Using Commoditized Computers Setups for Stock Trading?

An anonymous reader asks: "Thanks to Walmart, TigerDirect, and Gnu/Linux, I can get computers at about $200 now. Thanks to Matrox, I have several multi-head video cards. Thanks to a hacker's convention last year, I have a truckload of monitors that haven't been put to use yet. I've been out of the financial markets since 1996. I'm itching to get back in now, especially since conditions will be very favorable shortly. Since I've lost my shirt in the markets already (most investors/traders loose their shirts at least once before striking it rich, and my beating was especially instructive), I'm now ready for better returns. Gnu/Linux is well known to support multiple monitor setups. I've seen 4 monitor setups per box in some financial firms, and I recently read a story on the National Weather Service using 3 monitor setups on another OSDN channel. I've also used a Quotrek trading monitor in the past, for monitoring stocks and other financials in real-time. This was before I was a penguinista. Now that I know a bit about Linux systems, I'd like to know the following: What Gnu/Linux applications can I use to monitor and/or process stocks, options, bonds, financial news, and other related information via low cost Gnu/Linux computing solutions, broadband, and multi-head video cards? Free software only, please"

"I'm not going back to paying hundreds of dollars per month like I did for my Quotrek (an FM receiver for stock quotes, possibly discontinued), or paying many hundreds for proprietary software that may not get the job done, or can't be modified or supported by the community. What free software applications do you use? What is a good multi-monitor layout? Any free software that picks up financial broadcast signals and decodes to a computer screen? Any slashdot tycoons want to help out other Slashdot readers?"

Comments

Ummm

[Anonymous Coward]

"...I'm now ready for better returns. Gnu/Linux is well known to support multiple monitor setups."

If I were you I'd spend some time thinking about how not to get financially burned again, rather than compiling Gentoo and fiddling about with X. It may be a cute idea to have your own "trading room", but you'll soon feel stupid when your multiple monitor setup is reporting massive losses of your own cash. And I'm being totally serious here.

Mutiple monitors are for pretty graphs.

[T-Ranger]

And the trading takes place on a text terminal connected to an IBM mainframe with code written in the 60's, audited by a cast of thousands, and just plain works. Period.

So your likely SOL.

sounds like you need this

[paradesign]

GA

you my friend have bigger fish to fry first. good luck, im pulling for you. if you dont like that, theres always the slots to fall back on when trading goes bad again.