|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
reliability for trading is the key issue here, not speed. at the speeds
of even poor dsl vs. cable broadband, there is an insignificant
difference in timing of speed. i have seen no evidence that split
seconds of speed improves trading profits. what is the critical
question is whether i can place my electronic orders when i want to.
living in seattle, our local baby bell, qwest--may be the worst of a bad
lot of the regional telcos who have been so slow in setting up fast
broadband--with maybe 1 MB bandwidth. comcast, the only other alternative,
advertises on local tv up to a 5 X faster service--but my speedtests
only topped 2 MB once. i subscribed to comcast for a year. outages
kept escalating exponentially--starting with a 5 min outage, to a 30 min
outage, to finally a 5 day outage! fortunately i was enjoying the
december holidays and not trading, but that event sent me to qwest dsl.
comcast sent 7 different technicians out to my sight: checking my indoor
telephone line, my pc, the line from my outside wall to the telephone
pole, as well as the line back to the comcast distribution center.
comcast even sent out a cherry picker with 2 technicians! a cable
technician told me of the persistent "intermittent outages" cable
customers experience--of which mine was an example-- where the trunk
works fine, but the outage occurs at the line to the home. there was no
certain cause, could not be diagnosed with instrumentation, could not be
permanently fixed and technicians were forced to just keep hand
adjusting connections till service was restored. this is NOT the kind
of service you need if you trade, because the worst technology trap is
to be in a position with the market going against you big time and you
can't put in your exit order!
[my friend, an extreme gamer who plays world warcraft, has to use
comcast to play, lives just south of seattle, and tells me his service goes
out every friday night at 10:30 pm till midnite like clockwork, and
comcast still can't restore the service despite numerous attempts to fix
it!] reliability is the key, and for trading, dsl is the only real choice
here. in the last 2 years, i have had no outages with qwest
dsl, and no problems with customer service and technical support.
p.s.: don't go earthlink dsl--they have terrible problems on the
customer and technical service side. like dell did in mid-95, earthlink
outsourced tech support to india and that great customer support
earthlink was known for has now tanked. lesson: know your broadband
operator before signing up...
don't worry about the price, because
$20/mo extra or whatever is well worth not having to worry about the
risk of an ill-timed outage that could be catastrophic to your account.
|