Topic: How strong should MT4 computer be?

I am developing FSB strategies on a computer with 6 cores CPU and 16 GB memory. When a strategy is ready for testing with a broker on MT4 installation, I am transferring it to a small, relatively slow computer. It is an ASUS Eee Top PC – Intel Atom CPU 330 @1,60 GHz, 64 bit processor with 2 GB RAM. I am not ready to transfer my EAs to VPS, strategies have to be tested throughout first.

I am a little bit worried if this computer (ASUS) is strong enough for this job. I run approximately 6 EAs from two MT4 instances (which gives 12 EAs tested in parallel). Is there a slack in processing of information on this computer (because of limited processor power and size of RAM) which will result in positions not opened or closed in time?

This question can be of interest even for those who are working with a stronger computer with one or few MT4 instances. If you will test a lot of EA’s in parallel on one computer, there is probably an upper limit in amount of EAs and instances of MT4 you can load.

So presumably there is a limit for how slow (weak) computer can be used for this job. Am I there? Is it possible to find out decidedly? Can this limit be tested in some way to find out?

Any suggestions from the members of FSB community?

Leon

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Hello Leon,

I'm using an exactly equal notebook for trading. Mine runs stripped Windows XP and it is doing pretty well with up to 10 experts.
I have only a MT4 and a TeamViewer installed there.

Other important things are a good Internet connection and a UPS for the internet router. Using laptop for trading is better than a desktop because the laptop battery runs much longer than a UPS for a desktop.
Another advantage is the lower noise and power consumption.

The only "better" solution is a virtual server from a serious hosting company. But the monthly rent may be an issue.

(however I'm creating a SOHO server lab now)
SOHO = Small Office Home Office

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Mr. Popov,

Thank you for your prompt answer. Now I have one burden less! So I am going back to my creative work with FSB Pro!

Leon

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Popov wrote:

Hello Leon,

Other important things are a good Internet connection and a UPS for the internet router. Using laptop for trading is better than a desktop because the laptop battery runs much longer than a UPS for a desktop.

About the issue of backup power.

I'm thinking whether a portable hand held generator (eg. Duracell Powerpack Pro 1300) would be a good alternative to UPS?  I can plug the generator to the wall to charge it and on the outlet of the generator, connect it my computer.  So it is being charged all the time and when the power supply is cut off, the generator's battery will come into act.

Below is the product description (I'm not promoting this product but bouncing off the idea of using portable generator as an alternative UPS).  If the back up battery isn't powerful enough, we can add in or change to a bigger capacity battery for the laptops or computer to run long. 


http://www.amazon.com/Duracell-DR600PWR … 4RE306T5TM

As part of their industry-leading line of superior quality power products, Duracell has created highly reliable, rugged portable power solutions that you can count on in any situation. From power outages and roadside emergencies to remote jobsites and the great outdoors, the heavy-duty Duracell 600 Watt / 1300 Amp Powerpack Pro will be there to provide plentiful power for work, recreation and emergency backup situations. Do you frequently need extra power for your tools or accessories, but none is available? If an outlet is not in reach or plugging into the dashboard's cigarette lighter is simply not an option, the Duracell 600 Watt / 1300 Amp Powerpack Pro is the perfect solution. This robust stand-alone battery based power source is powerful enough to run many popular electronics, small appliances and power tools [Note: On a full charge a 40W AC appliance can run for approximately 4 hrs, a Smartphone can be recharged up to 19 times and tablets can be recharged up to 7 times using the USB ports], and can even jump-start vehicle batteries. A multitude of safety and emergency features assures safe, simple plug and play operation, even when used by consumers who possess only basic technical knowledge. The heart of the Duracell 600 Watt / 1300 Amp Powerpack Pro is a sealed, non-spillable 18 ampere-hour AGM (Absorbed Glass Mat) battery. The Powerpack Pro can be safely and conveniently recharged from any household AC outlet so that it is ready to go whenever you need it. This robust battery is tied to a power inverter that provides 600 watts of power to its two grounded AC outlets and one DC socket. Multiple outlets give you the flexibility and convenience to operate several appliances at once, while the 4 level LED Fuel Gauge displays the Duracell Powerpack's battery charge level. Internal protection circuitry ensures long inverter life by safeguarding against overload and over-temperature conditions. An audible alarm also signals during under-voltage situations, alerting you to any possible safety concerns. Please note: this item is not intended for use with sump pumps – Due to the energy surge required to start most sump pumps the Duracell 600 Watt / 1300 Amp Powerpack Pro is not well suited for this application.

