How to Syncronize two tick charts?

[MrOrange]

Hi There,

Is there any solution at all to get two tick charts, on two different computers, with two different traders, to actually look the same? In other words, have the same open, high, low and close on each price bar.

I know there's probably not an easy answer. I read in another thread that if you synchronize the computer clocks, it will work. I don't believe this does work. I've synchronized my father's computer clock and mine to the same online time server, and even gone as far as written a script to re-sync them every hour, but our charts are always completely different. So, we're both using ZenFire data, our computer clocks are completely in sync, but our tick charts both have different opens, highs, lows and closes on every price bar. If anyone else has had luck with that solution, or another, please let me know!

I'm willing to entertain pretty much any solution, if someone has found one. I thought they said on another thread that using Kinetic data would fix it, since they timestamp each tick. Can anyone confirm this? It would be worth the costs of the data feeds to us to switch to them, but I really need a solution that works, and don't want to be paying for one that doesn't.

Thanks for the help!

Cheers,
Orange.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hi Orange,

Historical data is the same when using two computers. Both computers make a request to a server, the server supplies both computers the same data set. If you're seeing different bar formations on historical data, then this would point to different NT configurations. There are many settings to align, so you may want to use the backup / restore feature to make one NT installation exactly like another. In addition to Backup / Restore, make sure of course time and time zone are set the same for both computers.

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

Real time data should be similar if using the same source as well. If you are seeing different bar formations in real time, this may indicate bandwidth / connectivity / hardware issues on one of the machines.

[MrOrange]

Hi Ryan,

Thanks for the quick response.

I can't confirm the historical data just yet, I'll test it out shortly.

In terms of real-time data, I know it is definitely not 'in sync'. We have, on rare occasion, started the session with the same data on both our charts, but inevitably throughout the day our charts start to look different.

We're both using the same timezone (double checked that the other day), like i said, with our computer clocks both set to synchronize to the same internet time server every hour. We a geographically separated by only about 2 kilometers. We have the same ISP, and have the fastest possible connection with them. We are both in the heart of a major city, and neither of us have connectivity issues. Our internet is really blazingly fast.

We are also both running pretty fast computers. No 486 DX-100's here!

I have looked through our ninja settings, but can't find anything different. I'm a bit hesitant to do a backup and restore, because we both have things set up just the way we like them, individually. Are there any settings in Ninja that i could manually check to make sure they're the same on both PC's?

Thanks!

[MrOrange]

Hi Ryan,

I just confirmed that when we both basically do a 'reload historical data' - the charts look the same. But then they start to diverge. In fact, i just tested this out, and within about 2 minutes, we were starting to see different price bars. Given it's 10:45pm eastern, and things are moving VERY slowly, even on the 6J, it's hard to imagine what it is.

Here are a couple of screenshots. The first one from my father's computer, and the second one from mine. You'll see the data is exactly the same, up until the last 10 bars of data or so.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

There are a lot of settings to match up, and that's why a backup would be best to make sure you have everything. The chart settings that you'll want to align through Right Click > Data Series screen. Also, make sure everything is the same under tools > options > data.

There are also occasional updates to ip addresses / routing used for connectivity, so you may not be using the same ones. You can both recreate your connections to ensure everything is current there.


* Please go to the Tools menu--> select Account Connections--> highlight the connection--> click Remove
* Restart NinjaTrader
* Please go to the Tools menu--> select Account Connections and recreate the account connection.

[MrOrange]

Hey Ryan,

Thanks for your response. Sorry, i got side-tracked with other projects, so haven't looked into this again until recently.

I was speaking with a broker last week who told me that CQG's data uses time-stamped ticks, and that two tick charts of the same instrument on two different computers should match up. Said broker gave me two free trial accounts to set up on two different computers. I set them up on two desktop computers i have at home. Both are hardwired into a VERY fast internet connection. Both are VERY fast computers. Before you mention that there could be some routing issue or IP conflict, i'd just say that this problem is ongoing between my father's computer, and mine, and we are at different physical locations, both on our own, separate, high-speed home internet connections.

I set up fresh account connections, as you mentioned, for these trial accounts with CQG. I went to the Historical Data Manager on both of the computers, and wiped out all the historical data for the contracts i was interested in (i did this experiment on 6J and 6E). I sync'ed both PC clocks to the same internet time server. I then started Ninja on both computers, and I loaded up a 6J and 6E chart on both computers, using the 24/7 session template on both, and 3 days of historical data on both. Initially the data was the same on each (syncing historical data isn't the problem), but within two price bars of real-time data, the charts started to look different. ie, the real-time data was out of sync IMMEDIATELY.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Thanks for the reply. Will need to know exactly what types of differences you are seeing. Create a time and sales window on both computers to monitor the incoming feed with Time / Price / Volume. Are the time stamps out of sync here? Are they out of sync consistently or does it vary? Any description you can offer for the differences will help tell us what things to check next.

[cashinvestor]

Do minute based bars stay aligned?

I have tried to address this issue also regarding tick and volume bars. For whatever reason, it seems impossible to exactly duplicate multiple charts to anything besides minute based.

As a sanity check, can you try this same sync exercise using minute bars and report if everything lines up? If it does, then all the issues you have tried so far (connections, clocks, sessions, etc) are working correctly.

My hunch is that the nature of ticks (and all the other bar types that are built from ticks) are such that they can't be synchronized. When packets route over the internet they will take different paths, when a chart is opened, you can't guarantee that two different bars will start on the exact same tick. Then they are off never to sync up.

With minute based data, everything aligns to time. So you can rely on time based data to always sync up.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Thanks, cashinvestor. Good points here that tick based charts will be difficult to align. If you don't start the feed at the exact same point in time, and/or there is any difference in the amount of time it takes to request historical data first, then there's potential for them to get out of sync. Minute charts can work well to compare, and also the T&S window which is a real time display of incoming trades.