Technology Corner
You’ll be hard pushed to find the trader who says that all his success is down to his laptop; and the man who says that his run of bad luck is all due to a lack of RAM or he has been cursed with the typical case of the ‘bad workman’! However, there’s no doubting that while arguably the main tool you need in this arena is your talent, having the right hardware to back up that talent is absolutely essential. Getting the right piece of equipment on your desk means one less headache allowing you to concentrate purely on trading and the good news is that there’s no need to spend a fortune to obtain it (and every penny saved is another one for trading of course). You don’t need masses of memory, or a cutting edge graphics card; you need a computer that will let you play the game your way. And fast - which relies on a strong broadband feed too of course.
Acer Aspire V3 Price: Around £400 Pros: Great budget laptop, good looks, fast, high usability Cons: Only 500GB storage Seriously, if it wasn’t for the need for a little balance, Acer would have dominated the entire feature, such is the exceptional work they are producing at the moment. As it is, we’ve settled on this beauty of a laptop for our lead. Calling the Aspire V3 a ‘budget laptop’ absolutely does not do justice to its slim, good looks (come on, we’re all a little shallow!) and relatively mid-high end credentials. Before we look at those credentials, we must take a moment to congratulate Acer on the keyboard and trackpad. If ever those two components can be called a joy to use, it is here. When you’re paying less than £500 for a laptop, you’ve no right to expect speed and performance like this. The Intel i5 and 6GB RAM combine to deliver a seamless computing experience whether surfing, chatting or trading. Sure, the Aspire isn’t up there with the best gaming laptops but you should be trading anyway!
62 | www.financial-spread-betting.com | February 2013