really made for very fast servers, the max speed is 1Gb/s (125 MBytes/s), and not a lot of speedtest servers can do that (I had sometimes some -1 values from speedtest, because it was unable to deal with these kind of speeds).
For @keymoo, if the client bandwidth is really low, with multiple screens, they is no miracle, you'll need at least 1 or 2mb/s in download speed to have something usable.
@Lampert, it seems you're not the only one, I'll change this tomorrow .
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
Agreed, and this was my point about the round trip PING speed test into the RMS gateway at the exchange, rather than just an internet speed test. However, any way you look at it the server numbers are much better than my home office (allbeit T1+ and Dual Quad Core processor). Location, location, location!
The following user says Thank You to Happyface for this post:
This is definitely a good option for someone looking to move their automated trading off-site. The prices are good, and the server location is great. I wish I had known about these VPS when I was setting up my dedicated server. I could have saved a good bit of money and gotten better location since my bot does not require much processing power.
As someone that has looked at other solutions for off-site automated trading, these guys would be my first recommendation for someone looking to move their automated trading server to a hosting solution.
The following 3 users say Thank You to Luger for this post:
Right on. For me service interruption is a vital consideration for going with a remote server in a data center. There are a few things you can do at home to try and mitigate interruptions but nothing compares to a remote server setup and the protections it provides.
When I travel and am out I love being able to use my phone to access the server if needed. I don't watch the market much until my AT takes a trade and sends me email. Then I keep an eye via phone no matter where I am. Don't even need a laptop. Have to love the technology available to us.
@sam028 has a great setup and pricing for what you get.
"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."
The following 2 users say Thank You to liquidcci for this post:
I have a dual problem. High latency and low bandwidth. Unfortunately I cannot do anything about it at the moment, there are no options open to me. My bandwidth requirements are too low to support remote monitor viewing and my ping times to chicago are about 100ms. I will just have to live with it for now.
I agree with everything you have said (except the bandwidth requirements to view charts on a remote server) and do in fact have my own Bare Metal Hypervisor at home (VMWare ESXi) with my trading PC on it. If I ever move home or get a better internet connection, or rent an office with good internet I will be renting a SpeedyTradingServer. No question about it.
The following 2 users say Thank You to keymoo for this post:
I have a strategy running on one of their servers. Did a trial period of a week, liked it, and am currently renting space. I am going this route because of reliability of service that I can't replicate myself without spending a lot of money. I'm very pleased after running for over a month now including the trial period. Because I'm running a strategy, there is very little intervention required on my part. So, I can leave my office and monitor the system on my iPhone to make sure something weird doesn't happen.
The following 6 users say Thank You to MWinfrey for this post:
I'm using a VPS for about a month after having an extended trial before.
Although I don't use automated strategies, I really like the reliability, the low latency, the fast datafeed without delay and therefore the good fills without slippage.
All I can say is that bottom line I'm very satisfied with the machine, the really fair pricing, and especially with Sam's great service.
There's absolute NOTHING to complain about, so the only thing I can do is giving Sam's business an honest full recommendation.
The following 5 users say Thank You to Daytrader999 for this post:
Thanks, dear customers.
You look so happy, I'll double the prices next month .
More seriously, I'm glad to see some good comments, and confirm that it helps to reduce slippage too. That's normal and logical, but it's nice to have the logic confirmed sometimes...
One day I'll put some comments like the previous one on my web site, like some bots vendor:
"With Sam's VPS, I made $1M on ES in 16 ms!!!
Martha M., Newark NJ
..."
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
As far as I know limit orders are siting on the exchange server and stop orders are on your fed/broker providers server (TT for example). So I see no benefit without automated strategies... (the only thing is if OCO are localy simulated)
I can't agree on that. It makes a difference when the price prints on a chart with a latency of 1 or 2 milliseconds or with 380-550 milliseconds on my home computer (depending on connection status).
But perhaps you can ask @sam028 to go in further details on that.
I am using mainly (Stop) Limit Orders and I often didn't get filled when I worked from my Trading Computer at home. When using Limit or Market Orders I had to take at least 1 or 2 ticks of slippage most of the time.
This situation improved dramatically since I'm using a VPS...and to make that clear, I'm not affiliated in any way with Sam's business, that's just my personal experience so far.
The following user says Thank You to Daytrader999 for this post:
Here is one more positive vote for Speedy Trading Servers.
I finally pulled the trigger on the medium space after finishing a major software / hardware update and
going through two trial periods.
My need is simple. I live in the country outside of Nashville, Tennessee and the internet connectivity
is ludicrous at best. Speed is slow and dropouts are frequent.
I just needed safety for my orders after being placed. I use multi-screen and it is a bit sluggish due to
my bandwidth, however, I trade with Limit Orders and wait for price to come to me so the interface is
not so critical. The key is, when I place the order at the price I want, my ATM can handle the rest
when the internet blinks. My trade is safe and sound in Chicago. The fills are lightening fast.
Sam is a wonderful cat and I could not be happier.
As I will live in the country the rest of my life, it appears I am a lifetime customer.
AJ
Nashville, Tennessee
"Life On The Edge of SR"
The following 5 users say Thank You to tderrick for this post:
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Trading: Futures & Crypto
Posts: 49,982 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,458 given,
98,233
received
I am pleased to announce that Speedy Trading Servers has been added on our Elite Partners page. Elite Members who are interested in @sam028's server hosting can receive one free month of service when signing up for a new three month subscription.
