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Today I used NinjaTrader 6.5. again after a break of 4 weeks. It crashed 3 times within the frist 10 minutes. I cannot believe that I used such a crap for several years.
CL orders will not be executed at all or only in the wrong contract month. Data cannot be loaded for more than one chart at the same time. Daily data is false for many instruments. Brrrrrrrrrr! Won't touch it again.
NinjaTrader 7 is not reliable either, but is good enough for order execution and charting. Do not try to use it for backtesting or automated trading.
Looking for a new software package soon.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
I have not used NT7 yet but i never really had any problem with NT6.5. Why trying to fix something that works ! The only problem i got recently was when we got this internet outage with Zen-Fire. On the other hand, you say you are looking for a new software but i see that you invested a lot of time in Ninja. Dommage, all your great indicators will be lost if you change platform. That's the joy of coding i suppose. That's a great reminder why i decided at the beginning of my quest to not invest in the scripting-tual path.
Indeed, the investment cost is not the money, but the time invested. I learned C# from scratch, and if I change to multicharts, part of my efforts are sunk costs. I would need to recode a lot of indicators. For many of them that will be quick, as I already know the problems, but some of them - like the pivot and fibonacci confluence indicators may take weeks to recode.
NT 6.5. regularly hangs, when loading historical data from Interactive Brokers. I am so used to open the TaskManager to remove it and to restore my backup from the day before. Have done this hundreds of time. Whenever I touch it, it crashes. Also a good number of contracts is executed in the wrong contract month. Is this normal that you pay for a piece of software and that instead buying CL 10-10, you are executed in CL 11-10, and even after years of reporting this, it is not changed? Applies to all energy futures. Also the daily data is false. False volume spikes are being created.
If the software crashes several times per day on loading historical data, if you cannot rely on the data, because it is false, and if all energy futures are executed in a wrong month, then this software is a piece of crap. I feel sorry for saying this, because as you said, I have invested some time. Also the NínjaTrader guys are courteous and invest their time. But unfortunately, this is no guarantee that it will work.
This thread is a good place to get rid of your frustration. Feeling better now, thanks.
I have been using this software about 6 years now and I really can say it is a robust application. 4 000+ hours backtesting and trading. I recommend all of you thinking to change to look https://www.amibroker.com/. Execute through Interactivebrokers and you can trade directly from the charts. There is no DOM but you can use https://www.buttontrader.com/ or https://www.bracket-trader.com/ for DOM. For data use IQFeed.
Language is very C-like and it also supports array programming which makes in many case the scripts lot of smaller than usual C, C#, VB like scripting. Very comprehensive language. Native code = VERY FAST.
Amibroker is one of the best software available for backtesting EOD data. And it is reasonably cheap.
Order execution and charting is not user friendly, and as you said ButtonTrader would be an excellent order execution tool to complement it. Then you would also add something like Ensign or SierraChart for charting and you would end up with 3 software packages.
So I really see Amibroker as a software specialized for backtesting.
The programming language of AmiBroker is somewhat squeer. This turned me off. Took me quite some time to learn C#, as I had no prior knowledge. Can reuse C# with other software, such as CQG. Learning Amibroker language would be sunk cost in case that you don't use it anymore.
It is all related to the NinjaTrader interface with the API of Interactive Brokers. So if you have Zenfire, your experience will be different.
(1) I have not created any code, which causes execution of all orders in energy futures in the wrong contract month.
(2) I have not created false daily data on the daily charts of NT. Everybody with a system clock set to GMT +1, GMT +2 or further East will experience this problem.
(3) I have not created the volume spikes. This issue persists with NT 7 and has been confirmed by NT developpers. They cannot change it and blame InteractiveBrokers, so I will continue with false volume spikes.
(4) The crashes occur, because NinjaTrader 6.5. cannot handle the data throttling limitations of IB's data feed. Other software like QuoteTracker or Amibroker never had any problems with the same data feed.
(1) and (4) has been solved with NT 7. (2) has been indirectly solved, because NinjaTrader now offers a free EOD data feed that I can use as an alternative. (3) is still an open issue even with NT7.
The frequent crashes simply occur, because NT 6.5 does not adapt to the specifications of the Interactive Brokers API. Starting with something like NT 7.0.0.10 the crashes have stopped. NT 7 is remarkably stable with exactly the same simple workspace (4 intraday charts and 1 daily chart).
So do not tell me any stories about custom indicators. That is nonsense and I am quite annoyed . The truth is that NT developpers pretend that the product - NT 6.5. - works with Interactive Brokers, and it simply doesn't.
I still would like to say that you can backtest everything down to 5 seconds. Not only EOD. And in realtime it shows you every tick if you want.
Then if you can tarde with full strategy/ies just by clicking the button once (for example to buy with multiple stoploss and target orders) I would like to say it IS EASY order execution. Directly from the chart. What I said was that there is no DOM and those who needs (everybody does not need DOM) the DOM then you should get another application which by the way is nothing because WIndows is a multitasking operating system
C-language is the most commong programming language in the world. So I do not see problems if someone will try to learn it. But maybe I am the wrong person to say is the C good for trading or not because I have over 30 years experience in the software developing allmost of any kind of languages and systems from small tiny devices up to mainframe computers and database systems so maybe I am little a bit too inside...
If you are searching a robust system then this is worth to look I think.
But and anyway "Someone likes the girl and someone the girl's mother"
That may be a silly question but why don't you just change broker and/or dataprovider or switch to Zen-Fire ? I constantly hear horror stories about Interactive Broker.
. The truth is that NT developpers pretend that the product - NT 6.5. - works with Interactive Brokers, and it simply doesn't.
so maybe I am little a bit too inside... 