Line Your Own Pockets

Michael: 00:00

Alright, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Line Your Own Pockets. Today, we're gonna talk about something that I have had to hear in the background for a long time, and it's Dave's battle with getting a new computer. Man, we we did very good never missing an episode for over a year now, but there were some times that we were getting kinda close because Dave would come on and we'd be halfway through an episode. He turned into a robot and all kinds of stuff.

Michael: 00:27

So let's let's start by bringing you into, again, what was it? Journey, we'll just say, back and forth with different computers.

Dave: 00:37

Yeah. Let me just set the stage here a little bit. There there's a there's a good bit of history here. So for many, many years, I would build my own computer. And it's kind of very gratifying.

Dave: 00:56

You get more compute power for your money, typically. It's kind of fun. And I've done that for years. This last computer I had, I've had I had since, like, 2016 or 'seventeen, and that's the longest I've ever had a trading computer live without replacing it. Sometime during that period, I don't know, I just got sort of like, I didn't want to mess with the apple cart.

Dave: 01:34

Things it worked fine. It still works fine. But I knew I needed to replace it, and I was trying to figure out the best way to do that. Now, my first thought was, let me just build another one. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized just what a rabbit hole that is.

Dave: 01:54

And it's the kind of thing where that's not what I wanna be good at. Mhmm. So let me let me give you an example here. So let's think about this analogy. So I ride with there's a vibrant cycling community here that I ride bikes with the fastest guys in town.

Dave: 02:17

So people are serious about cycling. And there's a debate a surprising debate amongst high end cyclists about the best way to lubricate your chain or maintain your chain. And like there's surprisingly heated battles about the best way to do it. Have you have some one camp where when they get a new chain, the thought is, well, there's the factory finish on there and the lubrication, so you want to ride with that as long as possible. There's a completely other camp that says you're not going to believe this they take their chain.

Dave: 03:01

The first thing they do, take it off, put it in a crock pot to take all the factory grease off of it, to put on their own special wax. So and that's just the tip of the iceberg. You know, a lot of cyclists do their own maintenance, but it I've always thought, I do not wanna be good at bike maintenance. That's not what I want to do. I'm trying to be the best trader, the best training coach I can possibly be.

Dave: 03:36

So I could I think I could be a really good bike mechanic. Right? But I don't want to. Like, I I'm trying to do something unique. I wanna be I I wanna put my entire focus on trading and coaching and making traders make a lot of money.

Dave: 03:55

And

Michael: 03:55

Yeah. Outsourcing. Right? And that's the the the So beauty of

Dave: 04:02

it's it's with that thought that I decided I'm not gonna build my own computer this time because it's just gonna be a distraction.

Michael: 04:13

Mhmm.

Dave: 04:13

So that's sort of the groundwork for what happened. So go ahead.

Michael: 04:19

Well, so the

Dave: 04:20

getting ready to say something.

Michael: 04:22

Well and and the first thing I think that was good is that you were thought about and started the process before the other one melted, which is is something that Yeah. People should take notes on is that there should be some sort of kinda end of life plan or some sort of backup scenario, right? In the last episode, we talked all about vacations and how to trade there. And the amount of people who I that they don't have that, they don't have a what do I do if my computer explodes or something, and they're not planning that process in advance, I think is pretty big, right? So, you know, that's the first kind of big takeaway I want people to have is that, you know, if you have a computer and it is even only a couple years old and you're doing something like trading and all kinds of it's constantly running, it's constantly working, all those things, you should be thinking about this well in advance of needing to replace it.

Michael: 05:19

And I think Dave's story here is gonna be a perfect example of why if he had waited until his computer just exploded one day, this whole thing would have been a way bigger disaster than than it ended up being.

Dave: 05:31

Yeah. So, you know, you're right. You should be thinking about this a lot. And it's it with the traders I work with, they're trading for a living, or they're on a path to trading for a living. So it kind of, you know, as time goes on, they get better and better.

Dave: 05:47

They're making more money. So it kind of sneaks up on you what you know, if you're not trading with an edge, it probably didn't matter if your computer dies, right? But it's a whole different story. If you've got an edge, you're making a living from this, and your computer dies, then you're not able to do that. That's a serious problem that you need to be thinking about.

