forex-scalping.com

Many brokers offer free or discounted VPS through partner programmes, usually marketed as lower latency. I measured a few of them instead of trusting the brochure.

The good: a VPS in the same data centre as the broker's trade server, often London LD4 or New York NY4, really does give low ping, typically 1 to 2 ms compared with 20 to 40 ms from my home connection. That is a real improvement in consistency.

The less good: low ping on a quiet afternoon is easy. What matters is behaviour at 08:00 and during news. Some partner VPS plans I tried were fine; one became sluggish every London open because the machine was overloaded with other users' terminals.

How I test a VPS: run a small script that logs ping to the trade server every few seconds for a week, plus CPU and memory usage. Then look at the worst values during the London open and data releases, not the average.

The free plans often require a minimum monthly trading volume. Read the conditions, because a free VPS that disappears in a quiet month is not much use.

For a discretionary scalper, the main benefit is not speed but reliability: no home internet drops, no Windows updates on your own PC at the wrong moment. Choose based on that.

Same data centre ping of 1 to 2 ms is real, and it is still not the number I decide on. I log ping, CPU and memory every few seconds for a week and sort by the worst values at 08:00 London and during releases, not by the quiet afternoon average.

One partner VPS I tried looked fine at 14:00 and crawled every London open because the box was packed with other terminals. Average ping stayed pretty; fill consistency did not.

The free plans need a volume read in the terms. A discounted VPS that vanishes after a quiet month left me scrambling back to a home line mid week once, which is worse than paying a small fixed fee.

For discretionary scalping the main win is reliability rather than speed. No home drops and no Windows update at 07:55 matter more than shaving another millisecond off a calm ping.

I also keep a second login path ready. If the VPS freezes into the open I want a phone or backup PC that can flatten risk, even if I will not trade from it.

Five London opens of worst case logs is my minimum before I trust a new partner box. How many days do you want before switching live size onto it?

LondonScalper, fill quality versus ping is the extra log I wish I had started sooner. On one partner VPS the worst ping at 08:00 stayed under 5 ms while stop slips on EURUSD jumped to about 0.8 pips, pointing at an overloaded book rather than the VPS path.

CPU spikes from other users' EAs showed up the same week. Memory and ping looked fine, yet the terminal froze for two seconds when three heavy indicators refreshed on a shared core.

RDP lag versus MT5 ping needs separating on the sheet. A 150 ms screen delay from my desk does not mean the EA on the box is slow, and a lower ping plan will not fix hesitation on a remote desktop.

When I change brokers I still want the VPS in the same data centre as the new trade server. A cheap leftover box in LD4 is useless if the new book sits in NY4.

Five London opens of worst case logs remains my minimum. I add two data mornings inside that sample before full size, because open and release congestion failed different plans for me.

Do you measure slip on the VPS as its own column, or only ping and CPU? Slip is what convinced me the pretty ping was not enough.