Request: Auto Connect on Startup and auto restart when connection down

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Thanks for your suggestion. We'll add it to the list of future considerations.

[nintra]

The Hesitation

I do considering purchasing NT as the software platform for live trading. However, without the ability to AUTOMAGICALLY reconnect at reboot for WHATEVER reason (power down, machine scheduled or emergency reboot, OS critical updates , platform crash, cleaning memory due to bugs in .Net framework, native methods or some 3rd party glitch etc.) I personally HESITATING to name the platform complete or ready for the prime time usage.

As for NT sw team, making autoconnect on startup is a simple and straightforward thing, as the current NT menu item collection File-Connect handler is just as easy to call from startup routine. Can't understand YOUR HESITATION in that regard, after all it's in your best business interests!

I have to admit that the other part of this - making the interfaces to manage the NT connections programmatically from within custom strategies would be the thing that requires a bit more work. That functionality would be required for many more resilient scenarios as well as for sophisticated strategies requiring cross quotes and/or multi broker executions.

But, at least at this stage the emergency need for ANY trading platform should be stated clear: On restarting the system the chosen connection AND the strategy have to be activated without external aid. That is why many will need this essentials now, in NT 6.5, that's why the requests to raise the priority to implement, don't we seeing this in B12?

Hope that this is more clear now, thank you guys and we'll appreciate your efforts.

[skynetman]

I noticed that sometimes NT has to be killed via task manager because it does not terminate itself.
I think you could implement the auto restart with an external exe program that always checks for NT process and waits max 3 minutes before killing NT and then starts it again. This way you could check also for abnormal cpu usage of NT thread.
This way you have an external process manager that excludes any problem within .net framework in case it's gone mad.....
another thing to add is a "temp" workspace used to store the workspace just before exiting and restoring it on restart.
Just ideas...

[nintra]

I noticed that sometimes NT has to be killed via task manager because it does not terminate itself.
I think you could implement the auto restart with an external exe program that always checks for NT process and waits max 3 minutes before killing NT and then starts it again. This way you could check also for abnormal cpu usage of NT thread.
This way you have an external process manager that excludes any problem within .net framework in case it's gone mad.....
another thing to add is a "temp" workspace used to store the workspace just before exiting and restoring it on restart.
Just ideas...

Better yet, for truly automating the best option would be Windows service executable with its credentials set to the interactive user. That way no need to use extra service(s) just to kick NT without signing in after machine (re)boot. The service would start NT process and keep watching on its PID with actions as required. Just as say antiviral products implemented. That's simple and reliable once done. And the code amount required is minimal too. Maybe even NT automatic updates ON RESTARTING as a berry on that service piece of cake

skynetman,
As to temp workspace, please elaborate I didn't get it, if there is risk of corrupting workspace settings or leaving them unsaved, why not just an internal implementation like MS Office document recovery, e.g. without bothering user with temporarily concepts?

[skynetman]

Then to avoid corrupted workspaces better add a new "auto save workspace every xx minutes" as in Office. So NT doesn't have to save it on exit or use an old one.

I'm not a win programmer, i'm happy when better ideas are expressed .
NT as service wouldn't require a complete rewriting from scratch?

[nintra]

Then to avoid corrupted workspaces better add a new "auto save workspace every xx minutes" as in Office. So NT doesn't have to save it on exit or use an old one.

I'm not a win programmer, i'm happy when better ideas are expressed .
NT as service wouldn't require a complete rewriting from scratch?

To avoid corrupted its best to follow KISS and just eliminate bugs in code
Autosave XX should be non distracting, thus implemented internally. IMO no need to have minutes delay in saving, just persist the setting into internal temp settings, then ask user on exit if such confirmation is enabled, otherwise do it immediately.
No, NT still remains, its just an extra Win service in the NT Setup package that will manage NT executable, so no need to scratch

[jdfagan]

+1

And basic remembering of settings between restarts. I notice basic stuff gets reset between restarts. Also, would be nice to have auto-loaded strats/indicators as well for chart windows with strats and/or indicators we want to persist between restarts.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Not sure why you think "basic stuff gets reset between restarts". The exact same settings are applied each and every time you connect.

Nevertheless, NT7 will come with an auto-connect feature.

[jdfagan]

Sorry, I may have not been clear. I did not mean to say settings regarding connections get reset. I met more general settings sometimes seem to be forgotten by NT between restarts. For example, if I set filter only active strategies in Strategies tab, this setting seems to get reset between restarts. Maybe that is specifically designed that way, but I always end up resetting this after a restart.

Anyways, I appreciate the auto-reconnect being implemented in NT7, thank you! Will that include the ability of having certain indicators/strategies applied to specific charts in a workspace to be auto-reloaded after the connection gets auto-reconnected? Ideally remembering its param settings that were set for that strategy/indicators for the chart.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

To clarify: NT6.5 charts already do maintain their indicators upon reconnect. We do have restoring of strategies on our list though.