As laptops become more powerful and WiFi becomes more widespread, an increasing number of traders are setting themselves up with a traveling trade station so that they can trade securely and effectively from anywhere.
While many traders may be comfortable with their home setup, they are unsure what is required for an effective traveling trade station. That is why we put together this quick guide to help you get your traveling trade station setup easily and for a low price.
Gaming Laptops
The average gaming laptop’s focus on performance is ideal for trading. These powerful yet compact machines can effectively run multiple screens of trading software and ensure no delays in information processing or trade execution.
Look for a laptop with a non-hybrid single state drive with 256 GBs or more. You also want at least 8 to 16 GBs of RAM, though more is fine and preferably a top of the line processor like the i5 or i7’s from Intel. Some top gaming laptops include Alienware, Falcon, Lenovo and ASUS to name a few.
A laptop with these specs will have more than enough power to run your traveling trading station.
USB Monitors
These lightweight, convenient, low price and high quality monitors are the key to your traveling trade station.
Most monitors are bulky, heavy, expensive and require an additional power source, making them effectively useless for traveling. Sleek and simple USB monitors deliver the same level of performance as a traditional monitor, while requiring only one USB connection for the transmission of both information and power.
You can use as many monitors as you feel that you need, though 2 additional monitors should be adequate for any traveling trade station. If your laptop has too few USB connections to support your traveling trade station setup, then you can purchase a USB hub adapter that will split 1 USB connection into 4 or more connections.
Remember to set up your traveling trade station at home once before you leave to ensure that all your display settings will work correctly. Struggling to get your USB monitors to work in a hotel room is a poor way to start a trading day.
Comfort & Headsets
One thing that many traders, even highly experienced ones, do not realize about trading while traveling is how much impact your environment has on your performance.
Most traders have a pretty strict trading routine, often rising in the early hours of the day while most of the country is still asleep. In this quiet time they mentally prepare and gather information for the challenging day ahead.
When you are traveling, this routine will naturally be disrupted. You will be in a different location, perhaps with a different timezone or weather, and you will feel ‘off’ when it comes to trading. Trying to make yourself as comfortable as possible will help you to get into your trading mentality and focus on the task at hand.
A good headset will help to cancel all the surrounding noise that will remind you that you are trading in an alien environment. You can use your trading headset to play music or listen to an audio book, or just to cancel outside sounds.
Do not underestimate the impact that trading in a strange location will have on your performance. A headset is an essential part of an effective traveling trade station like the headset Ross uses.