This article is written by Natallia Hunik, Global Head of Sales at Fortex Inc.
Natallia Hunik, Fortex
Trading via a VPS has become very popular in the retail FX community over the last several years. This article aims to provide a summary of the product and its most common uses, as well as to give a general overview of the advantages of using a VPS.
A VPS (Virtual Private Server) allows traders, who use Expert Advisor (EA) automated trading systems, to minimize latency between the MT4 client terminal and the MT4 trade server. By running the system from a secure data center location, clients can also potentially receive the benefit of 100% up-time, resulting in significantly faster executions, higher trading volumes and fewer missed opportunities.
Why may a trader need a VPS?
Metatrader 4 (MT4) expert advisors, or robots, enable you to automate trading however, in order to perform consistently, your computer (with a trading terminal installed) needs to be up and running at all times with an uninterrupted connection to the trade server.
It is therefore inherently risky for a trader to run an EA on their home or work PC as there are typically no safeguards against loss of network connectivity, power interruptions or hardware failures.
Secondly, if your computer is located closer to the trade server, when running an automated strategy, you will benefit from reduced network latency and should be able to trade on the most recent quote much faster than normal. This gives the advantage of faster execution combined with reduced slippage.
Will you benefit from using VPS if you trade manually?
You will benefit from having uninterrupted access to the internet using a remote VPS but you won’t be able to take advantage of faster execution as, whether using VPS or a home PC, you will not be able to remove network latency from the equation.
What actually is a VPS? How is it created?
VPS are virtualized environments hosted on a single, powerful and robust physical server which has been divided into multiple independent virtual servers. Each VPS has its own dedicated amount of bandwidth, disk space, RAM and CPU resource. Running trading software on a VPS makes it possible for an automated system to run 24 hours a day without the concerns mentioned above. Secondly, the stability of the internet connections can vary from country to country, putting traders at a disadvantage depending on the connection possibilities available to them at their location. Trading from a virtual machine offers a stable alternative as well as a potentially faster trade route.
Because the hardware, network and maintenance costs of these virtualized environments are distributed between multiple users, the overall cost is minimized for the end consumer.
Some retail FX brokers provide free VPS for their top performing accounts as a way to offer a cost-effective and scalable solution that fulfills traders’ needs in a stable virtual trading environment.
What is the minimum VPS specifications?
Download a minimum VPS specification for MT4 here and learn more.
Who are the best VPS providers?
Fortex provides technology solutions to the world’s largest FX brokerages and works with a number of reliable partners that supply various solutions to FX brokerages. We only work with VPS providers with proven track records of success and we can provide our recommendation on your request. Please, request this information here.