Dave: 06:10

Yep. So you're totally right. You should be thinking about that. So I made the decision to not build my own computer this time and just get one off the shelf. So I I actually polled a different a couple different traders.

Dave: 06:36

One group that I talked to said, oh, yeah. You should go, you know, Micro Center makes this super easy. These Micro Centers are everywhere now.

Michael: 06:48

Mhmm.

Dave: 06:48

Big computer firm that, you know, retail firm that sells sells computers. The other one is a there was a company, I think it was called I think it was called Falcon Computers. They make custom trading computers.

Michael: 07:03

I've heard of them. Yep.

Dave: 07:06

Heard very good things about them. They're more expensive, but I've a lot of traders swear by them. I decided to go with Micro Center. So the closest Micro Center is like two and a half hours away from me. But I heard such good reviews and some people really swear by them.

Dave: 07:27

So I decided to go and go to I happened to be going to Charlotte over the holidays. And I said, Well, I'm just going to get a computer while I'm there. Got the computer, came back, plugged it in, everything works perfectly.

Michael: 07:45

Mhmm. Yeah.

Dave: 07:46

As far as I can tell.

Michael: 07:47

Yeah.

Dave: 07:50

So I'm getting all my applications installed, and there's probably a whole bunch of stuff we could talk about that specifically. But so we get into the first podcast with the new computer. Mhmm. Everything's been perfectly fine up until this point. After, like, five or ten minutes into the podcast we were recording, the video got really grainy.

Dave: 08:23

Basically, the video was freezing and it was barely usable at all. Yeah. And it just degraded and degraded and degraded.

Michael: 08:34

This was only

Dave: 08:35

thing that was wrong with this computer.

Michael: 08:37

Well, and what was annoying too is that it was it was always and we would try to do some testing beforehand and everything, and it was always a a number of minutes into the podcast. So it's not like he you know, we we would be talking, we'd be getting going, and then all of a sudden, boom, there goes Dave, and he's just gone. And I'm like, oh, jeez. And for those who don't know, you've probably noticed already, we don't edit these. Right?

Michael: 09:00

It's just we do our chats and we upload them live. So it was getting fairly annoying just because we would be deep into a conversation about something and then it would cut out. And then it's always a little bit annoying if you have to retread that. Because again, we we say, just Hey, what are we gonna talk about today? And then we turn on the cameras and we just go.

Michael: 09:21

So it makes everything more natural. And it wasn't something we could predict and it wasn't something that we could really deal with. It was just halfway through every podcast, It was just there goes Dave. First, you get a little grainy and audio get out of sync, and then eventually, usually, it was just gone.

Dave: 09:38

Yeah. And because everything else was going so smoothly except for this, I was like, well, surely it's something with the audio or the video card or something like it seemed like a fixable problem. But it turned out it was not a fixable problem. I got the Micro Center actually was pretty good about support. I got them on the phone and a chat, explained exactly what's going on.

Dave: 10:05

They did some diagnostics on the computer to figure out what's going on. And finally, after several calls, they said, yeah, it looks like there's something wrong with the memory. I said, okay, well that's good. Memory's a fixable problem. That's something that should be easily fixed.

Dave: 10:24

Can you just ship me some new cards, some new memory, I'll replace it and we'll see if that fixes it. Well, you can't do that. You have to go in the store. So I had to drive another two and a half hours. So I get down there.

Dave: 10:40

So I was like, okay, when am I gonna make this trip? It's kind of a huge pain in the butt. And I was getting more and more fed up every time we tried to do a podcast. Mean, was crazy. So I get down there and they say, oh, well, we have to do another system test to verify it's the memory.

Dave: 10:58

Okay, well, so this is turning into a four hour trip down there. Like, it's just killing time, twiddling my thumbs for this stupid thing to complete. Well, the memory tested well there. Like there was no indication of a problem. At this point, I'm at my wit's end.

Dave: 11:18

I could not deal with this anymore. It was technically out of the warranty period. They didn't have any replacements for this particular model that they could just trade out with me. I was so furious. And that's why we're only talking about this now because I had to cool off after this incident.

Dave: 11:44

I was so furious that I just I had every intention to go down there and let this be fixed and then I come back without a computer. They did give me my money back and that was out of the period where that was technically valid to do. So, was appreciative of that, but okay. Yeah. I had to take ten hours to make this trip essentially and come back without a computer and go back to my once event.

