BAR length question

[CRCatNinja]

I would like to trade Fx products on Globex through my MIRUS / Zen-Fire account. I also have DTNiQ for Daily Bar info. The Globex trading schedule for products I am interested in is usually:

OPEN at 6:00PM (EST); CLOSE at 5:00PM (EST) the next day. This daily schedule goes from Sunday 6:00PM (EST) through end of week CLOSE on Friday at 5:00PM (EST).

QUESTIONS:

1. I assume then, that a DAILY bar consist of all tick data betwen the above listed times. So, if my strategy says that, based on closing values of previous bar data, Go LONG on the OPEN, the signal would activate at some point shortly around 6:00PM (EST). Correct?

2. Since certain Fx Futures products have BETTER Bid/Ask spreads in the middle of the day as opposed to 6:00PM at night, is it logical to consider establishing 1440 minute BARS with say, the Beginning and Ending of the BAR at something like 12:00Noon? NT has this flexibility I assume, when it asks in Backtesting for Beginning Time and Ending Time?

3. Having said that, can I assume then that minute BAR data from Zen-Fire would create essentially a customized BAR from 12:00Noon Monday through Friday and then the Friday bar would actually be data starting at 12:00Noon Friday and Closing at 12:00Noon Monday (since this would be the 1440 minutes that the exchange is open during that time)? Am I understanding that correctly?

Does the "BAR creation process" disregard (a good thing) that the "market is closed" between 5:00PM (EST) and 6:00PM (EST) (or weekends) or does that screw up the "BAR creation process"?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

1. Daily bars are generated by the data provider. Whether that matches minute/tick bars depends solely on the data provider. As far as Zen-Fire goes they do not provide daily bars: http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/H...HistoricalData

If your strategy says go long, it will go long on the next tradeable time. If the next tradeable time is 6PM then it will go in at that time.

2. You can definitely use 1440 bars if you feel it fits your needs.

3. Yes.

4. Not sure what you mean by screw up bar creation. Bars are not closed until the open of the next bar.

[CRCatNinja]

Thanks Josh!!

Just to clarify, if I were to use 1440 bars, does the Session Begin and Session end designation mean that is when the BAR data will start?

For example, 1440 BAR, starting time = 10:00AM. Therefore 1440 bar will go from 10:00AM to next day 10:00AM? Doing it this way will ensure that I can select the specific time of day (i.e. most liquid time of day) to activate a signal that relies on previous bar(s) closing values. Correct?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

It begins building at the first bar which would be at session start.