Stuff You Just Gotta Fix

[Tasuki]

You know, I really dig that I can get this charting platform for free, that totally rocks, but there are some things that make me tear my hair out in frustration, and it's those things I'd like to see you fix---pronto. Feel free, fellow chartists, to chime in here with your own ideas. This is the charting forum, so I would like to limit our discussion to issues broadly related to charting. So, let's get started:

1) Why on God's green earth can't you open more than one workspace at a time? I mean, for heaven's sake, how much coding would be required? Maybe alot, I'm no programmer, but if it's an easy fix, or even relatively easy, PLEASE fix this as soon as possible.

2) For each indicator I use, I usually come up with a group of settings that I like. Sometimes I fiddle with them, but generally I find the settings that work for me, and every time I apply an indicator to a chart, the chances are better than 90% that I'm going to use the same settings. Why isn't there a "default" button on t he setup dialog box? There's an "OK", an "Apply" and a "Close". Right next to them (there's plenty of room) there needs to be a button that says "Default". Please, I'm begging you--it'll save me (and everyone else) a ton of time.

3) Continuing with indicators, the "template" system is a failure. It is just too awkward, because it saves too many disparate chart settings. What we need is a way to save groups of indicators, just the indicators, not all the other settings that go into a chart, so that we can drop a select group of indicators we've already spent weeks perfecting, into a new chart without the misery of re-doing all the bloody settings for each indicator.

4) Interval settings for a chart---back on version 6.5, the dropdown box near the upper left corner which allows you to quickly set the time interval had options for setting you could choose for ticks, volume, etc. Why did you take those away with version 7.0? Honestly, sometimes I wonder whether your programmers are asleep.

5) I realize that the Andrews pitchfork is difficult to use correctly, but you're making it more difficult for beginners to learn by incorrectly labelling the Schiff and modified Schiff. You've got them backwards. Please fix this.

Other charting suggestions welcome, but if you fix just the first three I mentioned, you would improve your charting package immensely (and attract more paying customers, I have NO doubt).

Thanks,
Tasuki

[jdelec]

You might want to try right clicking your indicator settings window and then select use as default. If you want to change the period of a chart you can just type example 30m for a 30 minute chart or 4r for a 4 range etc. if you want to change symbols just type the symbol on the chart. Hope this helps

[NinjaTrader_Chip]

Hello Tasuki

Thank you for your post.

1. You can open as many workspaces simultaneously as you want. This is really only limited by the performance capacity of the computing hardware. To quickly cycle through open workspaces, use the Shift + F3 keyboard combination.

2. When you complete the configuration of a particular indicator, right click on the ‘edit’ section & select “Set Default for Bollinger” – just an example.

3. This “indicator basket” suggestion has been received & our Development Department is already researching its inclusion. Unfortunately we do not have an ETA to provide for this feature.

4. Interval settings can be configured from within the ‘Data Series’ edit dialog. You will find that the pre-configured session templates available can save a great deal of time and still provide the ability to custom configure your own. In order to familiarize yourself with this enhancement, you will want to review the following:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/index.html?using_the_session_manager.htm

5. Please provide a specific example of this incorrect labeling. Thank you,

[Tasuki]

1) OK, my bad, I wasn't clear. What I want is to have workspaces open in TABS. Oops, that won't work---Ninjatrader doesn't have an overall skin around their charts, like Tradestation. How about this---a separate window could pop up, it could be very small to save space. The window would contain the names of each of the workspaces you want to open. By clicking on a name within this window, the workspace you click on will appear. So, what's wrong with the Shft-F3 system? Very simply, it doesn't let you select a *particular* workspace. And why is that important? Let's say you're looking at the ES, and you've got a workspace up with a 610 Tick chart and a 5 minute chart. You're thinking of going long, but you're concerned that maybe the bullish setup you think you see might not be reflected in the longer chart, let's say the 60 minute. Is price butting up against resistance on that longer chart? You're just about ready to pull the trigger, but you really need to check that longer chart. You don't have time to flip through all the workspaces you have open using Shft-F3 (or god-forbid, going to the control center and manhandling the dialog boxes which takes WAY too long). The efficient thing to do would be to have a small "workspace box" that you can activate to quickly turn to a SPECIFIC workspace. Hope I've made this clear. Your current system just doesn't accommodate traders who need to make rapid decisions.

2) I see no "Edit" section anywhere. I've opened a fresh chart, applied an indicator with my desired settings (in this case, I added the Volume UpDown indicator). I now right click on the chart, left click on "Indicators", left click on my "VolumeUpDown" in the lower left box, and I see my settings in the panel to the right side. There is no word "Edit" anywhere I can see. What am I missing here? What I want to do is this--I want to review the settings I've got, then change them, click Apply, then hit a button called "Set Default" so that my new settings will be applied each time in the future that I put VolumeUpDown on the chart. Clearly I'm not seeing something, but I can't figure out where this "Edit" function is you're talking about. Please explain.

3) thank God.

4) Of course the interval settings can be adjusted with the Data Series dialog box. That's not the point. Once again, I'm talking about making Ninjatrader easier to use, making it so that you can RAPIDLY change settings. This was possible with 6.5 and for some unfathomable reason you took it away in 7.0. For those of us who want to change a chart's interval quickly and easily, this old setting from 6.5 was extremely useful. And session templates are irrelevant here---they're way too cumbersome.

5) very simply, you have them labelled wrong. When you think you're creating a Schiff pitchfork, you're actually applying a modified Schiff. And when the settings say that you've got a modified Schiff, you're actually creating a Schiff. Does this matter? You're damn right it does, but you'd need to study pitchforks in order to understand why.