Michael: 12:10

Well, and it's annoying too. You know, it's no different from a plumber or an electrician or something like that not able to get a vital tool for their craft kind of up and running, right? Or, you know, a farmer has his tractor breakdown or something. It's the same thing where without this one tool, you're kind of dead in the water. So again, just go back to thankfully, right, your computer at home, although, you know, getting aging and all of this was able to carry you on and do the job because just imagine the same story being told where every single day you're just not able to make any money because your system's not working, your robots are on it, they're the ones that are trading, the whole process, the whole business is just completely shut down.

Michael: 12:59

So, yeah, just wanted to, you know, thankfully, right? It wasn't computer A blows up and you have to go quickly find computer B, it was, okay, I'm searching for a replacement. But still for you to go through and test everything meant you probably had to, you know, re dig up an image. You had to image the old one and transfer that to the new and and all that kind of stuff. And so the amount of time that you're putting in is the only complaint, which is sucks, but it's still way better than it being the time and the the loss of of income from trading.

Dave: 13:31

Yeah. So very luckily, I did not get rid of my old computer, and I almost did. My wife was like, why is that thing still here? It's making noise. Luckily, did not do anything with that old computer.

Dave: 13:44

It didn't format or anything. Like, it's still sitting there. And I was able to just plug it right back in and pick up right where left off, which was I am very, very thankful that I did that. Otherwise, I would be sort of starting from scratch with a new computer. And I was not very comfortable with that, especially with the mindset I was in because I was just extremely frustrated.

Dave: 14:12

So there were a couple things that I

Michael: 14:16

Well, and just first of all, so did you ever get to the are you, like, did you ever figure out what the because you said one guy said it was the memory and then you went back and the other guy didn't. And it did everything but podcasting well. So I just I'm I'm just curious, did you ever get to the bottom of of what actually happened or, you know, you're

Dave: 14:37

still trying

Michael: 14:37

to figure that out?

Dave: 14:38

So I think it was ultimately as like a sporadic thing with the memory that would reveal itself when I was doing streaming or I got because I get on Zoom calls with a lot of my traders. And those were not quite as degraded as the podcast, but they were definitely degraded. So something with the memory that was just sporadic and not easily detected. But yeah, that ultimately was what I think the problem was. The bigger problem was, you know, I kind of made a poor decision in getting a computer from a place that was that far away.

Dave: 15:24

So what I've done in the meantime is I contacted a local computer shop, and this still may be a thirty minute drive away, but still it's doable and local and they're a much smaller company, this is what they do, they make custom computers for people.

Michael: 15:44

Like a mom pa job. Kinda Yeah.

Dave: 15:48

It's somebody that I had used for various things a long time ago, but it's so I I called the guy and had a conversation with him. So here here's the situation. Here's what happened. I want to avoid the situation where they're kind of saying there's not a problem. I you to guarantee I'm getting here.

Dave: 16:10

I gave them the exact specs that I got for this old computer and said, hey, can can you match this or come as close as you can? Because I actually I I love the computer. I I loved everything about it. So I kinda wanted this exact same thing except for it to work.

Michael: 16:24

Mhmm.

Dave: 16:28

He was, this local company's very good. They were willing to work with me. They were willing to actually have a conversation with the guy that would be building the computer, would be responsible for it. So there was no sort of bureaucracy to go through or anything. I felt comfortable with using them.

Dave: 16:52

I also did talk to the Falcon Computer company and talked to them. I almost did go with them. And I could very much see that being there's a very good argument for using them. They build custom computers for traders. So that's a really important thing that probably a lot of listeners would value.

Dave: 17:27

But they don't have locations everywhere. You'd be ordering one, any support, if something went wrong, you'd have to ship it back. So there was that concern too. So for that reason, I did go with the local company, but I could certainly see an argument for using Falcon computers. Well, there's a couple out there that make computers for traders specifically.

Michael: 17:51

So what what would be the difference? Right? Again, I'm I'm not tech nerd. I'm waiting for my moment to brag about how my Mac just always works. And if I need to, there's an Apple Store, everywhere, you can just go and kind of change that in.