Note: Big Mike Trading does not receive compensation for these referrals, we simply worked out these special deals to help our Elite Members who have chosen to support the site. Even though we believe these are great products and services, you should always do your own research before doing business with a company.
That's awesome Mike! I just signed up with Sam as well, I was setup within a couple hours from when I emailed him. I am using a server for the same reason tderrick is using one. Internet connection can't be trusted where I am at. Single screen works well, multi monitor lags some but not too bad. Overall, very impressed!
The following 3 users say Thank You to tgibbs for this post:
First thanks for all the great posting to my string, and glad to highlight a great value for money and service with speedytradingservers.com
Here are a couple of additional points, as food for thought:
Location, Location, Location;
New Locations: As many of you already my know speedytradingservers.com has added VPS at the NJ data center. I have tested with a very heavy trade “load test” as well as various “pings” into NYC feeds and all very good. Word has it that there are also some additional locations available in Europe. It is my understanding that speedytradingservers.com may soon have a location in Paris so to split the difference between Frankfurt and London. I once had a server in the Frankfurt main bunker, and I’m sure the split between Frankfurt and London probably adds no more than a few milliseconds.
Cost vs. Speed (finding the sweet spot for a small trader)
It is all about getting as close to the data source and B/D order gateway at the exchange as possible of the product you are trading. If you have lots of money, you can get almost in the same server rack as the exchange and direct cross connect (non-internet connect). The challenge for most of us is doing this on a budget and getting the biggest bang for the fewest dollars. In my case the difference is moving from my VPS across the street to the CME building, with maybe max 4000 microseconds improvements, but the cost will be 100+ times or more (how much is that a micro second? Ha!), than the cost that I am paying now to speedytradingservers.com
Your Own Little Personal Redundancy system (and peace of mind so you can sleep at night!):
If down time is a cost or loss of money to you, and trading from home is not as reliable as trading from a VPS, how can we also cheap out (not in service just in cost) for even more redundancy? The first step is getting the trading off your home computer and benefiting from the infrastructure reliability of a VPS. The big traders pay dearly to have guarantees service contracts against down time. Super Storm Sandy did not affect the NJ datacenter, and I was very impressed at how reliable the service was seeing that Goldman and the NYSE were the only ones open a day later with huge generators setting out on the street with fuel trust to keep the generators going!.. So to hedge against geographical risk……. The first step in redundancy is from home to VPS. We use to have a backup server in a different location “pinging” the trading server every few seconds, and if any message failed, then have the backup server to take over the B/D account connection, first for account loss prevention on open trades, and/or additional active new trade management. I have not addressed this with speedytradingservers.com , but establishing a virtual redundancy VPS backup server in a different geographic location should not be a problem. For Example: Say you are trading futures out of Chicago, and you want to do a backup server out of… say the NJ data center. In this example you are messaging from the NJ server to the Chicago server. If for any reason the Chicago server cannot be “pinged”, then the NJ server can log into your trade account and perform a variety of trade management functions. Even at speedytradingservers.com very competitive monthly rates, doing a back-up server may not be necessary for the individual trader. However with small to midsize managed fund, this type of low budget redundancy might just be the ticket for added peace of mind. Last year speedytradingservers.com is running our of Chicago for the network at 100% uptime, and for the the servers 99.99905% (a single outage on a single server, in August) , which is amazing reliability for the price, and good enough for me!
Happy New Year futures.io (formerly BMT) fellow traders.
VBPR,
Happyface
The following 3 users say Thank You to Happyface for this post:
The main problem in having > 99.999% uptime in a year, on two different locations, it that it's hard to do better .
About the location redundancy, we already have this with our monitoring system, and the user who wants it can receive an email or a SMS if their NJ is not reachable from Chicago, or if Ninjatrader.exe is not running for example.
And the "backup" idea, with a cheap VPS, seems to be used by some of my users, prop firms and small hedge funds.
The idea of opening an European location is almost dead. I finally found a good datacenter, with very good latency to Frankfurt and London, all was looking great until I asked few simple questions to the support. And then, what I saw was really too scary... I may have no problems in this data center for years, but I can't take this risk, so I'll keep searching for the good data center with affordable prices, and an excellent support, but I've searching and trying for months, so I'm not very optimistic...
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
So glad that I have a server with @sam028. There was an area wide internet outage this morning after I got all my systems up including the VPS with Sam. Then the outage hit and I'm sitting in the dark so to speak. Tried connecting with my iPhone and the internet was down there as well. That turned out to be isolated to my phone but at the time I was truly in the dark. Because I have an automated strategy running on the vps and have never had any problems with the strategy I felt like everything would be ok but I absolutely hate leaving my strategy unsupervised. You never know what could happen. Good news is that I was able to get my phone connected after a while and saw that everything was in fact running as it should. In fact, soon after I got connected by phone my strategy entered a trade just as it was supposed to do. What a relief it was to find that the vps and my strategy were working perfecting even though from my end I was having connection issues. Thank you @sam028 for providing a reliable service.
Mike
The following 4 users say Thank You to MWinfrey for this post:
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Trading: Futures & Crypto
Posts: 49,982 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,458 given,
98,233
received
Given the exact same automated strategy running on a VPS with a <1ms latency to the order gateway, vs running on your home PC with 100ms latency to the order gateway, the logic is simple:
The VPS order will be "in front of" any orders that come after it.
