TradeStation and 64-bit Operating Systems
The TradeStation Platform is a 32-bit application and is not designed to take full advantage of a 64-bit operating system. Nevertheless, the TradeStation Platform is able to run and function effectively in a Windows® 64-bit operating system.

Multi-threading and Multi-processors
The TradeStation Platform is a collection of various processes that perform different tasks. TradeStation processes primarily utilize multi-threading technology, although the extent of the benefits of multi-threading or multi-core computing depends on the operating system and the nature of the tasks performed by the user.

Regularly check your Internet Bandwidth Utilization to TradeStation servers
Sufficient bandwidth is essential to run the TradeStation Platform adequately. TradeStation includes an easy way to check for bandwidth utilization. Create a tick chart for symbol ‘== BYT’ in your TradeStation Platform. This test symbol, generated locally by the TradeStation market data network, provides information on real-time bandwidth utilization.  Bandwidth utilization depends on the number and type of requests made by each window and the time of the day when they are performed.

Regularly check your CPU Usage
To run the TradeStation Platform adequately, make sure that your CPU usage is in general low (under 30%). Microsoft Windows® operating systems include the Task Manager, a useful tool to check the real-time CPU usage in your machine. To start the Task Manager, click on the ‘Start’ button on your Windows® Desktop, go to ‘Run…’, type in ‘taskmgr’ and click OK.  The Task Manager window will dispay your CPU(s) usage in the Performance tab.

Running TradeStation with Antivirus software
Antivirus software installed on a machine running TradeStation could be scanning and monitoring all activity in the computer including filtering TCP/IP traffic, Hard Drive reads and writes, etc. In order to avoid conflicts and performance degradation when running the TradeStation Platform, make sure that the folders, IPs and ports used by TradeStation are excluded from being blocked or scanned. Complete information regarding IPs and ports that need to be easily reached can be found in this link: Running TradeStation behind Firewalls.

Running TradeStation with Spyware software
Computers connected to the internet may be adversely affected by Spyware. Spyware competes for Internet bandwidth and may affect TradeStation’s performance.  To avoid degradation in the performance of the TradeStation Platform due to Spyware, regularly check the computer with antispyware applications to make sure it is not infected.

Microsoft Windows® Updates
To properly run the TradeStation platform, make sure the operating system is updated with the latest service packs and system updates.

Network Card Driver
Network cards should be updated with the latest drivers from the operating system or the NIC manufacturer.

Advanced Network Card Features

Some network card brands (100/1000 Mbps) have advanced features that have been found to cause potential issues with the TradeStation Platform. They are:

• TCP Checksum Offload (Tx and Rx; IPv4 and IPv6)
• TCP Large Send Offload support for segments up to 64 KB (plus headers)
• UDP Checksum Offload (Tx and Rx; IPv4 and IPv6)
• UDP "Checksum Over Fragment" Offload (IPv4 and IPv6) for transactions up to 64 KB
• IPv4 Header Checksum Offload (Tx and Rx)
• And some others,

It is recommended that these features are disabled to enhance the stability of the communication with the TradeStation servers.

Routers/modems Firmware
 It is recommended that the routers and modems are always updated with the latest firmware versions.

ISP configuration
The configuration of the modem connection to the ISP should be set to “Always ON”.  If it is set to “On Demand” it could be disconnected after being idle for a certain period of time.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
We recommend using an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to protect the system against lightning and power outages and avoid potential file corruptions on cold reboots.  Attach computer, monitor and modem to the UPS.

Running other Applications
For best performance, avoid running unnecessary applications concurrently with the TradeStation Platform.  Each application running on the same system will be competing for resources including Internet bandwidth, CPU, hard disk access and memory, and may affect the performance of the TradeStation Platform.

Minimum Requirements User
The common profile of the minimum requirements user is a TradeStation Platform user that is not sensitive to real-time market data updates and makes decisions on market analysis that is not time-sensitive.  Traders that fit this profile are usually position traders or end-of-day traders.

Standard User
A standard user is generally anyone that is moderately sensitive to real-time market data updates and makes intraday decisions based on intraday market analysis.  Traders that fit this profile are swing or trend traders. This type of user generally doesn’t need more than a handful of market data requests and follows specific symbols that are not extremely active.  The standard user doesn’t rely on processor intensive Analysis Techniques running real-time on multiple charts.

Power User
A power user is generally a user utilizing computationally intensive EasyLanguage studies, utilizing large amounts of tick or intraday data (for example, several tick-based charts of highly active symbols such as Google, APPL or @ES, or several strategies with Look-Inside-Bar to the tick level enabled), or generating a large amount of trading activity.  Traders that fit this profile are the active TradeStation traders or the user that requires following various active markets at the same time using complex EasyLanguage studies and strategy optimizations.