Every trader should have the best trading computer that he/she can afford. First, let's look at the trading monitor. We are now only recommending digital flat panel monitors for the trader. The reason for this is that they are easier on the eyes and emit virtually no harmful radiation. Also, they are light in weight and take one-quarter of the power of a regular CRT monitor. The digital monitors should have a tight dot pitch of .28 or lower, a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher and bright of 350 cd/m2. These specifications make for the brightest and clearest screen possible. The controls on the monitors should be in front and easy to use.

The next important piece of trading hardware in your computer is the multiple-port video card. We recommend the Nvidia Quadro4 NVS two-port or four-port card. This card was specifically designed for traders. The card has the latest technology of 350MHz RAMDAC chips, delivering crystal-clear images. Installation is very easy, and the multi-monitor software works flawlessly. This card allows you to add additional graphic cards for up to 9 monitors, using Windows 2000 or XP.

What should be in the computer that makes it special for the trader? First of all, it should contain a whisper quiet Seasonic 400-Watt power supply. We also recommend a Seagate Barracuda fluid hard disk drive, which is the quietest drive in the world. The recommended extra fans on the case and CPU are also quiet. The motherboard we recommend is the new Intel 845e with support for the new 533 front side bus and USB 2.0. We also recommend the latest 2.26 and 2.53 GHz 512 cache 533 Intel CPU processors.

Extra backup and other options are also available, such as RAID hard disk drives and dual Ethernet ports. Finally, we recommend the latest wireless keyboard and optical mouse from Logitech.

For more information, go to www.tradersworld.com. Larry Jacobs' articles also appear in Traders World magazine, and he can be contacted via email at publisher@tradersworld.com.