[whirl]

Hey Guys! New to the forum and have been reading a lot. I have been working on a few strategies and ready to build a Hands-Off system and wanted everyone's feedback.
When I say Hands-Off I really mean to leave the computer and let it do as much as realistically possible. The best way would to build a system as self repairing as possible.

1. Computer - To not be cheap and try to save a few hundreds that can cost you thousands later is unacceptable. Buy the best hardware you can afford.
A. Performance - best processor, max ram to do your calculations. However, would it be a good idea to buy a high end 3d video card? I figure these video cards meant for high end graphics and games, don't really help much on 2d trading apps, and in addition require a lot of power, and may overheat the case. Better to buy a stable non sexy 2d card?
B. Reliability -
a. Buying the absolutely best computer case possible, w/ multifans and possible liquid cooled. The last thing I would want is to be in a big trade and have the computer overheat because I was too cheap to buy a good case.
b. RAID or Disk Mirroring? - Hard drives DO burn out and crash. Buy reliable brands, AND if you install this, even if 1 hard drive crashes, you system is still running on the backup hard drive. It's not too expensive to buy an extra HD.
2. Power outage - You can't prevent a blackout, but you can prepare as much as possible about how your system can handle it. A Battery UPS is a must. Preferably a bigger one that can still get you of trades for a few hours if need be. Are there some software out there, that can send you a text message to your cell phone if this ever happens? Connect your cable/dsl/fios modem/router to your UPS as well.
3. Internet connection: I have had problems w/ cable provders that loses internet connection for minutes to hours. Totally unacceptable. I always have a backup, either cable and dsl, or fios etc. Those w/ multi input broadband routers are a must. That way if cable goes down, dsl picks right up.

4. Software/Broker : This is probably where I need the most help. I've read that tradestation will disconnect and auto relogon if your internet goes down for minutes/hours. What if you leave your computer, and don't know internet goes down for an hour, then it comes back up, but TS won't autologon? Totally unacceptable.
Does anyone know what would be the MOST reliable, autotrading software/broker combo that doesn't crash, or can self logon and continue if you temporarily lose internet connection? Ameritrade is also horrible, it seems to have problems at least once a month.

In an ideal world we can all leave the computer alone, and although is may not be 100% realistic, I think if we have a lot of these things in place, I can probably feel comfortable leaving it a few days at a time, especially if these things have the ability to send me a text in case something goes wrong.

Please give me feedback of your experiences. I figure we can all help each other out. What I would really like help on, is the best software, that can automatically recover from an internet disconnect, and strong enough to not crash and put my paramters in.

thank you

[daedalus]

Most of the systems that are running on their own are done on servers rather than home computers and have redundancy.

[calamitychris]

Whirl, if you are looking for reliability and redundancy(hardware and internet), then I would consider a hosting service with a solid datacenter. There are plenty of good ones out there and they are relatively cheap. If you go this route, then you can access your trading platform anywhere via remote desktop or even VPN from your iphone if you're a nerd like me. This is more practical and a lot cheaper then shelling out a bunch of money for a home trading workstation IMO

I would consider a beefy workstation for strategy testing and the like, but for implementation, stick to a hosting service.

[BlowFish]

What the previous posters said, consider a hosted environment once things are tested. There is also a product called 'strategy runner' (that I have no first hand experience of) that allows you to develop your strategy with a PC app and then have the script run on a brokers server (provided they support strategy runner).

[natedredd10]

I discretionary front ran a short term brake out short trying to "livermore" a FX bucket shop yesterday with a bullshit FX account on eur/usd...
Why? Seemed better than waiting for the obvious play of trying to grab the bounce off resistance...May as well exploit the profit takers and false breakout traders because it was a +EV bet because of how small the stop could be there...
So how would i basically build an "expert system" off that setup, even knowing what I THINK I know over variance and luck..not a clue...
Textbook machine learning algos are really bad here, even if you could have all the data, but you wont..
good luck..
Don't get down though..any problem less than this is really dull...even if you fail by 90% you can still probably make more than a "job" if you give the inevitable enough time..

[whirl]

Thanks for the responses. Can anyone recommend some good places to host my autotrading algorithm? Strategy Runner, sounds interesting? Do they do only forex? Anyplace else that is reasonable pricing and ease of access?
thanks in advance again

[daedalus]

Forex Hoster | Specialized Forex MetaTrader and Expert Advisors VPS Hosting

[ZOSO]

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