Online trading in an RV?

[dieselpower]

Hello All,

I am a newbie to the RV world but have plans in motion to make the switch from S&B to full-timing in a motor home within the next 6-9 months. My research and due diligence has brought me to this question.

I trade stock options for my income and my question is what type of internet setup will I need to continue this? I do not day trade and more position/swing trade so a full 8 hours of streaming data each data is not needed, on average I would need to use 2-4 hours per day. This will be streaming stock quotes so my initial thoughts (guess) are that this should be lower data usage than loading videos on Facebook or streaming movies from Netflix (I could be wrong). I plan on doing a mix of 80% campgrounds and 20% boondocking. Reliability is a obviously a main concern.

Really interested in hearing from any other traders out there on what type of setup you have to make this all work? Any feedback appreciated, thanks and happy holidays!

[c92vette]

I don't trade in stocks as you do but I have a suggestion for internet access in a motorhome. For reliability do not count on an RV Parks internet service. Some are great, some are good, some are pitiful. As far as security with an RV Parks system that can be made secure inside your coach by setting up a internal network connected to a WiFi antenna such as an Ubiquiti Nano Station. But even with that you are at the mercy of the parks bandwidth and the smaller that is the less reliable the connection.

I suggest you look at a personal hotspot setup such as through Verizon or ATT. Connecting through 4g on that type of network will make it secure and there is equipment, range extenders, available to extend the range in the event you are boondocking or just on the fringe of service. 4g should be fast enough to stream market data that you would need.

Another possible set up to look into may be satellite. I have no experience with this other than knowing it is available.

What I have on my coach is a Ubiquity Nano Station antenna routed to a secure Belkin router inside the motorhome. At the RV park I point the antenna towards the parks WiFi antenna and connect my laptops to the router. Having the antenna or laptop to connect to a park Wifi system inside the coach is degraded by the structure of the motorhome so an external antenna is best. If the parks Wifi is not the quality we need I hotspot the smart phone and connect it to the Ubiquity so the laptops remain secure inside the coach. With a set up like this it may be possible the expense is tax deductible as well. Your tax advisor would know for sure.

[Isaac-1]

In the long range satellite will likely be the best option (still 2-3 years away for economical mobile broadband satellite internet), but for now you are stuck with a cell network solution.

[dexters]

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f59/day-t...-301722-2.html

[dieselpower]

Originally Posted by c92vette

I don't trade in stocks as you do but I have a suggestion for internet access in a motorhome. For reliability do not count on an RV Parks internet service. Some are great, some are good, some are pitiful. As far as security with an RV Parks system that can be made secure inside your coach by setting up a internal network connected to a WiFi antenna such as an Ubiquiti Nano Station. But even with that you are at the mercy of the parks bandwidth and the smaller that is the less reliable the connection.

I suggest you look at a personal hotspot setup such as through Verizon or ATT. Connecting through 4g on that type of network will make it secure and there is equipment, range extenders, available to extend the range in the event you are boondocking or just on the fringe of service. 4g should be fast enough to stream market data that you would need.

Another possible set up to look into may be satellite. I have no experience with this other than knowing it is available.

What I have on my coach is a Ubiquity Nano Station antenna routed to a secure Belkin router inside the motorhome. At the RV park I point the antenna towards the parks WiFi antenna and connect my laptops to the router. Having the antenna or laptop to connect to a park Wifi system inside the coach is degraded by the structure of the motorhome so an external antenna is best. If the parks Wifi is not the quality we need I hotspot the smart phone and connect it to the Ubiquity so the laptops remain secure inside the coach. With a set up like this it may be possible the expense is tax deductible as well. Your tax advisor would know for sure.

I will not be relying on Campground wifi at all, I have read enough stories to know that it is far from reliable. I have a friend doing solo RVing and she has two seperate cell data plans (one from Verizon and the other Sprint I believe). I am thinking this can be done, although one of my main concerns is how much data does streaming stock quotes consume? Any ideas? My guess is that it would be less than streaming videos/movie, since it will just be streaming digits not pixels.

