Just recently my trusty old Pentium 4  trading computer died and I was faced with a dilemma what computer system am I going to buy. Really there are only two options Mac or PC. I have been using both windows and Mac computers for well over ten years and I have to say that I prefer Mac and OS X over Windows any day of the week. The problem is there is very little trading software written that supports Mac. I asked myself some simple questions:

What do I need from a computer

1. Large Screen.
2. Needs to run all trading applications.
3. Needs to be fast. (Not ultra fast).
4. Ability to develop for multiple devices.
5. Decent amount of RAM.
6. Large hard drive.
7. Simple.
8. Good Value for money.

With all these requirements in mind I decided to go with the new 27 Inch iMac model. You can read about the full specifications of this machine 27” iMac, below is a quick rundown:

• 3.06 Intel Core 2 Duo
• 4 gig of RAM.
• 1 terabyte hard drive
• 27 inch backlight LED screen (love the resolution of this machine)

Running my Trading Software

Here is where things get a little more complicated if you want to run most trading software you will need to run Windows. Essentially you have three options for running Windows based software:

1. You can use a virtual machine.
2. You can use Crossover Office or Darwine (note: .NET not supported).
3. Use boot camp and dual boot with OS X.

Each option has it’s strengths and weaknesses, however after weighing all the options I have decided to go with Parallels Desktop version 5. Parallels has excellent integration within OS X and coherence mode allows me to run my Windows applications and OS X applications side by side.  Below is a screenshot:

So far in my limited testing I have not come across an issue running my applications in a virtualized environment. The applications run fast enough for my needs and I can export my virtual machine and run my trading system from multiple locations. It will be interesting to see how this virtualized environment performs with some statistical arbitrage systems. I am also looking forward to getting 64 bit version of Matlab up and running under OS X.