VPS hardening for discretionary traders (not HFT myths)

[FXS London Scalper]

A VPS sold to retail traders is often marketed with talk about microseconds. For a discretionary scalper clicking a mouse, the reaction time of the human is 200 ms or more, so shaving 3 ms off the network doesn't matter much. What does matter is that the box is stable and secure.

Hardening steps that actually make a difference:

• Change the default RDP port and use a strong, unique password. Exposed RDP on port 3389 is scanned constantly.
• Enable two-factor or restrict RDP to your home IP if the provider allows it.
• Set Windows active hours to cover your sessions, so updates can't restart the machine at 08:05.
• Disable unnecessary services and startup apps. A trading VPS should run the platform and little else.
• Keep platform and OS updates current, but apply them on weekends.
• Back up your platform profile, templates and EA settings to somewhere off the VPS.

And one non-technical step: write down how to close all positions from your phone if the VPS becomes unreachable. That plan matters more than any ping number.

What's the most useful VPS setting you've changed?