Optimize Think or Swim For Day Trading

Optimizing RAM Settings For Trading

The first thing that we want to do is optimize the platform for our computers specific amount of RAM. If you have more, you can allocate more to the Think or Swim trading application which in turn will help improve its performance especially when running multiple windows of the application or detached stock charts. The general guides are as follow:

4GB RAM = 512 x 1536

8GB RAM = 1024 x 3072

16GB+ RAM = 4096 x 6155

Real Time Stock Quotes

Once you’ve got that dialed in, ensure that your quote speed is coming in real time. We can access this menu by going to setup in the top right hand corner, application settings, system in the general sub menu, and changing our quote speed from default (moderate 3 seconds delay) to real time with no delay. This is essential if you are someone who plans on being a day trader, scalper, or any fast paced trade execution style.

Using Active Trader

Next we want to make sure that we are executing our trades on the active trader tab that is loaded into its own pane. If we have three things all happening at once in one window, the platform will not be running as efficiently as it could be and after all we are trying to optimize Think or swim for day trading. When trading options this is a must do anyways since the option will not be linked to the chart of the underlying stock any ways.

Collecting Garbage / Stop Lag

Lastly a little bonus tip is that you can collect garbage if the platform has been running smoothly all day and suddenly starts to lag. What this is going to do is free up some memory to allocate to the correct tasks and processes instead of things that are no longer relevant.