Strategy "GONE" after lockup or crash

[Trade From My Recliner]

Let's say I have some charts with strategies attached. These charts are saved in a workspace, and also in a "backup" identical workspace.

If things go well and Ninja starts and exits exactly as it should, great, no problems. However, if Ninja 7 has even the slightest hiccup and needs to be restarted...poof....strategy no longer on chart or in workspace. Well, no problem since I have the workspace backed up right...wrong. Gone there too. I must manually add the strategy back to each chart which has been a huge pain since each strategy has multiple inputs for each market. Very easy to make a mistake as well.

What am I missing? Why do strategies vanish? And why cant I just easily reload them without have to essentially rebuild each chart/strategy?

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Trade From My Recliner,

Can you please clarify the 'hiccup' you experience when NinjaTrader needs to be restarted. Do you receive an error message when this occurs or does NinjaTrader just become unresponsive? If you receive an error message, please tell me what the error states.

Please send me your log and trace files for the day the issue occurred last. You can find log and trace files at the following locations.

Start Menu--> My Documents--> NinjaTrader 7--> Log--> log.20110204 for today. (log.yyyymmdd for any other date)

Start Menu--> My Documents--> NinjaTrader 7--> Trace--> trace.20110204 for today. (trace.yyyymmdd for any other date)

Please include an estimate time when the issue occurred. You can send the files to support[at]ninjatrader[dot]com. Put 'Attn Jason' in the subject header and reference this forum thread.

As per the 'backup' workspace, do you have the workspace opened in the background or is it closed?

Unfortunately I am not sure why the strategies disappear. However you can save your strategy settings. Once you setup al strategy parameters to your liking, please right click in the grid and select 'Set Default For *strategy name*'. Whenever you apply the strategy, it will use these settings.

[Trade From My Recliner]

Can you please clarify the 'hiccup' you experience when NinjaTrader needs to be restarted

Any time that Ninja becomes unresponsive and needs to be restarted. I rarely, if ever, get an error message.

As per the 'backup' workspace, do you have the workspace opened in the background or is it closed?

No the backup is not open when this happens.

Please send me your log and trace files

I'll try to remember when last occurred and send you the files. I am usually in a panic to rebuild as quickly as possible and get back to work so often I do not remember the exact time/day that it happens.

However you can save your strategy settings.

The strategy has different settings for each market to which it is applied. The ideal would be that I could save the settings as a template for each market. That, at the very least, would make reapplying the strategy after a Ninja lockup much easier and faster. Currently if I have 8 markets I am monitoring and only one default, I have to manually change the settings in the other 7 each time. I slight typo mistake could cost big money if the strategy is not set properly, therefore it takes a long time to change each input and double and triple check them to make sure they are correct.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Please see the various tips and suggestions at the link below to improve the performance of NinjaTrader and avoid unresponsiveness.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/performance_tips2.htm

You could also increase the amount of RAM on your computer to avoid unresponsive behavior.

I will forward your suggestion to make use of strategy templates so you can save multiple sets of settings for the same automated strategy to development to put it on the list of future considerations.

[cgeorgan]

Bump

I'd like to second this. This behavior is regular - by "hiccup" the user likely means some sort of random crash that comes when doing something beyond NT's capabilities - like doing a backtest on a strategy that uses too many resources (causing RAM overuse and a crash), etc.

I have witnessed this "strategy disappearance." I can also confirm that strategies in totally unrelated, saved workspaces ALSO disappear. They literally vanish into thin air, even when the files themselves have not shown any indication of being overwritten.

There has to be at least one example of a developer coming across this problem. If there isn't, then your developers aren't actually using the program.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello cgeorgan,

I notice that my colleague Ryan Millard clarified the disappearance of automated strategies on your end as per the forum thread below.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=39336

I have forwarded your vote to support automated strategy templates. The suggestion to support automated strategy templates has been inserted in our tracking system with ID #50.

[TrendFollowingCapital]

This exact same thing happens in Ninjatrader 8 - you attach strategies to multiple charts, each with their own unique settings and when the system becomes unstable and freezes (which it does randomly) - you then loose all your attached strategies!

I never removed them manually from the "Strategies" tab, Ninjatrader just removes them itself - what an absolutely painful, waste of time experience, you just never know when ninjatrader will crash and you have to start all over again, manually loading each and every strategy, modifying each and every setting......it's really pathetic and takes my 2 hours to get them all back to how they were.

Why are we not able to save the strategy that is attached to the chart as part of a template? You can save an indicator as part of a template, why not a stratyegy???

This needs to be resolved, you cannot have such a flaw in the system and let that continue - some people actually have a professional business and rely on these strategies to be left where they are put.

[KarstenKafl]

I experience exactly the same - and have the same thoughts as TrendFollowingCapital

But just to be sure - there is no manual way to save all these settings in one place? - exactly like you think you do in the templates?

[NinjaTrader_Manfred]

Hello KarstenKafl,

While there is no way to manually save a single strategy, e.g. the way you can save a template, they are being saved in your workspace and should never simply disappear.

If any data, such as a strategy, a chart, or an alert ever disappears despite having been saved it is usually an indication that something else is not working as it should.

Should this be the case, please reach out to us at platformsupport (at) ninjatrader (dot) com, we can then take a closer look at your log & trace files and your system and ensure that everything is working as it should.

The same counts if you ever experience a random crash or have any questions. We're always happy to assist and will do our best to ensure your platform runs stable and reliable.

Regarding being able to save strategies individually; I've submitted a feature request to our Development Team to look into enabling this and will update this post as soon as I have further information.