When you start day trading, the setup you use will be extremely important. Day trading is all about making fast decisions and making a move just a few seconds late can be enough for you to lose hundreds or even thousands of dollars. You also cannot afford for your computer to shut down all the time for no reason. This is why you need to take your time when choosing a computer for trading and your peripherals. Let’s take a look at how you can build the perfect setup for day trading.
Start with a Solid Internet Connection
One of the first things you’ll need to look at is your internet connection. It doesn’t matter if you have the best hardware in the world and work with the most reliable trading software. If your internet connection is unstable or inconsistent, you could end up being less accurate in your trades and you may get disconnected at very crucial times.
This is why you will need to start looking at high-speed internet providers in your area and consider making the switch to fiber if you’re using cable or something slower. If you’re looking for solid fiber internet providers near me, Wyyerd Fiber is a great place to start.
Get a Solid Central Unit
You don’t need to have the best computer in the world to start trading, but there are areas where you’ll need high performance if you want to be able to make trades reliably. As far as the processor goes, you shouldn’t go with anything lower than 2.6 GHz with six cores minimum. This might seem like a lot to some people, but this is necessary if you want to be able to run multiple applications on different windows while processing vast amounts of information.
You also need around 16 GB of RAM and a good graphics card. A card like an AMD Radeon 5500 XT or Nvidia 1650TI would be perfect here as they’re not too expensive and can handle a multi-monitor setup pretty well. Don’t neglect your hard drive either as things like boot time will be crucial in the case of an accidental shutdown. Here, you should go with an NVMe drive as they offer the best performance and boot much faster than your average SSD or HDD drive.
Get at Least Two Monitors
Not everyone needs a fancy three-monitor setup, but one monitor will be too limiting. You need at least one monitor you can make trades on, and another one where you can look at charts, news, and indicators. The most important thing when looking at monitors for trading is their size and resolution. Make sure that you get monitors that offer at least 1080p of the resolution, and that they’re at least 24″ in size. Make sure that they have HDMI as well so they can be easily connected to each other.
Now that you know what an optimal day trading setup should look like, you can start shopping and look at both online and offline options. Try to focus on the priorities first if you’re on a tight budget, and gradually build your setup as your needs expand.