I am unashamedly new. I've spent the past 1-2 years learning and watching the market, full time, placing only paper trades on a new high spec Mac Book Pro with an Interactive Brokers account. As I develop, this set-up is leaving me feeling increasingly claustrophobic. I feel a growing requirement for more screen space and not surprisingly, the computer is not coping with all the demands I am placing on it (IB TWS, lots of browsers, mail, etc., not to mention all other personal activities). I am developing a preference for trend and swing trading, I can't see myself as an intensive day trader, certainly not a scalper or anything in that area, I am a much slower, analytical and methodical thinker, so I don't see myself entering and exiting trades with such high frequency. However, I do watch the markets quite intensively, day and night (especially as a newbie) and am therefore pulling a lot of real time data and news onto the screen. I am also enjoying the free trial of e-signal right now as I just can't seem to get comfortable with IB's charts and have found e-signal to work for me far better than all the others I've tried. Of course I am running that via Parallels, which along with everything else running on the computer, is too much.
So I think I am ready to invest in a machine roughly dedicated to IB TWS and eSignal and then use the Macbook for most everything else. Budget is less important. Getting the right computer specification is - which means I am interested in getting a computer that will meet all my growing needs, but also one that doesn't include any specifications that I'll never need. I am really struggling to understand what that might look like.
I've attempted to research this on the Internet with very little success. I can't go to a any computer stores because they don't understand the needs of traders. I can't go to the specialists because they are biased and will try and persuade me that a specialist set-up is required (which I've read many aggressively mixed opinions about). I've asked some friends in big firms in the city, but they are generally not very knowledgable and/or don't take much interest in the technology (they generally take what they are offered by their technology people). I do have a personal preference for and am more comfortable with Apple (and perhaps the more powerful Mac Pro line might be suitable), but not if it will fail to serve it's purpose. Most importantly, I really want to avoid making an expensive and time consuming mistake, which is why I was hoping you might be willing to share some wisdom.
So I think I am ready to invest in a machine roughly dedicated to IB TWS and eSignal and then use the Macbook for most everything else. Budget is less important. Getting the right computer specification is - which means I am interested in getting a computer that will meet all my growing needs, but also one that doesn't include any specifications that I'll never need. I am really struggling to understand what that might look like.
I've attempted to research this on the Internet with very little success. I can't go to a any computer stores because they don't understand the needs of traders. I can't go to the specialists because they are biased and will try and persuade me that a specialist set-up is required (which I've read many aggressively mixed opinions about). I've asked some friends in big firms in the city, but they are generally not very knowledgable and/or don't take much interest in the technology (they generally take what they are offered by their technology people). I do have a personal preference for and am more comfortable with Apple (and perhaps the more powerful Mac Pro line might be suitable), but not if it will fail to serve it's purpose. Most importantly, I really want to avoid making an expensive and time consuming mistake, which is why I was hoping you might be willing to share some wisdom.
