You never expect to lose power, have your hard drive crash, have your DSL service interrupted or any other technical glitch. All of us have experienced something like that before and its usually nothing more than an annoyance. In trading, however, such an event can be deadly. Scenario: You are trading S&P Index Futures and are watching as your position is inching toward where you are going to exit (for a profit or loss, it does not matter), when suddenly the power goes out. Fortunately you have a laptop ready and fire it up on battery power, but your cable modem needs power to run. What are you going to do now? If only you'd written down your broker's 800 number you could call and, even thought the commission is higher, use a broker assist to exit your position, but you never got around to it. You, my friend, are screwed.
Here is my promise to you. If you trade long enough, this type of thing will happen to you. Here is your recipe to save yourself, and your account. First, write down the broker assist numbers for all of your accounts and have them near where you trade. Second, always have a second computer available (preferably a laptop) which can access the internet by telephone line or wireless (cell phone) modem if need be. Third, (related to the second) have your high speed internet access backed up by either another high speed avenue, a dial-up line, or cell-phone access. In fact, have more than one back up. The last thing you need is for two power related access points to go down and have no back-up of last resort.
This type of planning is essential. Think of it as account insurance. It is the cost of doing business, and we are all about staying in the game.
Good Trading!
Here is my promise to you. If you trade long enough, this type of thing will happen to you. Here is your recipe to save yourself, and your account. First, write down the broker assist numbers for all of your accounts and have them near where you trade. Second, always have a second computer available (preferably a laptop) which can access the internet by telephone line or wireless (cell phone) modem if need be. Third, (related to the second) have your high speed internet access backed up by either another high speed avenue, a dial-up line, or cell-phone access. In fact, have more than one back up. The last thing you need is for two power related access points to go down and have no back-up of last resort.
This type of planning is essential. Think of it as account insurance. It is the cost of doing business, and we are all about staying in the game.
Good Trading!