If the VPS and your home PC, all things equal (impossible), were to submit the order at the exact same time -- the VPS will always have the speed advantage, which of course often translates into better fills.
It is also strategy dependent, a strategy that is looking at the inside bid/offer depth and waiting for there to be very few resting orders before trying to jump in for example will probably see a significant difference when compared to just a normal strategy that fires orders at the end of a 'insert random xyz bar type here of xyz length' bar close.
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Trading: Futures & Crypto
Posts: 49,982 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,458 given,
98,233
received
Think of it like a line at Disney Land to ride a rollercoaster.
Sometimes, during peak holidays, the line is really, really long. This would translate into a period in the market where a lot of people are interested in doing business at that price.
Imagine if you had the ability to just walk right up to the beginning of the line. With a VPS like Sam's, you aren't going to be first in line, but you will be in front of 99% of retail traders clicking buttons or that have algo's running from their home PC. The advantage would be measurable.
But other times, it's 10 below zero and there really isn't a line to begin with - so your advantage isn't as apparent because there is really no one to cut in front of.
Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: Custom solution
Trading: Futures & Crypto
Posts: 49,982 since Jun 2009
Thanks: 32,458 given,
98,233
received
If you use an ATM or a Chase strategy, it is also beneficial even for discretionary traders.
Again the logic is straightforward, the VPS -- when the ATM triggers and tells it to move the stop or target -- will have a latency advantage, so it will enter the queue at that price point (market price) "in front of" anyone that has more latency (ie: standard retail).
So if you entered a discretionary order from home, and from your VPS -- on the DOM manually -- and had the ATM then take over to manage the trailing stop or chase a target, etc, the VPS will definitely get better fills and over time, it should be measurable.
I recently became a customer of Sam's Speedy Trading Servers. So far, I have been extremely pleased and wanted to say a few words about my experience.
First off, Sam is great with his communication. I don't think I've had to wait more than 5 minutes for any email response. He really seems to understand his customer's needs and urgency.
I first contacted Sam in somewhat of a "panic" because my trading server became unavailable. Even though it was very late in the day, Sam was able to set me up with a VPS about 2 hours after my initial request. This made an outstanding first impression on me!
I purchased Speedy's "Medium" level VPS in Chicago at $60 per month. The server's internet connection is both low latency and high bandwidth, and it's the fastest connection that I've ever personally used. On speedtest.net, the VPS showed a 3ms ping time, 200+ Mbps download speed, and 200+ Mbps upload speed. The VPS itself is is not a beast of a machine, but it's more than powerful enough for running a single account and strategy on NinjaTrader. For those of you who need more horsepower, Speedy offers different price levels with faster servers.
To anyone who's serious about trading, but currently running strategies on a home computer with a residential internet connection, I would say you are taking a huge risk. What happens if there's a power outage, dead internet connection, or utility work in your neighborhood? I could rattle off another 50 things that could go wrong from home that an enterprise level data center is designed and equipped to handle.
With that, I highly recommend Speedy's VPS. I have used other hosted VPS services and can honestly say that Sam provides level of support that I haven't seen from other providers. Sam is a true professional who really cares about his customers. The VPS bandwidth and hardware are top-notch (Chicago data center had 100% uptime in 2012).
If anyone has any questions, I'd be glad to answer them!
The following 5 users say Thank You to fredb987 for this post:
I have to say that in the short time using Sam's VPS for my automated trading, I can already see a huge difference in the speed of my fills. I've had limit orders filled on the VPS that I know for a fact wouldn't have been filled on my old server.
The following 3 users say Thank You to fredb987 for this post:
I have never had NT7 crash, but I have had my computer crash/restart.
If the VPS fails, do we receive an instant notification? Through email/text or the like?
The following user says Thank You to joespo for this post:
Yes, it's possible and some of my users are already using it. The user will receive a SMS and/or an email if his VPS is unreachable from our monitoring servers (a Chicago server is monitoring the New-Jersey servers, NJ is monitoring Chicago).
But it's not "instant", it's few minutes, 5 minutes maximum.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
JoeSpo: My experiences with Sam if there is even hint of an issue I will get an immediate email from him and many times before I even know first hand. Typically these are early alert so to schedule some maintenance or regular performance check up on the weekend. Since I have not personally experienced an out right failure, typically these alerts and weekend scheduling is really more for optimal performance tune ups. The few times I have had a question in real time, I simple send an IM on Skype. Since I am on the west coast, I have never caught him offline, he must be a vampire! Happy Trading, Happyface
The following user says Thank You to Happyface for this post:
We have set up 2 servers with Sam for the purpose of trading our CTA, and running NinjaTrader scripts for some of our customers and vendors. Sam has been patient and instrumental in helping us with the setup.
Sam also provided feedback along the way as far as how to optimize our set up for stability and supervision.
He is professional, courteous and pleasant to work with.
We will most likely expand our server base with him further in the near future.
Matt
Trading futures and options involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. You may lose more than your initial investment. All posts are opinions and do not claim to be facts. Please conduct your own due diligence. Use only Risk capital when trading Futures.
1 800 771 6748 local 561 367 8686 email support@OptimusFutures.com
The following 7 users say Thank You to mattz for this post:
Would Speedytrading be a good choice for IB located in NJ? I do see they have dedicated servers located there - but not a VPS - but the price is $170 per month - good value for a dedicated server - is beyond my requirement. So is there a good alternative VPS in NJ or would the speedy chicago based VPS be a good alternative? Anyone tried this?