Another alternative is to buy the battery and connect to an inverter, like how a solar panel would work as another alternative source of energy.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00T93K9KU?psc=1

Below is the product review of someone who used this inverter

5.0 out of 5 starsYou May Not Need a Generator if You Have This!
By IAMSLICK VINE VOICE on June 23, 2013
Color: 1000w POWER INVERTER Verified Purchase
We recently had a couple of minor tornadoes (if there is such a thing) race through North Atlanta, and it left us without power for 24-hours. It seemed like an eternity! I was very close to losing about $400 worth of food. I had an inverter that was rated at 275 watts, and tried to use it to power my freezer, but the initial power surge was too strong for too long for that inverter to handle it.

So I bought this inverter with hopes of not only being able to occasionally power my freezer, but also possibly my main fridge in the kitchen during an extended outage. It was not only able to do both, but both at the same time, which is amazing.

The freezer surges to 595W, and then after about 10 seconds drops to 125W where is just hums along. The refrigerator (25cu/ft Frigidaire) surges initially to 705W, and then after about 10 seconds drops to 205W continuous. I measured all of this using a Kill-A-Watt device.

I attached the freezer first and waited until it was only drawing 125W, then attached the fridge. I did this while the inverter was attached directly to my car battery with my car running. When I attached the fridge, the car sounded like it was going to stall, but it recovered and powered everything nicely.

In the event of an actual outage, I would probably just power each appliance individually for 30 minutes or so every 4 hours to keep things cold. I like knowing that this unit provides enough power to be able to handle either appliance, plus run an LCD TV, or some lights, etc.

Great inverter at a great price. If you're struggling with whether to buy a portable gas generator so that you're prepared for extended outages, this unit may prevent you from having to do that. It obviously won't do everything a generator can, but it's a lot cheaper, and can handle a lot of the basics.

5 (edited by geektrader 2016-03-26 01:03:31)

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

With all the talk here about how to keep the Laptop / PC alive when there is a power-outage, have you ever thought about that your internet connection is most likely affected as well by a power-outage? The router needs power as well and even if that one is working, your internet-connection of your provider might be affected by the outage as well.

Seeing prices like here https://contabo.com/?show=vps you get a good enough VPS with 2 cores and 6GB RAM for just 7.99 Euro / month. That´s a no-brainer to any serious trader and you have the safety of the data-center diesel generatores when there is a power-outage + all the other advantages of a real datacenter.

Personally I am using a dedicated server from them: https://contabo.com/?show=configurator&server_id=342 which has super-specs and unlimited data transfer for just 79 Euro / month. And if you don´t need it anymore or need a better one, you simply upgrade and don´t have to buy any new hardware like you´d to do at home. For me I would never fiddle with a home-setup for serious trading.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Hi Geek trader,

I agree with you, if I'm trading at 150 lots per position,  79Euro is really a very small price to pay for a peace of mind. If a trader is only using 0.01 lots, the mind set is different.

I think the bottom for most people is about cost effective.

My curiosity is on the issue of the EA uploaded,  how safe is it? Can the technician/staff have access to the EA uploaded to your vps?

