NT 8 several questions

[Tasuki]

I'm finding NT 8 to be much harder to figure out than NT 7. Anybody else feel that way?
I can't even figure out how to switch contract months, and I can't find anything in the help files.
And what's with the "instruments" and "instrument lists"? What was wrong with the "instrument manager" that you had in NT 7? For one thing, what's the difference between "instruments" and "instrument lists"?
So, let's say I want to trade crude oil, Dec 16 contract. I go to instrument lists, choose Futures, click on CL 12-16, click "add" and a box comes up with a prompt to enter something, with the words "press esc to cancel". Sorry, that's not useful. What the hell am I suppose to enter at the prompt? This program is very poorly written, to say the least.
And is there any way to get rid of that horrible, ugly grey color that pervades every window in NT 8? Whoever thought that "deathbed grey" was a good color choice obviously flunked his web design class.
How long will you be supporting NT 7? Hopefully forever.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM]

Hello Tasuki,
We are currently taking suggestions on how to improve NinjaTrader 8. I will submit your suggestion regarding the instruments and instrument list to the product development team.
I would recommend using the initial instrument search within the data series or SuperDOM when selecting an instrument to apply to your open windows. I have included a few YouTube videos below regarding quick Over views on these order entry windows. Regarding the method you have mentioned with adding the instrument with the "press esc to cancel" prompt you must hit the Enter key to apply your selection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCBoxEE2ZQM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7trsLc8HS-g

If you would like to change the Skin (color of NinjaTrader 8) you may go to Tools > Options > General > Skin. You may select one of the options and then restart NinjaTrader to apply.

[sledge]

I'm finding NT 8 to be much harder to figure out than NT 7. Anybody else feel that way?
I can't even figure out how to switch contract months, and I can't find anything in the help files.
.

Just type in the contract and it will be available.

[MarketAlly]

I'm finding NT 8 to be much harder to figure out than NT 7. Anybody else feel that way?
I can't even figure out how to switch contract months, and I can't find anything in the help files.

I personally find NT8 to be so far ahead in both performance, usability and overall user experience that if you just take a week and submerse yourself in it - you will not want to go back.

I now find NT7 beyond painful to use.

[Tasuki]

I personally find NT8 to be so far ahead in both performance, usability and overall user experience that if you just take a week and submerse yourself in it - you will not want to go back.

I now find NT7 beyond painful to use.

MarketAlly,
Having spent a couple of weeks wading through the truly lousy programming of NT 8, I'm prepared to disagree with you wholeheartedly.
True, I am a discretionary daytrader who couldn't care less about automated trading or strategies (or spreads, or options chains, or most of the indicators that lure traders away from price action. No wonder most traders lose money!).
I just need clear charts, and NT 7 did a perfectly good job. To improve on NT 7, they should have made more internals easily available. That would have actually helped.
So, I'm curious, what is it that you like so much about NT 8? How are their charts any clearer than NT 7?
Tasuki

[MarketAlly]

MarketAlly,
Having spent a couple of weeks wading through the truly lousy programming of NT 8, I'm prepared to disagree with you wholeheartedly.
True, I am a discretionary daytrader who couldn't care less about automated trading or strategies (or spreads, or options chains, or most of the indicators that lure traders away from price action. No wonder most traders lose money!).
I just need clear charts, and NT 7 did a perfectly good job. To improve on NT 7, they should have made more internals easily available. That would have actually helped.
So, I'm curious, what is it that you like so much about NT 8? How are their charts any clearer than NT 7?
Tasuki

I will gladly defend NT8 as a quant and developer of algos that depend on better performance. What I have developed is not possible on NT7 from both an ability to run performance counters/trace apps to find bottlenecks to shear execution speed in comparison using the new .NET framework.

If you are looking at this from user perspective and you are basing it solely on charts, then I would argue why you using the platform altogether. ToS is where much of my chart analysis originates from based on ease of use around a variety of tools that interact smoothly. Where NT8 excels for the single user IMO is the improvements around the SuperDOM. I can easily manage my trades (if done manually) and the additional key codes make it more intuitive. I do wish I could alternate between MIT and BuyStopMarket orders with single strokes but this is not LightSpeed or Infinti but I digress.

Where I would like to see NT be extended is around the ability to control their platform more from an API perspective as trading platforms as a whole lose ground to the web based systems popping up like Quantopian, TradingView, etc are extended. The power of the platform is the conduit into a common connector of multiple brokers but they need open their API to allow us developers to integrate different feeds for analysis with their toolset before those other vendors which are heading this way beat them too it. Providing the ability to connect to crypto-currencies, random datasets for correlation, etc would be ideal.

As for the discretionary traders... be prepared for AI. It will revolutionize the industry like it is about to disrupt the car industry and almost every other segment.

[Tasuki]

[QUOTE=MarketAlly
As for the discretionary traders... be prepared for AI. It will revolutionize the industry like it is about to disrupt the car industry and almost every other segment.[/QUOTE]

That's cute. You're kidding, right? All a computer can do, at best, is to drive a car as well as a human. Given the fact that most humans lose money as traders, what do you think their robots will do?