Michael: 18:06

But I'll save doing that too much. And as a non super techy guy, what's the difference? Like, what am I looking for in a trading computer that would be different from going to Best Buy and just pulling the first kind of box off the shelf that is new and updated and looks good? Like, what are you actually kind of diving into? Like, I know if I was building it, what I would need, because real test is very RAM intensive, I'd just shove as much of that as I could.

Michael: 18:37

But, you know, on top of that, what are what are you looking for?

Dave: 18:41

Well, just, you know, a lot of these companies will pre install software for you that that you use, but that's not a huge deal for a really technical person, but that could be an important thing for other people. They also will do burn in. You know, they'll burn in the memory, they'll do exhaustive tests for a couple days to test the memory fully over a long period of time. So that is super valuable to be able to do. And it was pretty obvious that if that had been done with this computer that I got from Micro Center, it wouldn't have even made it on the shelf to be purchased.

Dave: 19:22

Doing that in a way that, and offering certain configurations that they know traders will appreciate. Like a lot of people, we've talked about this use multiple monitors and to have a test set up exactly like they want this design for for multiple monitors in the exact kind of way that traders wanna use it is is valuable for a certain type of trader.

Michael: 19:46

That that's interesting. Yeah. Because for me as a as a non tech guy, I just would probably just go and grab whatever gaming PC the I the ideas that if it's good enough for, you know, really high end gaming, it's probably good enough for for what I need as well. But, yeah, the benefit of, again, just the the Mac is you only got, like, three options. You got the little one or the beady one or the big one, and then you you go in and you grab that.

Michael: 20:14

You pay out the nose for it. But at the very least, when it comes to support, I I definitely have a good one. And I think that's that's probably the main takeaway from that is if you had a, a better through line to supporting the machine, then at the end of the day, it really shouldn't matter who you get it from, but that's the one thing that I think people don't If it's just your computer for surfing the web and going on Facebook or a family, whatever, you're not really too worried about what happens if it goes down for a week or so. But when it's a tool for work, that's a completely different beast that you have to look at, again, completely differently.

Dave: 20:53

Yeah. I love a Mac, but for like a general purpose, family computer. I can't do I can't run the applications I want to run on a Mac. I mean, technically you could with some emulation software, but I'm trying to get as close to the metal as I can with these And they need to be real time and they need to be fast. If there's a delay through emulation or something else to break down, that's a problem.

Dave: 21:31

That's gonna cost money. For that reason, I can't use a Mac. I've heard, you know, other people have suggested to me, oh, yeah. Use Linux. You can run Windows applications on Linux.

Dave: 21:44

And, yes, you can. But you're adding layers in there that can mess things up or be not optimal. I'm trying, we talked last week about trying to remove layers, trying to remove steps from your process. That would, so I'm trying to do that with the computer as well. So for that reason, I can't use the MAC for trading.

Michael: 22:10

Well, and that's gotta you know, if we're talking computer shopping, right? That's the one thing you gotta do first. And the most important thing is you go through everything that is essential from program, from a software side of things, and you just start ticking the box and make sure there is some sort of alternative. It's the reason why I have a PC that I remote into is because for real tests anyway, there's just no Mac version. So I have to have that for that.

Michael: 22:41

So yeah, you definitely gotta make sure whatever you do ends up going with it. And then kind of like we're showing here, step two is making sure that you're able to, you know, actually get your hands on what it is that you're trying to do in a fast way and be able to change things quickly, right? Especially with custom build PCs the way you're doing it, it could be just as simple as like that memory getting fried. That to me is obnoxious that they couldn't just send you because And if those who don't know, ram sticks are little tiny light things could go in in a like a Manila envelope and get sent to and take two or three days to go. So that's the kind of stuff you gotta go to.

Michael: 23:23

I like your solution. I thought your solution was great. It was actually gonna be what I would suggest is that find a local shop with a guy that you can go in and talk to, and he's like a real human being. He's not like a minimum wage cog in a machine. He's probably the owner or the proprietor of it.

Michael: 23:38

And just have a chat with them and say, listen, this is very important for my work. I need to make sure that I can service it regularly. I need to make sure that if something happens, can go with it. And I just find with those mom and pop places, you usually get such a better experience because it's their business, so they actually care about it. They're not just clocking in for a couple hours after school.

Dave: 24:03

Yeah. Yeah. And they know that there I mean, there's huge competition in the space. So that's how they differentiate themselves is the service like that. So yeah, you're totally right.