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

The 7.99€ VPS option would be enough too and still be more reliable compared to a home-setup. Actually here in Germany it would cost 7.99€ power-costs per month to keep the system running 24/7 (or even 24/5) - really a no brainer.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Oh it's 7.99 VPS!!! (I overlooked this info the 1st time I read it from my tablet...didn't zoom in to make the words bigger...:)

Yes, no brainer indeed.  Thanks for the info.  How many MT4 terminals can this subscription cope?

9 (edited by geektrader 2016-03-26 06:16:53)

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Yes, I use both. The VPS for live trading, the dedicated server for running strategy generation 24/7:) For that dedicated server I posted it´s the same like for the VPS, since I let it run 24/7 under 100% load, it would cost me ~50 Euro power costs a month at home with the server specs this dedicated server has. So 29 Euro / month are for the hardware + bandwidth + support + having a 99.9% uptime guarantee. And I find that very reasonable for such a price.

On the VPS I currently run 2 terminals with 16 terminals and CPU load is at about 40% with that on the 2 cores, so all good too here, great value for the price, as I said, I would most likely pay more than 7.99 Euro / month in power costs if I replicated that VPS at home with a cheap laptop. And I wouldn´t have a 100mbit connnection nor 99.9% uptime guarantee at home.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

geektrader wrote:

Yes, I use both. The VPS for live trading, the dedicated server for running strategy generation 24/7:) For that dedicated server I posted it´s the same like for the VPS, since I let it run 24/7 under 100% load, it would cost me ~50 Euro power costs a month at home with the server specs this dedicated server has. So 29 Euro / month are for the hardware + bandwidth + support + having a 99.9% uptime guarantee. And I find that very reasonable for such a price.

On the VPS I currently run 2 terminals with 16 terminals and CPU load is at about 40% with that on the 2 cores, so all good too here, great value for the price, as I said, I would most likely pay more than 7.99 Euro / month in power costs if I replicated that VPS at home with a cheap laptop. And I wouldn´t have a 100mbit connnection nor 99.9% uptime guarantee at home.

you run 2 terminals? can you explain that

can i run more than one ea on a vps?

11

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

tomorrow

Have the small vps 4 MT4 it runs very stabiel never trouble

Treasures are running about 50 Eas the

https://www.strato.de/windows-vserver/

Lg Pit

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

How about Cloud VPS, is it suitable for forex trading and any comments or recommendation?

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

I prefer Contabo VPS for forex trading, never had any problem with them, high specs and competitive price, the support is also good. You can get dual core VPS with 6 Gb ram and Windows Server 2008 r2 OS for only 13.98 Euro.

Here's the link https://contabo.com/?show=vps.

I'm not affiliated with tnem

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

pradeepgolfer wrote:

you run 2 terminals? can you explain that

can i run more than one ea on a vps?

Hi Pradeep,

Here is a write up to explain about VPS for Forex Trading

http://www.adminsehow.com/2009/06/how-t … x-traders/

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

hannahis wrote:

How about Cloud VPS, is it suitable for forex trading and any comments or recommendation?

Here is a read up on Cloud VPS such as Amazon Web Server (AWS) with 1st year free subscription...and why it is not recommended for Forex Traders.

http://www.forexboat.com/amazon-vps-forex/

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

I can install 99 EAs on one Metatrader.

I have a I7 3770 Computer with 32GB. I have installed 20 metatrader.
Every Metatrader has 20-40 Eas.
It is no problem for a I7 3770 computer.

thomas

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

@hannahis
waoo 150 Lots.... this is a big number.
thomas

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Hi Tnickel,

Not me...I don't use 150 lots, it's Geektrader smile

That lot number will make me faint...unless I have tremendous big account to handle large margin...otherwise, it's heart attack any moment. 

Better ask Greektrader how he handle such big lots and what strategy he uses...would be great to learn from him.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

tnickel wrote:

I can install 99 EAs on one Metatrader.