I have also looked at satellite internet which would be ideal although after reading all the negative comments about the providers throttling data/phantom usage/poor customer service, etc that's a bit of a turnoff. My budget will be $100-$150 month for internet (and backup providers ie 2 packages/2 networks). I would even go to $200/month if I have to since this is for my income.

[dieselpower]

Originally Posted by Isaac-1

In the long range satellite will likely be the best option (still 2-3 years away for economical mobile broadband satellite internet), but for now you are stuck with a cell network solution.

Are you referring to the current satellite internet providers like Hughesnet and Dishnet?

[dieselpower]

Originally Posted by dexters

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f59/day-t...-301722-2.html

Thanks I'll have a look at that.

[kerryvan]

Mr zman,

I'm in the similar boat, as a day trader I downloaded a few apps to monitor my daily use of data. As a atp user, it is difficult to know how much data is actually used, i'll try and find out from fido. or I can install the apps to fully understand my situation. You may try this approach, secondly my concern is the occasional drop out of signal...

please post your final approach, others may benefit...

[dieselpower]

Originally Posted by kerryvan

Mr zman,

I'm in the similar boat, as a day trader I downloaded a few apps to monitor my daily use of data. As a atp user, it is difficult to know how much data is actually used, i'll try and find out from fido. or I can install the apps to fully understand my situation. You may try this approach, secondly my concern is the occasional drop out of signal...

please post your final approach, others may benefit...

Thank you!

[alpinedrvr]

Hi

Whatever you do don't get Hughesnet or Dishnet. It is expensive and not that fast and they have this Far Access Policy where if you use too much in a day they slow you down to an unusable crawl for 24 hours.

I use a Cricket cell with tethering which costs about 65$/month for 10GB. You may or may not go over this limit. I would think and this is only a guess that you will be close or over. You could buy 2 plans and have probably enough data and if you stretch it you could have 3 and still stay in your "stretched" budget. Coverage is pretty good now and you can also make unlimited calls and texts within the US and to Canada and Mexico.

A website /blog that may help you a lot is wheelingit.us >Paul and Nina have been doing this for about 7 years now and I know Paul trades on line. You will find them very helpful.

BTW how are you trading options? Buying/ Selling Calls or collars or? and how do you pick the stocks that you want to trade options on?

Geoff
PS you can PM me if you want.

[dieselpower]

Originally Posted by alpinedrvr

Hi

Whatever you do don't get Hughesnet or Dishnet. It is expensive and not that fast and they have this Far Access Policy where if you use too much in a day they slow you down to an unusable crawl for 24 hours.

I use a Cricket cell with tethering which costs about 65$/month for 10GB. You may or may not go over this limit. I would think and this is only a guess that you will be close or over. You could buy 2 plans and have probably enough data and if you stretch it you could have 3 and still stay in your "stretched" budget. Coverage is pretty good now and you can also make unlimited calls and texts within the US and to Canada and Mexico.

A website /blog that may help you a lot is wheelingit.us >Paul and Nina have been doing this for about 7 years now and I know Paul trades on line. You will find them very helpful.

BTW how are you trading options? Buying/ Selling Calls or collars or? and how do you pick the stocks that you want to trade options on?

Geoff
PS you can PM me if you want.

Yes, I have seen the reviews on the sat net providers, not very encouraging!

I did not know about the Cricket cell, how do they compare to the some of the larger providers like Verizon/AT&T. Do they have good coverage across the US?

I will check out that blog.

I mainly trade a variation of a butterfly strategy on the indexes, also write covered strangles. These are put on about 60-80 days to expiry with some adjustments along the way. I like to keep these as close to 'no touch' as possible, so I should only need a couple hours a day internet access to monitor (obviously more time needed if volatility turns up).

[dieselpower]

Are there any solutions that provide an unlimited, non throttled data plan under $150/month?