6-10 screen Trading Platform for DeMark Indicators/Bloomberg

[rabreu]

I use TD Indicators (DeMark Indicators) on a Bloomberg platform for trading/investing and it is a pain in the butt to be switching for different time-frames when consulting a security's charts (60min, 240min, daily, weekly, monthly) on all the technical indicators I use.

So... I want to have a computer with at least 6 screens, preferably 10. Full wall or something.

I know this sucks up A LOT of computers/video resources as my machine, currently with 4-screens, needs a reset, or shutdown of Bloomberg often.

Would anyone suggest a powerful PC setup, full with massive RAM, necessary video cards and the display screens as well?

Up to 15k USD I think in budget.

Thanks in advance.

 

[hunter315]

You're going to want to use a pair of cards off this list
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600050352%20600126573%20600112164&IsNodeId=1&name=4%20x%20DisplayPort

You will also need to use display port monitors, no card supports more than 2 HDMI/DVI monitors right now, but they support a large number of display port ones. The 6-10 screens will likely eat up the majority of your budget. How CPU intensive is what you do? If you open up task manager does it have you pretty closed to maxed out or is it more of a RAM issue? If it is really CPU intensive you might want to look into a 2 CPU Xeon based workstation board, if not a normal i7 with 16-32 GB of ram should do it.

 

[giantbucket]

I trade forex using 6 screens.

You need 2-3 cards, like GT640 (4 outputs per). Do NOT get anything with DisplayPort since it's a pain in the ass to find true active adapters - stick to basic interfaces like dvi, HDMI, and VGA.

Processor is not important. Neither is ram. I had an A6-3650 with 4G ram for a few years and it never broke a sweat.

What IS important is a way to mount the screens to the wall, and a backup connection like your iPhone or iPad just in case the main link goes down and you have an open position that needs to be closed fast since the market has decided to run against you.

 

[giantbucket]

Also, my trading connection is up for 5 days non-stop (that's 120hrs at a time) with zero reboots or restarts or program relaunches. If you need to reset Bloomberg daily you have other issues.

 

[giantbucket]

So, I had some more thoughts on this, sparked by some other discussions.

If I myself were to redo my trading setup from scratch, here's roughly what I'd consider if I wanted 6-12 screens:

-- make sure all monitors have a mini-DisplayPort input
-- use 1 or 2 VisionTek cards that have 6 miniDP outputs (links below)
-- most likely an i5 Haswell or Ivy Bridge, but maybe i7 if going for 2 cards / 12 screens
-- any reasonable mobo, would be nice if PCIe would run 16x/16x but in all likelihood running 8x/8x would be fine for non-game use
-- start off with 2x4G RAM and see how it works, add another 2x4G if warranted
-- a good mechanical keyboard, either MX Cherry Blue or Brown keys, fully backlit
-- a trackball or a comfy ego mouse, none of this gaming shit
-- a WiFi card and use my cell as a hotspot backup in case WAN goes down
-- a REALLY comfy chair

Most of this is what I have now except the miniDP monitors, and I couldn't bring myself to scrap my 6 non-miniDP ones just to get ones WITH the miniDP

As for mounting. I tried those arm-type stands, but they're not rigid enough. The screens are nearly impossible to line up nicely, so I'd suggest making a custom mounting board and use each monitor's VESA mount to attach it. A 3/8" plywood board is ideal.

Link to VisionTek cards:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709%20600050352&IsNodeId=1&Description=VisionTek&name=6%20x%20Mini%20DisplayPort&Order=BESTMATCH

 

[GaryD333]

I use TD Indicators (DeMark Indicators) on a Bloomberg platform for trading/investing and it is a pain in the butt to be switching for different time-frames when consulting a security's charts (60min, 240min, daily, weekly, monthly) on all the technical indicators I use.

So... I want to have a computer with at least 6 screens, preferably 10. Full wall or something.

I know this sucks up A LOT of computers/video resources as my machine, currently with 4-screens, needs a reset, or shutdown of Bloomberg often.

Would anyone suggest a powerful PC setup, full with massive RAM, necessary video cards and the display screens as well?

Up to 15k USD I think in budget.

Thanks in advance.

I am preparing to build a new box this year. I have selected the Asus z87-A mobo, Intel i7 4770K, 2 x 8GB Kingston RAM, (2) Galaxy GeForce 610 video cards (4 DVI per), Samsung EVO 840 120SSD, Corsiar 750w power supply (in case I need to add monitors), and a basic Cougar case, and Windows 7 OS. My current build parts list is less than $900.00. That leaves a lot of your budget as working capital.


And, regarding platform, Sierra Chart is incredibly powerful while using very low resources. I currently run two installations of it, with 9 charts per install, on a 2005 Sony Vaio with 2gb RAM, 3 displays. never, ever, crashes.

 

[giantbucket]

I use TD Indicators (DeMark Indicators) on a Bloomberg platform for trading/investing and it is a pain in the butt to be switching for different time-frames when consulting a security's charts (60min, 240min, daily, weekly, monthly) on all the technical indicators I use.

So... I want to have a computer with at least 6 screens, preferably 10. Full wall or something.

I know this sucks up A LOT of computers/video resources as my machine, currently with 4-screens, needs a reset, or shutdown of Bloomberg often.

Would anyone suggest a powerful PC setup, full with massive RAM, necessary video cards and the display screens as well?

Up to 15k USD I think in budget.

Thanks in advance.

I am preparing to build a new box this year. I have selected the Asus z87-A mobo, Intel i7 4770K, 2 x 8GB Kingston RAM, (2) Galaxy GeForce 610 video cards (4 DVI per), Samsung EVO 840 120SSD, Corsiar 750w power supply (in case I need to add monitors), and a basic Cougar case, and Windows 7 OS. My current build parts list is less than $900.00. That leaves a lot of your budget as working capital.


And, regarding platform, Sierra Chart is incredibly powerful while using very low resources. I currently run two installations of it, with 9 charts per install, on a 2005 Sony Vaio with 2gb RAM, 3 displays. never, ever, crashes.

which Galaxy cards are you going to use? I've used the one that is single-slot with dual DMS59 outputs which then split into 4 DVI outputs. it works, but I'd recommend against it because when you try to maximize a window, it'll max across the two screens, not per-monitor.

 

[GaryD333]

I had planned on using the 610 with dual DVI outputs and splitters included in the box. I had been told about it by the guys at TigerDirect here in Orlando. I am not sure if that would bother me or not. My trade computer is dedicated, and I really only have one workspace... Thanks for the heads up, I will need to think about that.

I do not require everything I am looking at, but I want to get many years out of my build. I could drop down to i5 for -$100 +/-. and 4GB ram x 2 for whatever savings, and I still may.

I am going to put the Sony out to pasture, after years of ridiculously reliable performance, just because it is showing capacitor swelling. If not for that, I would not have a need to upgrade yet, so that should say something about what is needed to trade.