Summary
The economic version of the best power protection you can buy. UPS is one of the must have equipment if your utility company does not / could not provide stable electricity most of the time.
Product Information
APC SMC1500 Smart-UPS 900 / 1500 VA
Made by APC
Various models with power rating at 1000 VA and 1500 VA
Shipping weight around 50 pounds
Can support basic survival set of trading equipments for an hour or more
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Review
UPS is something you wish you have installed when your computer shutdown suddenly right in front of your eyes because of power outage or similar problems. As I mentioned in my article on UPS, they are pretty much a survival equipment that all traders should have. It is a small price to pay if you value your trading as a business.
This series of UPS are the ones providing true sine wave output which is better in prolonging the life of your computer equipment. The model that supports 1000 VA (a power rating jargon) is good for supporting your computer, couple of big LCD monitors and your whole set of internet connection hardware for about 45 minutes of operation. With the 1500 VA models, you can expect more than an hour of battery life even if you are connected to 2 computers.
The time that the UPS bought you is enough for you to take care of your open positions, shut down the computer properly and walk away in peace. Think of the disastrous outcome without the UPS where you have to scramble on the phone to take care of your open positions and orders, it is a no brainer why UPS is a necessity.
This lower price series is made possible by stripping away the more advanced computer interface.
From my personal experience, if you are trading discretionarily, you do not need the advanced interface. You are going to be sitting in front of the computer anyway when the power outage happens during trading hours. Thus you can take care of your business and shut down the computer equipment manually. And if the power outage or power spike lasts for a short period of time only, you can just carry on with your trading without hiccups.
If power outage happens outside of trading hours, when you are not trading or not using the computer, it does not matter much any more. The computer will shut down itself when the backup power runs out. The UPS will take care of the computer with proper power supply all the way til the end.
If you are trading mechanically with your trading models running live, you better get the higher end models with the full computer interface so that you can program the shutdown sequence into your computer.
I highly recommend APC Smart-UPS products.