The following user says Thank You to deepgreen for this post:
This entire thread has been about VPS, since the majority of us do not have a fat development budget for a dedicated server. All of my testing and trading both from both Chicago and NJ has been under a VPS arrangement. I find the Chicago location best for the Chicago trade execution and the NJ for the New York trade executions. I actually had a NJ VPS during Super Storm Sandy and it came through like a Champ (and much better than lower Manhattan).
I find Sam to be a stand up guy, and he provides a real value added service. If for any reason you do not find the information that you need on his website, just drop him a quick inquiry. I think he is a vampire; he is always “on the J O B”, and so are his VPSs! (see he even beat me to this post
Good luck DeepGreen up there in beautiful BC Canada, where you have some really nice deep green colours!~
VBPR,
HappyFace
The following 4 users say Thank You to Happyface for this post:
AmpFutures is offering an instant set up for dedicated server and that's been over a month ago..no headway. signed up for Sams service, unparalleled tech and support. Set up in one day and always connect. Im convinced Sam does not sleep, so any time i need help with anything he' right on time. My machine in located in Chicago near CQG clearing and has been right on time with executing automated trades. I highly recommend!MY 2 cents.
The following 3 users say Thank You to traderlange for this post:
Thanks @traderlange !
But I don't know who you're really are, as I had several traders who had delays in setting up a server with AMP Futures who are now using my services.
At least, it shows that the comments above are not solicited .
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 3 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
I am trading through Sierrachart/TTnet (AMP). My problem is I am located in Thailand, and I have occasional power outages and/or internet connection problems. I have several backup notebooks/devices and 3g backup connections. The problem is, you can´t seem to immediately reconnect TTnet on a backup pc when something goes wrong, but have to wait about one minute. I wouldn´t call myself a scalper, but I do often get in and out of positions quickly and in one or two minutes without control a lot can go wrong. TTnet does not allow two account connections/logins and there is no web based backup platform (as with CTS or CQG).
So I was wondering if it would be possible to just install my software on a VPS. I could stay connected to the VPS through more than one PC/notebook/device with different internet providers and not have to worry about losing control of my positions/pending orders. If one provider goes done on my side or power is out, the ttnet connection would still be ok and I could just continue trading from one of the backup notebooks/tablets without delay.
The following user says Thank You to ranger64 for this post:
Just to clarify my previous answer TeamViewer/VNC/... have to be used for user who want to share their VPS desktop. This is used by trading rooms for example, when a trader is showing its desktop to multiple trading room members.
If a single user wants to access to his machine from different devices no additional software is required.
So let's say @ranger64 is connected from his PC with the Internet provider A with a bunch of charts open. If he wants to go to his swimming pool (Thailand is hot !) and check his charts with an iPad connected in 3G, then he'll connect to his server with its iPad and will get the Desktop he left on his PC. The PC session will be disconnected by the iPad session, and so on.
I think we have now 4 or 5 users in Thailand, and a bunch of users who travels a lot and want to trade or check their positions from everywhere.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following 2 users say Thank You to sam028 for this post:
I think this is a great scheme - he can also extend it by using different RDP offerings, I'm currently connected to the same trading box using GotoMyPc on a Windows laptop and Chrome Remote Desktop on a ChromeBook at the same time - works great from either, both stay live and plenty fast. I'm sure other combinations could be found that are compatible, e.g. TeamViewer, Mikogo, etc although some might not be.
Travel Well
The following 2 users say Thank You to ratfink for this post:
I want to connect to the VPS simultaneaously from my pc and at least one more notebook, without having to first establish a connection on my notebook and/or tablet. So if something goes wrong on my main trading pc, I can just turn around and continue trading on my backup notebook or tablet, which don´t rely on the power source of my house and are connected to the VPS through a 3G or 4G connection.
The following 2 users say Thank You to ranger64 for this post:
That will work.
But I've just tested the connection time from my 3G Android phone to my own VPS in New Jersey, and it took around 10 seconds. That's slower than just turn around, but fast enough in most cases.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
The following user says Thank You to sam028 for this post:
I begin a trail period with Speedy for one main reason that I use a MacBook Pro. For the past two years have used VMWare fusion and although it works Windows is a resource and temperature hog.
I also travel over the US using a Verizon Jetpack ISP and I believe a VPN would secure better trading in remote areas.
So far I love the customer service by Sam and first day trading has been successful. I will update next week after Labor day and more volume enters the market.
I'll love to follow your update on the MacBook/VPS experience 'cos I use MacBook machines only (no Windows), and I've been on MacBook/VWWare-Windows for five years now. I had a few days of demo(which is not enough for me to form an objective opinion) on Sam's VPS sometime ago, using my MacBook.
Todays volume is pathetic so I will wait till next week to make judgement on Speedy latency, delay, etc. Although as a MacBook user I love it. I work on a 2010 mid year MacBook Pro OS X v10.9.4 with 2.66 GHz i7 and 8 GB DDR3 ram.
When I am using VMware fusion I provided 2 of the 4 cores and half my ram along with twice as much hard drive space as used in Windows.
Based on the specs above when I was using VMware my MacBook would run much hotter and eat up tons of resources and memory.
Temp: VMware 157 degrees vs Speedy 137 degrees
Memory: VMware 66% vs. 13% usage
The following user says Thank You to ChrisTinaBruce for this post:
Second day trading and volume still very low. I have had issues with Google Chrome crashing also had Tradestation freeze on Friday afternoon and now this morning. Waiting for reply from Sam.