Dave: 24:12

And I'm happy with the decision I made here and how it's turned out. There are a couple of things that I took away from this that I think the listeners would benefit from. One is I I had in mind so I've used Ambroker for a long time, and that and Ambroker is a software that you can use to backtest intraday data across the entire market. And I've done this for years. And this would be probably the fourth computer I've used it on.

Dave: 24:45

I knew there was a specific configuration that would make my backtest run fast. So I designed the computer in such a way to make with the thought that to try to make this Amberbrook backtest run as quickly as possible. And I've still got the invoice from this computer. And I've sent it to a couple of people, a couple of the traders I'm coaching that are using Ambroker. And one guy got the exact same specs, and his backtest went from the like, they're taking 30% of the time or 20% of the time that they used to with this And original that's a huge difference.

Dave: 25:30

Like, you should really think about that.

Michael: 25:32

Mhmm.

Dave: 25:33

If you can shorten the time it takes to run a back test by that much, that's a huge win. You're gonna be able to iterate much faster and just it's gonna be a much more efficient process to come up with strategies. So that's one thing. And maybe I'll I think I'll share that on my newsletter. So if you're interested in those specs, I'm gonna send that out to my newsletter because it's been very valuable for a couple of people and I think other people benefit from it.

Michael: 26:05

And especially if you have a modular setup, right? There may be you may go through that setup and say, well, there's just this one component that if I upgrade, I'll be closer to this setup, right? And maybe not throw out the whole computer, but go from there and just say, hey, one area, if I just did this thing a little bit better, then everything else would be doing well. Because yeah, the amount of time you spend back testing, if you're trading the way we are, should be a lot. It should be probably a large majority, I would say, of a lot of your time.

Michael: 26:40

And if you can almost half the time that it takes to run those back tests, that you just, you've half the amount of time that you're just sitting there kind of staring at the wall waiting for this thing to be done. Yeah. That's a huge thing. Just compound that over weeks and months and see what kind of benefit you get on the other side of that.

Dave: 27:01

So the other big takeaway here that benefited me a lot. So when I did this, I've been running this old computer for six or seven years, so I knew that I had a lot of stuff on there that I just use and sort of don't realize and I wouldn't remember to install it. So I made it a point to document everything about what I installed, how I installed it on the new computer, and put that in my GitHub repo. So I now have an SOP. We talked about this last week, standard operating procedure for what I do when I install a new computer.

Dave: 27:48

So I have this one document. Anything I do from that, this point forward on this new computer, I update that document. So what this allows you to do is, you know, reformat the computer from scratch, look at this document, and you can get it right back up to a pristine thing with everything installed that you need. And I can do that now in like half an hour to an hour if I had to. That came So in really, really handy when I had to give this computer back and got a new computer.

Dave: 28:26

I had it all, it's just like really just follow step by step. I've done all the work to document that. So it's a breeze to get things up and going now.

Michael: 28:36

And again, the more that you can store on the cloud in those scenarios when it comes to like save states and layout files and things like that, definitely want to do so that you're not downloading a new application and then spending hours setting it up so it's exactly the way you want to. You've got the layout file saved somewhere. If the company can have some ability to store it, that's great. But if not, you make sure that you're doing that yourself and you're storing it, you know, in a GitHub or something like that, because, yeah, that would end up being, I think, the biggest amount of work is that if you're going through and you're setting up the application and then you have to find all the default settings and change all that around, just a nightmare.

Dave: 29:23

Yeah. I mean, it's a really it's It's only a little bit of work when you're doing it to document the steps, but it's a huge pain in the butt when you're going through it to Like, if you forget something, you need to go research, something takes hours. So it reminds me of back when I was CTO of Trade Ideas and we would hire somebody. When you hire somebody, it's really important. I recognize that, okay, this person has fresh eyes.

Dave: 29:54

They haven't been here for a long time. They aren't jaded. They aren't sort of bathed in all the processes. So the fact that they have fresh eyes is a really good opportunity for them to document steps that they have to go through. I really use that as a way to improve the onboarding a lot by what's a really valuable experience in somebody that's new and eager and can really help if you treat that the right way.

Dave: 30:26

It's a kind of a similar thing. When you're installing the software on a new computer, it's kind of a pain, but it's a really good step to document everything you do and to continue to do that. Your your future self will thank you big time.