Sincerely,
Tasuki

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

1. The way to do this currently is to click File>Workspaces and then put the check box onto whichever workspace you want to switch to. That way you are not cycling. With that being said, tabs are on our suggestion list and general workspace management is an area we will be looking into improving.

2. The word "Edit" is not in the UI. What Chip was referring to was the parameter section where you edit the parameters of the indicator (Term not to be taken as a literal word on the UI. Sorry for the confusion). You can parameterize your indicator however you want, then right click on the right side portion anywhere and then select "Set Default for _______". Next time you add this indicator, it will use those settings that you set to default.

4. The reason this was removed is because we found little point to having a drop down UI interface there when you still end up having to go to the keyboard to type 100 for a 100 tick chart for instance. The reason there is no point is because you can already just be on a chart and type 100T for a 100 tick chart. For seconds, just type 5S for a 5 second chart. Similarly typing 1000V would bring you a 1000 volume chart. The procedure to mouse click several times, click in a box, type a number, press enter is far more cumbersome than just typing the interval you want directly onto a chart and pressing enter. There is no need for this redundancy feature and we removed the inferior option.

5. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[Tasuki]

1) I'm very glad that you are working on improving workspace management, and I'm sure you understand that, while it works OK to use the file system, it's not appropriate for short term traders, who feel the need for speed. Speed and efficiency are really the issue here.

2) Ooh boy, do I not know what you're talking about. How does one "parameterize" an indicator? And, would one really want to do that for the standard indicators like my favorite volume updown and basic stuff like the MACD? Aren't their parameters set pretty much the way they should be? Anyway, please (pretty please) explain how to "parameterize" an indicator in Ninjatrader. Thanks.

4) Ah, I see your point, but it's not as bad as you're making it out to be. The reason is that, in 6.5 at least, the program remembers your last choice. So, for example, if I use the dropdown menu in 6.5 and choose tick, and then type in 610 (my favorite for the ES), and hit enter, the next time I want to switch from a minute chart to a tick chart, the chances are 99.999% that I'm going to want a 610 Tick chart--traders develop their favorite settings, you see. SO, all I have to do, in 6.5, is click the dropdown menu (one click), hit Tick (two clicks) and hit enter.

I tried your neat trick of just typing in the values I wanted, and I found that I got an error message with 6.5, but it worked like a charm with 7.0. However, the glitch is that, if you're typing, you have to be very careful what you type, and if you're nervous, and ready to place a trade, you do NOT want to have to think about what you're typing on the keyboard. With the old 6.5 system, you do two mouseclicks and hit enter, and you've switched from a minute chart to your favorite volume chart or your favorite tick chart. No concentration on typing required. So, hands down the old system is better, and what ticks (pun intended) me off is that you've taken away a useful functionality which many of us liked. I mean, you've still got the same dropdown box for minute charts and daily and weekly, why not bring back the volume and tick as well? I mean, why not?

5) you're welcome. If you need confirmation of what I'm saying, please contact Tim Morge at MarketGeometry.com, or one of his staff. I'm sure they'll be happy to assist you. p.s. I don't work for them or anything, but I know that, in their classes, they have mentioned this lamentable mis-labelling, and have encouraged charting platform providers to fix the mistake (this mistake has occurred multiple times in multiple charting packages, so yours is no exception. I can only assume that all you charting programmers are just copying off each other).

[koganam]

2) Ooh boy, do I not know what you're talking about. How does one "parameterize" an indicator? And, would one really want to do that for the standard indicators like my favorite volume updown and basic stuff like the MACD? Aren't their parameters set pretty much the way they should be? Anyway, please (pretty please) explain how to "parameterize" an indicator in Ninjatrader. Thanks.

You "parameterize" by changing any parameters that you wish to change to your usual settings, then save the defaults as per the picture attached.

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

4. Thank you for your thoughts on the matter. This item is on our feedback list as item #566.

[Tasuki]

koganam, thanks, that's incredibly valuable!
Josh, that's good, thanks. Is that feedback list published somewhere on the forums?
Tasuki

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Tasuki,

The feedback list is currently not published.

[JoshDance]

1) OK, my bad, I wasn't clear. What I want is to have workspaces open in TABS. Oops, that won't work---Ninjatrader doesn't have an overall skin around their charts, like Tradestation.

I have a multi-button mouse (the Logitech VX Revolution) and assign the back and forward buttons to cycle workstations. Works great and is much quicker than keyboard shortcuts or clicking tabs. This may be something that will work for you.

[rally]

Is there anyway of making the fibonacci retracements settings as default?

What i mean i'd like to have the extend right feature by default instead of right clicking and checking the extend right box and of course some extra fib numbers that i'd like to use frequently that are not in the default list.

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

rally,

Open up the Fibonacci Retracement's properties window, set it up how you like it, right click in any white space area on that dialogue window, select Manage Templates, save it with the template name "Default". It will now use those settings as the default settings any time you draw Fibonacci Retracements.

[rally]

Thanks Josh, sorted now.

One more thing Does NT 7 have a smoothed moving average?

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Thanks Josh, sorted now.

One more thing Does NT 7 have a smoothed moving average?

Off the top of my head, there is DEMA (Double exponential moving average) and TEMA (Triple exponential moving average) however, you can apply indicators on indicators which will allow you to smooth a MA with whatever other type of MA you wish.

More info on working with indicators - http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h...indicators.htm