Outside of the freezing issues I love the speed and VPN aspect instead of VMware, but very concerned this freezing is becoming a issue.
The following user says Thank You to ChrisTinaBruce for this post:
Since I recently changed browser from IE to Chrome, I noticed that Chrome is pretty much of a memory hog...i.e. if I don't close futures.io (formerly BMT) from time to time, Chrome will use a whoppy gig of memory on a single task without a 'problem'.
@sam028: Knowing well that this is no VPS related question, anyone has a take on why this happens and what to do against this ?
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
Hehe, I've no clue of what channels you're talking about.
I can literally watch the consuming of memory for the futures.io (formerly BMT) Chrome process grow if I extensively use the 'New Posts' button (which I always did in IE without any issues) while other websites stay within normal parameters concerning the use of memory. So as a work around, after a while I close the futures.io (formerly BMT) tab as it reaches 1 Gig of memory and open it up again in a new tab...
Kind of strange indeed, so I was interested in that swap memory thing @sam028 was talking about...
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
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Yeah, I think that's the solution but I can't disable it in my UserCP.
I should have a look at Chrome helpfiles, maybe I can find a hint or sth like that...
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
"If you don't design your own life plan, chances are you'll fall into someone else's plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much." - Jim Rohn
Windows 7 Premium only support 1 remote desktop monitor, you'll need Windows 7 Enterprise or higher to do this with the official Microsoft RDP client. To be trid with another RDP client like 2X.
In fact it might work in lunaching mstsc.exe with the /span option, but that won't be as nice as a full display on multiple monitors (you'll see the borders)/
This is a bit strange as MacOSX Microsoft RDP client, which is free, supports multiple screens...
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
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Not sure exactly what U mean, but as I don't have Enterprise or Ultimate, is there another Remote Desktop application that would be suitable AND be compatible with Win7 HP AND make my experience with 2 monitors satisfying ??
You can set up a SSH server on Windows ( Geek to Live: Set up a personal, home SSH server), which can handle multiple sessions and windows easily. I haven't tried this lately though, Cygwin could still be susceptible to the Shellshock buffer overrun vulnerability if they haven't patched it.
I always have at least a dozen of RDP sessions open, using mremoteng which is a very nice tool when you have more than few connections, so 2 or more is possible.
I don't have a Premium version so I can't test and be 100% sure, but using 2X or mremoteng it should work. But you'll have some borders, see my screenshot with mreromteng and 2 monitors.
Send me a PM if you want to try this on one of my VPS, trials are free.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
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You seem to be very knowledgeable. Let me explain my problem and 3 possible solutions
I am with Transact and my charts on Sierra Chart freeze up and I have to disconnect and reconnect. This can happen frequently one day and not again for a week. Transact tech says this is because they require a minimum connection speed of 10 Mbps and being rural I have a maximum DSL of 6 Mbps.
Solutions
1. put up with the freezes. I have an indicator showing remaining ticks for the bar to complete painting. It counts down from 500 to 0. If the counter is stuck for a minute or more I assume I am frozen, and I disconnect and reconnect.
2. go with Speedy. According to Transact Tech this may not solve my problem because I still have 6 Mbps from Speedy to my home computer, so I may still see screen freezes despite VPS for trading
3. go with a dedicated data feed (IQfeed) this may just complicate matters. I will be able to see updated charts without freezing but I still need Transact feed for trade submissions. I may submit a STOP order and would not know Transact was disconnected until I saw that my STOP was not filled upon touching of price. Since I have never used 2 data feeds (Transact & IQfeed), I am not sure what it would look like when running Sierra Charts.
4. I live in B.C. Canada and not a lot of choice for discount futures brokers. I could go with IB and have IQfeed for a data feed as the tick data from IB is poor. This may be the best solution.
I know I have a 1 week free trial of Speedy, but I am not ready to commit after the trial ends
your Comments on #2 and #3
First thing, 6 mb/s is more than enough to get price data. I have a client using IB and IQFeed, getting realtime quotes for 500 stocks on IQFeed: his server is using between 1 mb/s and 3 mb/s during business hours. But that's for 500 instruments!
So with 6 mb/s you're good.
If you have disconnections it's maybe because your network is not reliable, it's not directly linked with the speed itself.
2. I do not have detailled statistics here but the RDP protocol is optimized for speed and will never ask for more than 1mb/s.
3. If your Internet connection is not reliable using another data feed won't help.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
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I appreciate your feed back. Your analysis of 6 Mbps being enough agrees with everyone else (except Transact Tech)
BUT
I must be misunderstanding your response. When I get these freezes, my internet connection to other services is fine (e-mail, Yahoo). When I suspect a screen freeze (my Remaining Ticks indicator is stopped) my action is to use the buttons on Sierra Chart to Disconnect the data feed and Reconnect the data feed from Transact. Why this fixes my freeze, I do not know, but it does. My DSL connection to my ISP has been pretty reliable over a very long time. I am hardwired with CAT5 and I don't use the DSL for anything else during trading times 6:30 - 8:30 am PST. Opps not quite true, I sometimes look at Facebook or e-mail while waiting on Price to move. My DSL connection is not dropping and needing a reboot of the modem hardly ever. Maybe you mean there is some transmission errors that don't drop my DSL connection but cause Sierra Chart to hiccup and freeze. I am using an ISP supplied modem and a Dlink router. I have had the Dlink for over 12 years and the modem is a Thompson Speedtouch which is supplied by my ISP because that is what they want me to use. My ISP is Telus which is one of the big 3 Telephone companies in Canada. I would like to try cable but that is unlikely to ever be available in my area. Satellite is available but that is slower (5 Mbps) and more unreliable in bad weather.
