Trading on a 11" MBA

[Gliderguider]

Hi folks,

Does anyone use a MBA for Trading? Currency, Stocks etc?

I use MetaTrader 4 to trade FOREX on my iMac 27" through an X11 Wine type arrangement (no idea how it works, but it does!)

I'm looking to buy a small Ultrabook to complement the iMac, and the sensible approach would be to revert to Windoze and run MT4 natively at lower cost!

Problem is, I rather like documents in the cloud, and my trading business plan and trading journal are in Pages and Numbers respectively. The ability to update my journal as I place each and every order is essential.

Question:

1) Does anyone know how much space X11/Wine takes up on the HDD? Will the bottom 64Gb 11" MBA be too small? I only intend to have X11, Pages and Numbers installed as extra programs. I'll use Mail and Safari, but that's it!

2) Does anyone trade from an 11" screen? Or 13" for that matter?

Thanks in advance.

Gliderguider

 

[superKoder]

I am not into trading at all. But size is a relative thing.

If you don't care about things like GarageBand, iPhoto, iMovie,... then you can remove those and free up some gigabytes. More than sufficient to hold X11 (which is less than 100MB), Wine (definitely not a gig!) and the application you need.

(I personally own a MBA 11" 128GB. And I am really pushing the limit on mine. But then again, I run XCode and some VMs. So there's a good reason for that.)

When it comes to screen real estate, the 11" is pretty small. I advise you to resize the window of your trading app on your iMac to the size of the MBA screen. And use it a while like that. See if everything fits.

And do consider the 13"! The price difference between an 11" 128GB and a 13" 128GB is only $100. But you get a bigger screen and a better battery for it!

 

[KylePowers]

Just pointing out that you can virtualize Windows and run it alongside OSX quite easily. It can even be free using VirtualBox (assuming you have a valid Windows license). WINE works too, but just throwing this out there in case you didn't know.

I have the 13in, but I don't do any trading myself. I did, however, move from an 11in to a 13in for increased screen real estate and way better battery life.

64GB is definitely enough, but if you could afford 128GB, then I'd just go that route. I often run into issues with 128GB actually, and I too have an iMac as my main machine =\

 

[Gliderguider]

Thanks for the responses... now 4Gb or 8Gb of RAM?

I'm now heading towards the 13" MacBook Air, as the appeal of greater screen real estate and battery life is appealing!

I'm guessing my question of 4 or 8Gb of RAM is a no brainer. I don't need 8Gb... does Mountain Lion run swimmingly on 4Gb?? Would it be noticably better on 8Gb??

Thanks

GG

 

[wolfpuppies3]

For my money, and it was my money, get 8 GB of memory.

 

[Lukewarmwinner]

I'm now heading towards the 13" MacBook Air, as the appeal of greater screen real estate and battery life is appealing!

I'm guessing my question of 4 or 8Gb of RAM is a no brainer. I don't need 8Gb... does Mountain Lion run swimmingly on 4Gb?? Would it be noticably better on 8Gb??

Thanks

GG

I've just ordered as well and went with 8gb. I really think its a good idea since its non-upgrade able. Also you might need it in a couple of years