Building a Trading Set-Up on a Budget
Simplified Investing
Volume 3, Q3 2020
The foundation of your trading setup is your desk. You need ample space for workspace and misc. tools. Look and sturdiness, are some of the other qualities I look for. This is the SHW Home Office 55-In. Large Computer Desk, Espresso. Retails for $99.97 on Amazon.
Personally I don’t enjoy scratching up my desk or water marks. Adding some protection never hurts. This 1.5mm 60 x 24 in. plastic desk cover retails for $34.99 on Amazon.
To cut down on costs we will be running our laptop (I strongly recommend you have at least 8 GB of RAM and a SSD) on a docking station.This is what allows the set-up to work on your multiple monitors. Retail for the Dell USB 3.0 Ultra HD/4k Triple Display Docking Station (D3100 is typically $129. To cut down on costs I bought the docking station used from Amazon for $78. The monitors and stand I bought off of FaceBook Marketplace for $350. Retail on three 24 in. Sceptre monitors and AMD triple monitor stand are welll over $600.
To connect everything you will need 3 HDMI cables and 1 printer cable. Depending on monitor resolution you can go up or down in quality. The grand total for all four of these cables was $33.96.
No one wants a poor quality of cord management on their desk. To keep everything tiddy I decided to buy a 17 in. under desk cable management tray. Depending on your desk size, size up or down. This model retails for $22.95 on Amazon.
Tieing up your cables above the desk just adds another level of tiddiness. If you are someone who moves locations often and need to break down your desk for moving, velcro cable management ties are great! These retail on Amazon for $7.49.
Murphy’s law states that anything that can happen will happen. Protect your investment and under-desk cord management by buying 3M velcro comand strips and a surge protector power strip. Together these will only set you back $19.97 on Amazon.
Since you will be running your set-up off of a laptop, you will want a laptop stand with a built-in CPU cooler. This is due to the fact that your CPU will get warmer than normal and you don’t want your laptop to fail. Retail for this unit is $49.99 on Amazon.
I have a habit of splurging on the finer things in life. To reduce costs I bought this direct plug-in Apple keyboard off of Ebay for $25. These typically retail around $80-$120 new. To reduce cables I went with a bluetooth Logitech mouse for $9.99 on Amazon.
Just for an added aesthetic I wanted to add some color to my trading routine. These are LED Color Changing Lights that retail for $28.99 on Amazon. Best part of the equation is that these lights can be contolled via app over WiFi. So if you are ready to add some hype to this stock rally add these to your budget.
There are many chairs to select from. Honestly you could have a lawn chair but I wanted to pick a middle ground between the $20-$800 range. This is a Killabee gaming chair I purchased off of Amazon for $139.99.
If you are on the go a lot having extra screen space is awesome! I was hesitant at first to pull-the-trigger on this purchase. However after trying to click between multiple tabs while trading I saw the need. The SideTrak 12.5 in. screen expander retails for $299.99 on Amazon.
Top Left: You will need an extra laptop charger if you travel a lot; so you never forget your main laptop charger off of your main set-up. I run a Inspiron 13-7353; the charger retails for $21.99 on Amazon. Top Right: For someone who runs a lot of their trades off of their phone due to redundancy, an Anker 2 USB powerbank which retails for $49.99 on Amazon is a great option with 6,000 mH.
Personally, I believe this is a great beginner set-up for someone who has done well in the market and this investment has already paid for itself. All in you will be looking at investment for your main set-up, mobile-setup and accessories of $1,400. I know a lot of professional traders who have $10,000+ set-ups. So when you are ready to make the move you will know how to.