I have a trading buddy in LA using Transact & Sierra Chart for CL, DAX etc and his connection is 25 Mbps and he never gets a freeze. He is not technical but he can run Speettest and he knows what a screen freeze is. This helps confirm Transact Tech's claim that I need greater than 10 Mbps but not solid evidence.
I don't pretend to know more than you do, I am just confused. I realize that you are giving of your valuable time and I don't appear to be listening. I would expect the support team at Transact to know what they are talking about just like I would expect you to know VPS. The confusing part is that everybody else says 6 Mbps is more than adequate.
I am running ema21 and no other indicators. I have closed all feeds except for NQ in order to minimize my data stream. I am not getting $TRIN or any of these other market indicators. I had a high volume day (for NQ) and I was fine, a few days ago, the Volume was Medium for NQ and I had 3 freezes in 70 minutes. My broker assures me that this is normal and that I should just live with it.
I am looking at the 4 alternatives I mentioned earlier I was very interested in VPS but Transact Tech warned me that I may still have 6 Mbps issue on the transmission from VPS to my home and I do have the issue of needing to Upgrade to WIN Enterprise or WIN Ultimate for multi-monitor use. I realize a 1 week trial of Speedy may help. My screen freezes used to be daily, but this has improved a lot and 1 week may not tell me anything. For the moment feedback from technical experts is the most helpful.
I realize you have already given your feedback and that you may not have anything else to add - in which case thank-you again for your time and help.
I have the same problem and solved it by changing my PC to to better one with bigger not build in video card 1gig ,and freeze disappeared.Check your CPU usage and see how big is it
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I appreciate your response. I have a 1 GB gaming video card. More than I could ever need. My CPU is usually 1 or 2% useage. My screen freezes only occur with when I am running trading charts. I guess that is not quite true, sometimes a video may lock up but that is probably related to some plugin.
I have decided to track how often this occurs. It used to occur several times a day, but, in the past 3 months, occurs much less often, so I may be able to live with it. It is nice to have a perfect system, but sometimes you have to live with good enough.
My first post! Thanks to everyone at futures.io (formerly BMT), I have not had a useful thought to contribute before now but I shall get more involved.
Very happy with Sam's service and my VM runs well with no detectable CPU crowding etc. after 3 weeks use. I wanted to give it a fair run before posting a review to be fair.
Approachable and available at weird hours (I suspect Sam sleeps on Sunday?), customer service is not in question.
My recent pre-trader history involves 20+ years of IT admin and consulting and I appreciate the clean setup with just the essential security applied.
~1ms ping to CQG and limits fill more often as I'd hoped for my bot. No complaints at all.
This bit below is not relevant to bot/algo systems but if your discretionary and abroad:
I'm only writing this as I found a solution (below) that helped me. It won't be a problem for very many people in practice anyway. The bandwidth to the internet is spectacular from my hosted VM (500+ Mb up/down to a local Chicago server) but be aware that if in Ireland/UK (elsewhere? as was mentioned before by others) you might get only 4-7Mb download but 50+ up in my case.. however thats not the important side. This can make the Remote Desktop charts slow to update regardless of your home ISPs blazing fast speed. This is not Sam's fault, just the often asyncronous performance caused at the ISP/Backbone level and its a suck-and-see. If you have a business contract your ISP may change the preferred route etc, if domestic you could try but good luck!
Performance from Medellin Colombia however is excellent and its fast (15+ Mb/s downlink in Paris) so just see how it goes, you may have no issue anyway. Its simply a complex thing and varies on ISP & Location.
A possible solution: I got a few extra MBs download speed by routing through a commercial VPN proxy app from my main home in the west of Ireland appearing first in Washington (faster than using that company's Chicago based server). This avoided my ISP's preferred route via NYC which is horribly bottlenecked from my location. I had to try a few US based proxy servers from the VPN service's list (most were worse) but Washington did the trick.
Ping time remained as before ~127 Ms from home but improved from ~5Mbs to stable 8-9 which is plenty. Obviously tweaking colour depth and chart layout helps also. It may not work well and it may be slower but if stuck, worth a try.
Thanks @Rory, it's always nice to have (unsollicited) feedback!
IT guys will found this funny (from a VPS of an old client, who don't seems to like Windows updates and regular reboots ).
edit: to clarify Windows and his VPS have been up & running for 559 days. Unfortunately I will migrate this VPS to another faster physical server, so the story will end soon.
Success requires no deodorant! (Sun Tzu)
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Particularly for @Superdoug3 but bump of delete if in the wrong place. I don't want to hijack a review thread with a long, technical and tangential post however..
I noticed Superdoug3 you thanked me but I realised I had not read your post #86.. and I as was referring to a different post (maybe not in this thread..) involving a similar-to-my-issue where up down/speed was not the problem for my router/ISP but point A (home) to B and C etc. performance to sites abroad, on different paths through the internet, varied wildly. This can involve CoPP policy etc. at the ISP/backbone router level and its too complex to explain here. My use of the word asynchronous might easily been confused with asymmetric referring to DSL technology (generic term), more properly A(symmetric)DSL faster down than up or S(ymmetric)DSL same speed up/down.