I have a I7 3770 Computer with 32GB. I have installed 20 metatrader.
Every Metatrader has 20-40 Eas.
It is no problem for a I7 3770 computer.

thomas

Woah...20 MT4 Terminal?  You need lots of monitor screen to see all of them instantly...so how many monitors you have?

Sounds like you are testing out lots of EA too smile

I have the about the same computer specs as yours.  Each of my terminals, I mostly max out 99 charts.  Currently running about 10 Terminals...so 10 x99 EA thereabout in computer 1 and another 4 Terminals in Computer 2 with 16g.

Now currently running 2 versions of the same set of EA.  1st set with the new Trailing/BE Profit Protection (via modified Simple Order Manager) and 2nd Set (same EA as 1st Set) but transform into scalper mode with smaller trailing/BE.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

@hannahis,
I have only a small monitor 27 Zoll.
I don´t look at every metatrader.

I use my Monitortool to handle this EAs.

I have many EAs installed. I think 500 ore more EAs.

But only 9 Eas are good für real account.

thomas

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

I'm running 2 MTs with 14 experts on my new machine.

http://s21.postimg.org/g1l90prlv/screenshot_1504.jpg

It looks like it can run 20 MTs more. I may provide VPS as a test service.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

tnickel wrote:

I use my Monitortool to handle this EAs.

I have many EAs installed. I think 500 ore more EAs.

thomas

Hi Thomas,

Which Monitor Tool do you use to handle your EA or analyse your EA results, since you are testing such big number of EA.

As for me, I use Fx Blue to check my EA's performance.


Regards
Hannah

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

We have been discussing here on forum the question of strength of computer for trading. Yesterday a strong spike on EURUSD has frozen my MT4 trading computer for several minutes – I could not do any transaction, and probably no one of my EA’s was functioning properly. I contacted my Broker and here comes the content of our conversation. I think it can be valuable for some, as our previous conclusion was that “weak” computer will be enough for trading. Mr Popov’s comment on this will be highly appreciated.

Leon
____________________________________________

Me: My MT4 terminal had frozen today during spike on EURUSD. I could not close or open any positions. Do you have any comments?

Global Prime: Hi there, was this during the NFP Announcement? Do you have any Indicators or EA’s running on your account?

Me: I had approximately 15 EAs running on my computer.

Global Prime: I think that may have caused the freeze. During regular market conditions having EA’s and Indicators running on a few charts will usually not cause any lag however over a high impact news announcement the number of ticks coming through is much higher and much quicker as the price is changing so many time in a second. These ticks must then be processed onto each chart and then by each EA and Indicator causing millions of ticks to be processed onto each chart and then by each EA and Indicator causing millions of ticks to be processed in a short time and this can freeze or crash MT4.

May I recommend either having a different computer with MT4 installed with very few charts and EA’s to manage your positions before going into a high impact news announcement. Or close positions before the announcement to limit your risk.

Me: Will it help if a more powerful computer will be used for trading?

Global Prime: I’m not sure if a more powerful computer will help in this situation as MT4 itself has limitations to the amount of ticks it can handle before freezing. Please be wary before the next large news announcement and test your platform with a small trade and with less charts/EA’s open.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Depends on

How many bars in the charts
Time Frame
Number of Indicators

Perhaps you can reduce number of bars to the minimum for your strategies...

I use 240 minute charts and daily charts and have many strategies trading..... but few indicators in each ea. I do not have trouble with MT4 freezing in active times.

Perhaps keep in mind that for each bar in the chart is a lot of calculations for each indicator.

You may find that your memory was full and increasing it's size may help.

Re: How strong should MT4 computer be?

Hi LeonHerd,
Sounds like excuse from a broker for their tech side or greed. But if there is real problem from your mt4 side maybe this helps. Try to hide all necessary symbols from Market Watch in MT4. Some time before I had low resourced VPS service and they recommended to turn off unnecessary symbols to save VPS resources, it helped me a little bit.

http://s33.postimg.org/e798yzksb/hide_all.jpg