Technical resources for trading
What software and hardware do you need to trade?
This is my view and my experience, so you can disagree with some or all parts in this article. In summary, you will need
Computer
Trading platform
Journaling platform
Screenshot application
Internet connectivity
Web browser
Many of those you already have. I really do not use anything else.
What hardware is needed
Many people think they need a super expensive pc and 6 monitors to have easier visibility to charts. Some people think they can trade on the mobile phone while driving in taxi.
If your budget is limited, the trading platforms usually do not have high requirements for today’s standards because their software is old already as it is hard for them to change to newer more demanding technologies.
The short answer here is that you can successfully trade on any PC/Laptop or Mac/MacBook released after 2015, but there are some things to consider. You need at least 4 GB of RAM and a decent processor (with at least 4000 CPU marks).
Laptops usually do not have enough screen space, and you would need that for displaying charts of multiple time frames at once. You could argue that you can switch one chart between the time frames, but I believe it is not ergonomic and too much prone for making a mistake. I always say that, if there is a technical solution to my (trading) problem, I need to go for it. So one bigger screen beats multiple small ones for me. You would need at least one Full HD resolution monitor at least. If you use a laptop, get one Full HD monitor as extra and use that for charts.
I used to trade with 2 monitors, then went to 3 and ended up with 1. It’s the ergonomy of turning my head and a stuck neck on one preferred spot that drove me mad, so I went for a single 32” 4k monitor. If you do not have a 4k monitor, you probably have a 4k TV that you can use for trading as well. You just need a PC capable of doing 4k resolution with 60Hz refresh rate. Some PCs can do that only on a display port, so you will need a DP to HDMI 2.0 converter. The 2.0 version is important as the version 1.4 supports 4k only at 60Hz, which makes your mouse feel sluggish.
What software is needed
Trading platform
The trading platform usually comes as an option with your broker choice. The broker choice is very citizenship or location dependent. There are different options for you when you trade from different continents and countries. I will cover the broker’s topic in a separate article.
Interactive Brokers Trader Workstation
is a free multiplatform Java based trading platform. It is widely used and has some nice charting when trading options, but for trading stocks it is limited with features like hard stops and has no risk controls. More on that in a future article. With this trading platform you need a paid subscription for Level1 or Level2 market data which will cost you $10-$20 monthly depending on your choices.
DAS Trader (with a supported broker of your choice)
is a Windows .NET application so does not run on Mac and is paid ($150 monthly or $165 with Replay mode) Some brokers could give that platform for free if you do enough order executions which means you pay it in commissions.
This is the trading platform of my choice despite the monthly price because of its following features which protect my capital at the end of the day.
dynamic counting of static risk for opened positions
hard stops
advanced hotkeys functionality
account risk controls
replay mode (after hours only but still great)
Scanner software
There are plenty of free resources on-line for getting your watch list for the day. I never bothered to buy a scanner software like TradeIdeas because being part of a (paid) trading community usually gives you such services. And if not, there are plenty of experienced traders posting their watch list to Twitter or the trading chat rooms.
Journaling software
I think that everybody starts in a spreadsheet. Many stay in a spreadsheet, but there are much more effective ways to do the trading journal. My preferred platform of choice is Tradersync. I will cover its features in separate articles. Whatever your choice, I do not recommend you to start your own journal in a spreadsheet. If you go for a spreadsheet, get one that is being developed by experienced traders, as it will cost you a lot of work to recreate it for the newly coming purposes as you grow.
Screenshot software
You can use your operating system’s native screenshot capabilities, but you would need to organize the screenshots somehow and mark them up as well, so my software of choice is Screenpresso for Windows or the native OS capability of macOS with Preview.
Internet connectivity
It’s important to have low latency internet. Luckily, in these days, that means any sort of VDSL or 4G is sufficient and Fiber optics (FTTH) being the best option. I heard some people tried to trade with Starlink internet too. The latency matters if you do smaller time frames like 15second charts where every second counts, but if you do swing trading or trade 1 hour chart you would be able to place the order on any lagging internet line you get. So depending on your connectivity options, you might choose to be a day trader or swing trader instead. The principles and requirements are the same.