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You might think of trying out a dual processor and attempting to allocate
threads appropriately.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bilo Selhi [mailto:citadel@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 14, 2001 6:22 PM
> To: TradeStationProWishList@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx;
> SoftwareSupport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Omega List;
> systems-only@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: STRESS TESTING TS Pro Update...
>
>
> well,
> i finally got tradestaion pro installed on '98, NT and Win2000.
> here are some observations about win2000 ( i describe my
> exploits in '98 and NT earlier ).
> i decided to stress test Pro on win2000 brand new machine
> with purpose of finding out if it's capable of trading a portfolio
> consisting of about 50-100 symbols...
>
> set-up:
> 1G Athlon / 200Mhz bus / 256 ram / 20G HD / 2x8Meg Videos/ T1
> line Florida /
> win2000 SP1.
> nothing is running except tradestation pro:
>
> i tracked memory usage and cpu usage off of the task manager
> performance
> tab.
>
> test 1: max stress load
> - loaded 80 charts, 5 min 30 days back, 10 workspaces, 8 charts per
> workspace.
> - loaded 80 indicators of medium complexity ( about 100 lines
> of EL code, no
> dll calls )
> - loaded 80 systems of low complexity ( about 300 lines of
> code, no dll
> calls )
> - loaded a separate workspace with one quote screen and ATCC.
>
> result:
> - when chart workspace is in the foreground cpu usage was
> mostly at 100%,
> memory is about 60%
> - when atcc workspace is in the foreground cpu was pegged at
> 100%, memory is
> about 60%
> - after switching back to one of the chart workspaces and leaving the
> machine running for approximately
> 3 minutes cpu usage gradually increased, system became very
> slow, charts
> would not update and
> eventually they went blank ( not black but wallpaper ) AND
> shortly after that win2000 GAVE UP THE GHOST... ( first time
> i saw that in
> win2000 or NT )
> win2000 froze and long beep came on from
> the motherboard and the cpu LOCKED UP... i had to reset the machine...
> - i figured that this cpu can not handle 80-100+ charts .
> ok... whatever.
>
> test2: normal load, i decided to get real :-) and try out 50
> symbols instead
> of 80, so i went through
> the same set up as above except i loaded 48 charts ( 6
> workspaces, 8 charts
> per workspace )
>
> results:
> - when chart workspace is in the foreground cpu usage was
> mostly under 100%,
> memory is about 60%
> - when atcc workspace is in the foreground cpu was pegged at
> 100%, memory is
> about 60%
> - after switching back to one of chart workspaces and leaving
> the machine to
> run for approximately
> 3 minutes cpu usage gradually settled from 40% to 100%,
> however the moment i tried formatting one of indicators or
> systems in one of
> the charts
> the system became very slow, charts would not update and cpu
> immediately
> pegged at 100%
> - THE FUNNY THING: i exited tradestation altogether and for
> about 3 minutes
> i was observing
> all of the tradestation processes running in the task
> manager!!!!! even
> after i closed tradestation
> the alerts kept coming up... and only after about 3 minutes
> win2000 released
> the memory and the
> cpu caught up and its usage went down to under 5%. the above
> observation
> indicates
> that the cpu is severely backlogged while tradestation is
> running those 50
> charts...
> - basically i figured that you can barely run 50
> charts/indicators/systems
> and you better not
> touch anything or try to interfere with tradestation if you want those
> alerts to come on time...
> forget about fast market on high volume...
> - same set up but on today's market close pegged the cpu and
> the alerts kept
> coming a couple of
> minutes after the close.. this makes me VERY UNEASY about
> those alerts for
> new positions
> and charts updating on time...
>
> ***I ALSO FIGURED THAT IF THEY WOULD FIX "ATCC PEGGING CPU" PROBLEM
> the performance would probably improve by 1/3...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> test3: low load, 20 charts
>
> results:
> - when chart workspace is in the foreground cpu usage was
> mostly under 80%,
> memory is about 50%
> - when atcc workspace is in the foreground cpu was pegged at
> 100%, memory is
> about 50%
> - after switching back to one of chart workspaces and leaving
> the machine to
> run for approximately
> 3 minutes the cpu usage settled somewhere between 60 and 40%
> - however any time i tried to format an indicator the system
> slowed down and
> the mouse click
> response time was up to 3-5 seconds!!! ( 1G, win2000, 256M
> ram, 8 meg video
> cards mind ya...)
>
> test4. i opened a sample L2 box...
> cpu immediately pegged at 100%...
>
> TO SUMMARIZE IT ALL:
> - i am a bit disappointed with tradestation pro speed.
> obviously it's not
> coded efficiently...
> THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IS STILL ATCC BOTTLE NECK...
> switching from 350Mhz/NT to 1G machine/win2000 did not solve
> problem with
> ATCC...
> - quote pages, L2 boxes are not coded very efficiently,
> probably running on
> ocx controls or com
> bottle necks... not straight C++ coding
> - if you have approximately a 1G machine ( a standard ) the
> max you can
> squeeze out of
> tradestaion pro is about 20 charts, 1-5 L2 boxes a quote
> screen and that's
> about it...
> and even this set up is questionable in fast market...
> - memory is not the issue... 256M is plenty and even 128 will
> probably do
> fine...
> - if you planning on running 10 charts or more on it with
> some indicators or
> systems, new, L2 box
> don't even think about running anything else besides
> tradestation pro on
> that machine... and
> i would not recommend doing optimization runs during market hours...
> - max Pro can handle is about 50 charts/symbols and YOU DON'T
> WANT TO have
> atcc window open in any give moment for more than a few
> seconds ( just to
> quickly look
> at the pl of your portfolio ) because of the "bug"
> - you have to have system monitor running and during fast
> markets or high
> volume you might
> want to track cpu usage and beware that once cpu gets pegged
> an 100% more
> more than
> a few seconds the CHANCES ARE that the cpu is getting
> backlogged and the
> alerts will
> come up LATE...
>
>
> *** i think pro can be used as a trading platform if you do
> the following:
> - don't load more than 50 charts
> - don't load more than 1000 data points ( equal to about 10
> days on 5 min
> chart )
> - whatever indicators you use if you don't need "update on
> every tick" then
> disable it
> - don't open more than 2-3 quote pages or L2 boxes...
> - never ever have ATCC running in foreground, it will peg
> your cpu even if
> you
> have 1 chart/system running...
> - optimize you code or better yet transfer it to dlls.
> - get a fast machine, at least 1G or faster...
> - CROSS YOUR FINGERS... and pray that those alerts will come
> on time...
> - track cpu resources every few minutes to make sure cpu is
> not pegged and
> if it is pegged than there is nothing you can do...
>
> SUGGESTIONS FOR TRAD:
>
> - please, at least take care of the ATCC speed problem as the first
> priority...
> it's pegging the cpu to the point that the even win2000 system becomes
> unstable...
> ATCC IS the screen that most of us system traders want to
> stare at during
> trading and NOT
> CHARTS... and it's not working...
>
> - the charts are running fine but the quotes screens and L2 boxes
> pegs the cpu like there is no tomorrow!!! you might want to recode
> those more efficiently later on...
>
> best regards. i now rest my case... i love tradestation pro
> and i recommend
> it
> to anyone... if TRAD speeds it up by recoding it more
> efficiently it will be
> a gem for heavy system traders and even portfolio managers.
> for now the
> major
> problem is SPEED ( feels like it's gonna die any second ) due to
> probably coding inefficiencies...
>
> i still recommend it 110%... there is nothing better out
> there or even close
> to it...
> bilo.
> ps. no other bugs since the last update, have been running it
> for two months
> now...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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