PFA Forum - Financial Trading Resource

When I contacted them earlier today, the agent was not familiar with NT (even though the logo is on their website). They have a plan which may be adequate for $40/month which includes 2 GB of RAM; 60 GB of Storage; and 2 TB of bandwidth. He also explained that the have a "managed" account (included with the monthly fee), and a "fully managed" account, for an additional $150/month (in addition to the $40/month fee).

please note that whomever you are speaking with, is only a support representative & not familiar with all the details. they are simply there to help you understand the products offered, that's it

Oddly he mentioned you can not be downgraded from the "fully managed" to the "managed" account without cancelling the server. With the managed account, you are required to do any installation and prep work on the server.

you must understand a bit about VPS servers as this is true of most any server. if you start with a certain amount of ram, cpu or managed/fully managed you can't downgrade because they would have to remove hardware & that is not possible without shutting down. you should think of this just like your home pc, if you decide to upgrade the ram or downgrade it, you must shut down your pc & replace it, then reboot. this is the same on the VPS server & would of course cause down time. it is not that it can't be done, however they would move you to another server with your required specs & cancel the current one, thus the downtime.

Jim,

Sorry for the delay--I was on the road but I'm catching-up now...

I use MyTradeHost out of Chicago--they're very close to the CME so they cite a very low latency. I use their Super-VPS package, with 3,000 MHz, 4GB RAM, 70GB disk space, and 500 GB/month bandwidth. I've used them for well over a year now. They are pricier than other services but I haven't changed though I may in 2016. The reason I stick with them is the customer experience was beyond "outstanding". I dropped a note of inquiry to them on a Saturday and didn't expect an answer until Monday, but within a few hours they answered my questions and, on Sunday, had me up and running. A few glitches happened over the year and they were completely on top of them.

The only issue I've had, and I'm not sure they're to blame, hence my reluctance to switch, is while the PFA software runs on their system, it glitches a lot when I change markets. The telltale sign is the NT windows freeze and when I check Windows Task Manager my CPU utilization maxes-out. So I have to "End Task" and reboot NT. So I've kept two sets of two windows (1440 and 60) open. For the currency and commodities markets I have vanilla linked charts--no PFA software or other indicators; for ES, NQ, and YM, I cycle them in the other set of windows, though 99% of time I'm on ES, and I keep PFA software on there since I'm running SD Model on ES. For deeper analysis (Monthly/Weekly) or for quick cycling, I use my demo account on Think or Swim. It's a little awkward, but I am more proficient at applying PFA methods with no software help! Ha!

I've been back and forth with NT and MTH over this issue (including multiple NT uninstall and reloads) and neither could resolve it. It might be an interaction with MTH's Windows Server 2012R2 and the PFA software or a possible and occasional latency issue--no one knows. But I do know that I have to keep a separate NT workspace open with vanilla charts for all the markets I trade as when I'm in my active workspace, if I don't keep a constant price feed, when I switch markets I have to always manually refresh my price data--when a market is not in an active window the price doesn't automatically load when I bring it up. And the not unusual "NT is out of threads" issue. It's been an interesting year for software and data.

The other reason I'm waiting to entertain a VPS switch is because NT believes NT8 might ("might") solve these issues. I hate to make a switch if I don't need to.

That's my long-winded two cents on my VPS and my NT issues.

Hope this helps--feel free to write back!

--Patrick

Hey Guys
I've been using Cheap Forex VPS (Ultra package)and haven't had a single problem with them. I paid for 24 months upfront which means it costs $20.99 / month. I only run the SD Model auto system on it and do all my manual trading at home on my PC. It seems to cope fine with the SD Model including backtesting so I'm pretty happy with the setup.

Sean, Thanks for the feedback! That's great to know for everyone and will give me another vendor to consider in the event I change providers. BTW, can you run NT on a VPS and on your PC simultaneously with the same license?

Pat

Yes you can. NT allow you to run 2 copies using the same license but the issue is datafeed. For the VPS I use my Live Ninja Account and all the trades are executed on that. For my home setup I use a NT Demo feed for charting but take the trades on my Interactive Brokers Account. So why not use IB for charting as well? it's because the IB data is highly filtered and compressed so doesn't give you true prices. It's fine for larger time frames like daily or even 4 hour but for 1 hour or smaller you need unfiltered data. The other option I looked at was a 2nd login via my NT live account but NT would charge me another lot of exchange fees etc. The only problem with using a demo account all the time is I have to keep getting a new one but so far it's not been a problem, I just sign up for a new demo on the NT site.

That's very clever! Thanks for sharing! Happy holidays! Pat

Pat & Sean,

Thanks very much for your input. I plan on giving Speedy Trading Servers in Chicago at try for $60/month USD. Sam, the proprietor, is very responsive, and his servers are also located just outside the CME. Since they are partnered with NT, each VPS comes with NT loaded, and he'll give you a week demo. You can cancel at any time. I'll let you all know about the experience in time.

For anyone using the SD Model who wants to run it on a VPS, you'll need to have Will transfer your license over to the VPS's NT machine ID.

I asked Sam @ STS a couple of questions, and I'll share his responses below for anyone who may find them helpful:
1. Q. To begin things, is the basic plan sufficient to get started? A. Usually yes, but all depends on the strategies running, their coding quality, amount of historical data loaded, etc. If for any reason the Medium VPS is not enough it's quick and easy to upgrade it.

2. Q. When I eventually log into my VPS account (where NT will be running remotely) ... would the program (from the VPS origin) allow for the multiple (4) monitor landscape view that I currently have running with my platform?. In other words, with the application running remotely via MS Windows, will that allow me to view things visually as I see with my current arrangement? A. Yes, the limit is 16 monitors. BUT, depending on your network latency to the VPS, things can look sluggish. All the mouse/keyboard events and all the display events will have to travel through Internet from the VPS to your physical monitors, which will take time. As an example from Europe and a 120 ms latency two 1920X1200 monitors are fine, from Asia or Australia it's too much.

I also questioned NT Brokerage (for those who use them as your broker) if it was possible to get a second set of log-in credentials, IF you were interested in using your current desktop set-up for trading as well as the VPS (enabling you to have two simultaneous log-ins into your account). They told me sure, just make the request via email, and it's an extra $10/month charge.

Thanks again,
Jim

I also questioned NT Brokerage (for those who use them as your broker) if it was possible to get a second set of log-in credentials, IF you were interested in using your current desktop set-up for trading as well as the VPS (enabling you to have two simultaneous log-ins into your account). They told me sure, just make the request via email, and it's an extra $10/month charge.

Thank you Jim, I never knew NT Brokerage offers this.

Hi All
I am using Speedy Trading Servers in Chicago, for $60/month USD. Can't say enough positive things about the service and customer support. Sam does not seem to sleep. I email at 5.00am or 11pm....he answers within 10 mins, on weekdays and weekends. Not being a PC person, I had trouble configuring it on windows 10, as the videos on their site show the installation process on windows 7. Sam did a team viewer session and set me up.

As I use Ninja as brokerage as well, I thought it might be wise to have a onestop shop when it comes to VPS. It is worth it and the $60,- version is fine for my needs: ES on AutoSD....lots of backtesting.....performs fine, just a tad slower than my computer.
best
MarkT