I'm not sure but it sounds like you are experiencing packet loss? Usually this is severe in on Wifi in densely populated areas, but your cabled. Next the hop from your home router (via telephone copper?) to your local exchange box can be an issue (wind affecting the cable terminals, power line interference etc.) though even of the cable is old, it may be ok. With the aforementioned, packet loss will happen to any site but may be intermittent or not be very noticeable until your doing VoIP or trying to get a quality data stream. Few realise it happens on internet router level also.. so you can have no loss to one site while simultaneously having severe problems to another on a different route. I recall a post written by a guy in Oz who could not figure why his Rythmic & IQ maybe? feeds were always fine but CQG was dying every few minutes.
If you open a command prompt (XP or above has the PathPing command and its far more (reliably) diagnostic than ping or tracert on the internet (but not perfect). Test to say CQG's gateway in Chicago (approx same location as Sam's VPS servers):
pathping 208.48.16.130
(takes a few minutes, you can make it run longer if needed)
It should ideally be all 0/100 packets lost, if you get a 100/100 on one hop, thats not abnormal but ~25 or 70/100 etc. on a few hops is showing too many dropped packets and this can really mess things up. Now sometimes some packet loss happens, its normal but severity is the issue and its not noticable to normal websites. Repeat it your own data supplier's IP particularly when you are getting hangs etc and to a known reliable host at the same time in another command prompt, say to microsoft .com. You should see where the problems are in the results.
Speedtest .net does I recall check for jitter & dropped packets these days but not for long enough to show up intermittent issues and no use to a specific address.
Personally I would:
a. Contact my ISP if your on ADSL and see if they can upgrade to SDSL, it may not be expensive and while you may still be on 6Mbit, its in both directions which makes a huge difference. Get a new DSL filter (cheap, they do 'wear out') or try running without it.
b. Make certain nobody is seeding torrents or such at home, ADSL might only be giving 512Kb uplink on ADSL (with 6 down) and you need up bandwidth to acknowledge packets or your download speed crashes.
Failing that:
c. Get a newer router if SDSL not available, your Speedtouch is elderly and in all likelihood could be improved on. ISPs usually don't care as long as the third party box is configured as they instruct.
d. If you get a new router ask your ISP to do an exchange speed test again. ADSL/SDSL has to be tested for maximum reliable speed on telephone lines and this happens in the first few days when you are connected. Thats why they say not to switch off the box for a few days after install.
e. (Longshot) Finally, You can have ok bandwidth (your 6Mb should be useable for data download) but excessive packet loss ruins everything. However.. while a proxy VPN won't help make a 6Mb line any faster, should the packet loss not be originating in your rural copper telephone wire but down the line at the internet routers level (this happens more often than people realise) the proxy VPN could provide a different route with no loss. Bit of a low chance of success here but maybe. Probably better to ask your ISP about the route issue than muck about with this for long.
Wow - Karma coming back to me for 1 thank-you issued.
I did the pingtest to chicago as suggested - 7 hops and all 100/0% on a 175 second test.
My ISP will not upgrade me to SDSL unless I have 15 Mbps package, which is not supported in my area (rural B.C.)
My ISP told me my Speetouch is a great router and that the router is not my problem
My ISP told me 6 Mbps is more than adequate for charting. (not what Transact tech told me)
I told my ISP that I have had maybe 100 BSOD and he suggested that I need to reformat and re-load Win7. Again, updating my BIOS seems to have fixed BSOD. He suggested in absence of reformat I could try Advanced System Care 7, then Combo Fix (both free) on my existing OS.
BUT I am reluctant to reformat my OS. Don't fix what ain't broke philosophy. For some reason, my screen freezes have almost disappeared. Perhaps that Karma thing again.
I am a bit of a tech geek and do appreciate your detailed feedback
I hardly had to click my mouse today as my VPS bot is performing like a charm, I could not have done better manually trading and its so much better for my ego to be able to blame the computer for any bad trades. he he.
No blinding headache making 50+ points on the ES (wow, and the day's not over).. though its the best day I have seen on the instrument. Its still a baby so I'm closely monitoring when the strategy is running but only occasionally saving its ass with manual override. That will change of course on the next non-trending day so more programming!
Good news re: PathPing command test, no problem to the VPS then if CQG's gateway is showing no loss. I had a feeling I was doing 'to a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail' with packet loss etc.
Indeed, the OS/App/drivers are the first suspect in such freezing behaviour and patches make older kit more stable in time. Ninjatrader 7 is ok but prone to leaks causing increasingly unstable behaviour so hopefully your trading platform is better. It would be nice if it was able to housekeep memory properly but I guess there are indicators I need to get re-written. I reboot my laptop every day to to be safe which is a blast from the past. Sam's VPS using Server 2008 R2 does seem vastly more stable. Win7 is largely the same architecture as 2008 so a lot could be down to the completely clean install on the VPS. I have no doubt that 2008 R2 is slightly better for Ninjatrader's stability though.
You could just buy a new HDD and take your time loading Win7 at weekends, keeping any bloatware and unecessary drivers out. At least you have an emergency backup disk available to swap even if it made no difference? I will take a while to fully patch on 6Mb, I appreciate its not an appealing task and maybe if it ain't broke as you say.