Michael: 30:42

Yeah. And I I like that because it's kinda like a fresh set of eyes at that point, as opposed to sitting there and trying to remember, here's all the things I need to do is actually go through the process and have somewhere that you're typing in this kind of at the same time. And again, the main takeaway I think everyone should have of this is what a pain this was for for Dave and that the only thing that kinda saved you from probably going completely mental was just the fact that you you you weren't losing, you know, opportunity costs of trading at the same time, where if you were doing that, you might have heard about Dave on the news getting arrested at a at a micro center a couple of them away. So, yeah, definitely make sure that you're doing that. Make sure that you're you're thinking about these things beforehand.

Michael: 31:33

Take a look at your computer right now and say, well, how long has that been around? Maybe it's time to start. Doesn't mean you have to go and buy one today, but have the model, you know, picked out, maybe know a place that is local that you could just go and grab it if you needed to, that kind of thing. And then, yeah, take the time to make sure you know how to set it up because that'd be a nightmare in and of itself. You want to give yourself that kind of grace period.

Michael: 31:56

It's kind of like moving houses. If you can have the new house or the new apartment ready to go and you've got like a week to move all your stuff over and set it up, it's way better than, you know, have to do the whole thing in one day and you're just, you know, doing all that you can. You're just wiped. So have that new computer kind of red eye ready and set up and and good to go before you're before you're absolutely having to, before the gun's in your head.

Dave: 32:21

Yeah. Totally. So so as you're mentioning moving, it reminds me. So we, you know, went on vacation as we talked about last week. And one of the SOPs I have for that, standard operating procedures, I have a list of everything that I need to do before I take a trip.

Dave: 32:40

Like pack this, pack this, pack this, do this, do this, do this. And I update that over time. So I mean, how many times have you gone on vacation and forgotten something? I mean, so often. But I know that's not going to be a problem now because when that happens, I'll just update my SOP.

Dave: 33:00

I'm going to be following this list. So packing for a trip is completely stress free.

Michael: 33:07

Yeah. And I do the I do the same thing too when I travel for work when you put it into the bag so that you're not like reopening the bag and checking for everything. But, you know, we talk about it all the time is, right, we systematize our trading, we outsource the boring parts to robots, all that kind of stuff, which is great. But it's not just a trading thing. It's it's kind of just the life in general thing where the more, the less work you can do from a kind of boring, you know, the less thinking you have to do about, oh, you know, how many pairs of socks do I need for this trip?

Michael: 33:42

The more your brain's freed up for other stuff. So even though it takes a little bit of work to sit down with Apple Notes or however you wanna do it, something that syncs kinda globally, just create these little lists for yourself for life, right? When I go to the gym, I track all of my workouts. So I know roughly the weight to put on the machine and simple stuff like this. And yeah, the more you do it across different aspects of life, the more you'll see it in all aspects of life, the more it will shoot back to your trading and saying, well, okay, if it's good for my diet and it's good for my travel and it's good for this, it's probably also good for my trading.

Dave: 34:20

Yeah. I mean, I love that. And, you know, think about the mindset, like, it's sort of, I've heard described as like bees in your head where you're not sure if you've forgotten something. That state is anxiety producing, even though it may be just a little small hint of anxiety. To have that free and to have a system that you trust that you know that, okay, I'm doing these steps.

Dave: 34:51

This list is authoritative. I can update this list over time. These are the steps I follow. Just being free not to have to think about something about what you might have forgotten. It's a great feeling to have done the work to be in that position to not have to think about something.

Michael: 35:10

That's great. So yeah. And, you know, if you're near a micro center and you see Dave walk in, definitely be careful. But, I'm for one glad that you got all that sorted because it was it was a bit of a pain here. But, you know, it's one thing again, love about this game is that we're we're constantly learning from different parts of it and then we get to bring that to you guys to teach.

Michael: 35:34

This was a little bit of an annoying one to learn from from the podcast side of but we figured it out and we kept it going and we're excited to keep going now. And now Dave looks obviously crystal clear on his beautiful new computer for those who are watching and sounds great for those who are listening. But as always, I'm Michael Noss.

Dave: 35:54

And I'm Dave May. Thanks for joining us. Talk to you next week on Line Your Own Pockets.