Tradestation vs NinjaTrader

[stepwise]

Hi All,

I am currently a TS user and programmer and of course trader (Forex). I have NO problems getting into C# and would love to use only NinjaTrader longer term.

I was hoping to get feedback from other traders / programmers (and ideally who have used TS before) to give me an idea of what NT is lacking - if anything.

A couple of examples:

1. Need multiple scaling on the y-axis to plot a histogram (-50 to 50) and a stochastic line (0 to 100) on top of each other. In other words the midpoint of the histogram (0) would intersect with the midpoint of the line (50).

2. Advanced methods - for instance TS has methods to calculate a previous swing high or swing low.

3. Historical Tick Data - TS offers 6 months of tick data on the Forex.

Any general and specific feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Also, is there a resources that would help in converting existing ELD files (EasyLanguage code) to Ninja Script?

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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Response from NinjaTrader:

1) We currently do not support multiple scales on a single price panel. This is committed for development later this year.

2) We do not have a function to calulate swing high/low but you can replicate this functionality within NinjaScript. I took a quick look at the EL function forthis and the math seems very straight forward.

3) NinjaTrader itself is not a market data vendor and does not provide a large historical data set for FX. We currently support eSignal for historical data or a manual import function should you have another source for historical data.

I am moving your post to more relavant category so this received some visibility. Would appreciate any other EL users chiming in.

There is someone currently working on a EL > NinjaScript converter. I will forward them this post.

Ray

[Joel Reymont]

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I'm currently building a simple web site to deploy the alpha version of the EasyLanguage to NinjaTrader translator. Email me at joelr1 at gmail and I'll let you know when I have something available for testing.

Thanks, Joel

[stepwise]

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Thanks so much for your reply.

With regards to the scaling - is this something I can custom code using NinjaScript?

Also, just to confirm, NinjaScript is really C# right? Or am I missing something.

With regards to the historical data - three questions:

a) Can you recommend one or two vendors for historical forex tick data?
b) Does NT have sufficient Daily and Intra Day (minute) data?
c) If I buy historical data, I can do that just once and then the broker's / NT's real time data will take over from there?


Finally, where can I go to search on all the built in functions you offer or ideas for developing custom functions?

Thanks again!

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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You are welcome:

Yes, you can custom code scaling by overriding the indicators Plot() method. This is not documentedand purely for advanced C# programmer since it involves custom painting/graphics...but it can be done and there are people who are doing it.

Yes this is C#. NinjaScript is the name for the set of trading related methods and properties that we provide.

a) eSignal is the only one I am familiar with. I do not have any names of companies that sell historical FX data. Sorry

b) NT is not a market data vendor, we do not provide any data. eSignal is your best bet and we do have a discounted version for NinjaTrader users only, see the link below

c) Yes but if you have a disconnect you can have a gap in data service. eSignal is your best bet in this case.

Ray

eSignal discounted service - http://www.ninjatrader.com/web/eSign...rPromotion.pdf

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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I forgot...

All available methods and properties are documented in the Help Guide. See the section on User Defined Methods for working with custom functions (methods in C#) that you may want to use across multiple strategies or indicators.

Ray

[stepwise]

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ninjatrader wrote:

Yes, you can custom code scaling by overriding the indicators Plot() method. This is not documentedand purely for advanced C# programmer since it involves custom painting/graphics...but it can be done and there are people who are doing it.

Thanks again. Any advice on where I can find examples of this? I am a developer (even worked in C# in the past) so just need some guidance and I can take it from there.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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Since its not officially we supported, we do not have reference samples. Hopefully someone may chime in and provide some guidance. NetPicks (www.netpicks.com) had commissioned some to develop a Stochastics indicator that overlayed on the price panel. This was not proprietary code, if you can scrape that up from someone, that will likely give you the reference sample you need.

Ray

[stepwise]

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Does anyone (coders) have some ideas on doing this?

[stepwise]

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HOLD THE PHONE!!!

According to Gain Capital - they provide Daily, Minute AND TICK DATA via Excel Spreadsheet going back to 1999!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wouldn't this be sufficient to use with NT (i.e. the spreadsheet)?

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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Data is not all nicely wrapped for you. You have to collect it, format it, import it. I know of a hedge fund that spent months cleaning this free data to a point where they felt it was usable for backtest. This is second hand information, I have not direct experience.

See the Help Guide > Historical Data > Import for formatting information.

Ray

[stepwise]

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Oh...brutal. If it's in Excel though and your format is pre-defined - I don't see why it would take 2 months to format and import.

Even if the data is formatted completely differently then what NT needs, a simple macro could re-arrange the data to any desired format and then be imported into NT.

Am I missing something?

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

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Formatting is not what I mean, "cleaning" the data. Removing spikes and gaps etc...Remember, this is second hand info I am passing along, no first hand experience. Maybe the data is fine?

Ray

[stepwise]

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Ok, got it.....I'll definitely question them on this.

Thanks for the heads up!

[Raditz]

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I have few years of Gain Capital Forex tick data formated and ready to be imported to NT.

The data is not cleaned from bad tick or such just converted to NT format

contact me if you are interested[email protected]

Muly
http://www.fin-alg.com/