Pity about the SDSL but maybe they have ADSL2+ coming in your area at some stage. Your ISPs comments about the Speedtouch are fair, they are very common and stable. Though.. I have Thompson's 4-5 in a box in the garage which means they got swapped out.. but if it works. I like to reload compatible routers (ADSL2 capable) with DD-WRT firmware and muck about with MTUs etc. I always used to get an extra 10-20% performance (stable of course) but used Draytech kit at work (mostly for the name/VPN feature though). AN unnecessary rabbit hole I expect. I'm a trader now and must leave my old technical ubergeekery drift into memories
Congratulations on your bot. 50 pts. in ES is amazing.
I did a pathping to my FCM (Transact) - 12 hops and 100/0% - so happy with that.
I ran ComboFix - this is basically a virus scanner, it didn't find anything out of order.
I am not running on a VPS at the moment - I am running Transact with Sierra Charts from my home computer.
I envy the bot developers, but bots require a lot of work too, so I stick with manual Price Action - I am SIM trading on NQ and it was basically a big trading range today.
Yes indeed, price action is my base too. I agree, don't go there with bots if your happy manually trading. Its a dangerous distraction but you could amuse yourself learning with SharkIndicator's Bloodhound and have a use for VPS in time maybe.
Its kind of bot-lego for non-programmers. Not responsible for my bot which was handwritten by a friendly C# developer and still very primitive, got lucky today though. I only just found it last week but so far I'm surprisingly impressed. There is a whole thread on BigMike about it.. that I completely missed for months.
Regarding the karma you mentioned, yes a good day however I give most of the money away to charity so maybe that helps with the odd big day? I don't need much for myself and live simply, maybe a bit of travel.
I decided to go algo as I had a bad head injury in 2011, long before I found trading. I'm 95% ok but sometimes when tired I have a minor cognitive glitch just as I'm about to make a trade so partial or full automation seemed sensible.
Odd how life gives you everything just after you realise you don't need it anymore.
Yes - Sharky has a lot of good indicators on NT and some of his indicators have been ported to Sierra Chart. I would like to take advantage of the logo method on NT but will stick with Sierra Chart for now. I was told C# would take me years to learn and I don't have years left although Sierra Chart does have an alternate method that uses Excel I may try if Bloodhound has been ported.
thank-you for sharing about your life - I have just enough to live on and like you I don't really want much more. My goal would be to give most of my profits to Kiva. As for brain injury, a dear friend hit a black cow while motorcycling at night and now he has plenty of money but a lot less enjoyment of life because of his brain injury. Sounds like you had a pretty good recovery.
Not to labour the point as I'm sure your happy with SierraCharts but I missed this also. Sharkey and Shark Indicators (a company, unless he owns it!) are different things. Bloodhound is an NT indicator true, but not really. It basically plays the code written by their very clever, largely graphical design module. You can set all kinds of logic, detections etc. on most any indicator. Once prototyped in Bloodhound it can be used as a strategy directly via their 'Raven' strategy module. Its seems unique in what it does.
Sympathies about your friend, I nearly had a terminal night-cow encounter on a motorbike in India in my time. Well lots of nearly fatal stuff but thats India for you. My brain is fine thanks, just I get a moment of hesitation when I suddenly don't quite comprehend what I see for a few seconds. I trade fast tick charts (89,233 etc.) and its mentally exhausing very quickly. Goodnight from Ireland, tomorrow should be good.
Thank-you, I put Bloodhound in my day trading notes folder, but finding and testing a bot that works requires a lot of discipline.
I borrowed a BMW from someone in Lake District and toured Ireland with my wife about 5 years ago. I spent 3 months going all over India in 1979, it is one of the few places I would consider visiting again if money showed up. I too trade Tick charts 500T in NQ and 60-120 minutes is about all I can do in a go.
I thought I'd share with you my experience with a VPS (Virutal Private Server) for trading...
Normally in my trading, I am at or near my PC all the time, watching many automated strategies. And, I have a VERY stable and reliable internet connection - I think it has gone down only 1, maybe 2, times in the past year - for very short periods of time. Finally, my strategies are "slow" - latency and time delays of even a few seconds are not a big deal to me, so having my strategies co-located or near the exchange servers is not a requirement. Any one of these is a very good reasons to have a VPS, since it can help with all of these issues.
But, as time marches one, I have been travelling more, and trading more automated strategies. The travel part is the big thing. I have found myself being away from my home computer more and more, so having my strategies run on a VPS becomes much easier. I still have to check things once in a while, but it is nice being with my kids on Splash Mountain at Disneyworld, for example, and still have my strategies running on a VPS.
(Here I am in the first row, thinking about how my strategies are running fine on the VPS while I have fun...)
When I realized I needed a VPS, I did some research, and settled on Speedy Trading Servers ( Speedy Trading Servers | trading servers). I already knew the owner, Sam, from futures.io (formerly BMT), and I knew what a reliable, helpful and trustworthy person he is. That made my decision a lot easier. His VPS solution has turned out to be a really good service for me.
Right now, I am using the medium VPS service, https://www.ninjatraderbrokerage.com/hosting_services, and it works really well (although I think I am starting to bump up with the memory limits, and may need to go the next step higher sometime soon). It is affordable and reliable. That is a key combination for me! I only use it when I am travelling, but I would feel comfortable running it all the time. Someday soon I might do just that.
In short, I am very, very happy with Speedy Trading Servers.
If you find yourself needing a VPS for your trading, definitely take a look at speedytradingservers.com.
Thanks Sam!
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Happy Trading, Happyface
