Contract Date

[brakebills]

I just downloaded NT8...(used NT7 for along time). Having some basic problems.
I want to use the 12-15 contract period for YM....but it is not available via the drop down box.....(see attached screen grab). I use "edit" but I only get the same selections in the drop down box and no other options.... What am I doing wrong??

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello brakebills,

Unfortunately there is no attached screen grab. Can you please go to Control Center-->Tools-->Instrument Lists. Select the instrument list you intend to use and click "add" in the box on the right. Type "YM 12-15" and hit Enter.

[brakebills]

oops....(sorry)....
The screen grab just shows that the only Contract date options are in 2016. This is true for Historical Data (download or "Load") and Charts.
I figure I must be missing some setup step, but I don't know what that is.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

You can just type "YM 12-15" in the Instrument field of the Historical Data window.

The drop down list shows the last used instruments and your instrument lists. If you want to select it from an instrument list, please add the YM 12-15 to an instrument list as per my previous post.

[brakebills]

The Instrument (with Expiry date) is a drop down box...there is no place to "enter" a new Expiration Period... When I try to "Edit" the expiry date in Instrument List, or select form a chart or Load Historical data...these are all drop down boxes. No place to enter a new expiry date.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

You should be able to type in the Instrument fields (see screenshot). Click it once and hit backspace to remove the current instrument. Then type the new instrument and expiry month.

[brakebills]

I think I finally got it....(I hope)

I am accustomed to NT7 where one selects Expiry dates from a drop down list.
Did not expect to overkey the Expiry
.....
(are there edits in place to keep me from miskeying???

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

You will see an error when you enter an invalid instrument.

You can use drop down lists as well in NinjaTrader 8. However it will only show the last used instruments + your instrument lists. You can add the instruments you like to instrument lists.

[brakebills]

OK ...I finally got Historical to work....but I still can not create an Instrument List and get the current YM 12-15. I "add' 'myList" as a new Instrument List...then go to 'add' and Instrument...which lets me select YM but only gives 2016 Expiry dates....(and here I cannot overkey the date).....

....(this was so straight forward in NT7)

Also....., if I have the Firefox window open on the same screen as a NT8 chart, the Firefox window starts pixelating and assuming some of the 'look' of the NT8 chart.

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

OK ...I finally got Historical to work....but I still can not create an Instrument List and get the current YM 12-15. I "add' 'myList" as a new Instrument List...then go to 'add' and Instrument...which lets me select YM but only gives 2016 Expiry dates....(and here I cannot overkey the date).....

....(this was so straight forward in NT7)

Also....., if I have the Firefox window open on the same screen as a NT8 chart, the Firefox window starts pixelating and assuming some of the 'look' of the NT8 chart.

You should just be able to type the Instrument name + Expiry in the search box. I've included a video:

http://screencast.com/t/URFlFewxe0m

You can also just type directly on any trading window which will bring up this instrument overlay so you can quickly get to any instrument with out it needing to be in a list. Once you access that from one feature, it will be added to your list of recently used instruments at the top of this list.

[brakebills]

Thanks!! I understand better now...overkeying instead of selecting from a list.
This does of course bring up the next question, which is how to get rid of Expiry's that I don't want, no longer need, or accidentally keyed in.

I can delete them from Lists....but they continue to show up in the Chart Series selection menu....(how do I get them deleted from there)???

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Can you please hover your cursor on an instrument in the instrument list and hit the Delete key on your keyboard.

[brakebills]

That works!!
...(so I don't keep pestering...is this stuff in some help document?? If so I have had trouble locating it
which is why I posted the questions).....

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

This particular command is not listed in the help guide as far as I know.

You can find instructions at the link below under 'Adding or Removing instruments to a list'. However these instructions apply to the Instrument Lists window only.

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/working_with_instrument_lists.htm

[NinjaTrader_DaveI]

I just did a quick search to see if we needed to add this tidbit to the Help Guide, because it is definitely a useful piece of information to include. I found an existing note about using the Delete key to remove instruments from the Instrument Selector at the bottom of the Help Guide page below:

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpG...ntselector.htm

Also, keep in mind that the list of recently viewed instruments, above your instrument lists, only holds a fixed number of entries, and old entries will drop off the list as new entries are added.