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)
Currently have a desktop with 42" 4k Smart TV/monitor. I am getting too much running on the desktop, running both Sierra and NinjaTrader 7/8, plus Bookmap multiple times. I want to add another monitor, and run my charts/GoToMtg on one computer, and then execute trades on an isolated computer. Thinking I would like a laptop to execute trades on, and be able to travel this summer and take with me.
What are some good latptops to be looking at? 16 MB vs 32 MB RAM? What do you feel are most important to have a quality trading computer in a laptop? Would like to be able to hook laptop up to another monitor (32" ?).
Any advice or recommendations would be helpful. Thank you!
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Be careful with the lower power laptop/tablet hybrids. Some laptops like the Surface (love the concept),will have an "I7" but it might not have 4 cores depending on the power rating/chip class. In general, even full laptops in similar line will operate at about 50% of desktop speeds.
As for brands, I'd look at Thinkpad/Lenovo, Toshiba, and possibly some of the gaming centric laptops. Unless you are doing machine learning, running multiple virtual machines, or advanced stuff then 16GB of RAM should be more then sufficient.
You want to look at the docking capabilities (and cost of dock) and that the laptop/and/or dock supports the video outs that you need. For trading, you want a high frequency laptop given that they run at 50% speed. A decision is whether or not you want the laptop to be truly portable (as in carrying it) versus moving it: if you plan on carrying it then you need to be careful of some the bigger heavier gaming and workstation laptops that are too heavy to comfortably carry.
I use the Surface Pro 4 (i-7) for most of my trading because it is so portable.
I run NT7. (Not upgrading to NT8 until later this year)
I have not found any issues with trading with this. It is fast and easy to use plus the big thing, LIGHT.
I don't experience any lag in trading as long as my internet service provider supplies a good feed.
I also have an Alienware gaming laptop that I use for trading.
I have to admit it is FAST.
Much faster than the Surface Pro 4.
I use it mostly on my desk since it really can be a desktop replacement.
It is faster than any desktop that I use and no lag.
The biggest thing is it is HEAVY.
I don't need to have a gym membership when I use it to trade while traveling.
Just carrying this thing around gives me more of a workout than 20 min on the treadmill.
I love it.
I prefer to trade on the Alienware because of the speed and graphics.
But using NT7 does not seem to be an issue with either setup.
If you want portability go with the Surface or similar tablet / PC.
If you want speed go with a gaming laptop.
My son has an HP Omen laptop and it is almost as fast as my Alienware but half the weight.
Rejoice in the Thunderstorms of Life . . .
Knowing it's not about Clouds or Wind. . .
But Learning to Dance in the Rain ! ! !
Legendary / Stochastic Calculus is not your friend
Experience: None
Platform: Ninjatrader, Python API
Broker: CQG
Trading: S&P, Crude, Gold
Posts: 859 since Oct 2009
Thanks Given: 3,458
Thanks Received: 1,546
I currently use an MSI GT72...pumped up Quad Core, 32 gigs Ram, 4 128 gig SSD's in Raid config, and an internal 1TB SSD backup drive (overkill i know.) ...Thing is a Monster!...but I traveled the world with all 10 lbs of it! The 17 inch screen is worth it to me and I can connect up to 9 monitors....3 of them 4K.
For a lot of years I traded on a Levovo X1...had a couple different models with dual core i7...they all worked but I had a noticeable speed increase when I went from 8gb to 16gb ram.
No issues with either machine...I use ninja 7 with 3 workspaces open, each with 6 charts....one for VWAP's and Pivots, one for Volume Profile, and one for Market Internals.
Check out the Gigabyte Aero 15" it's a powerhouse for its size. Not crazy thick for the hardware you get so that means it's pretty good for traveling though I have never used it. Reviewers say it's pretty good.
