Trying to find best drawing tool

[adamus]

Hi,

I am doing a study on support and resistance over an extended period and I need to put many horizontal support / resistance lines on the chart as I go over the price data in my test period.

I'm trying to find the best drawing tool and I think I am using the optimal tool right now, but it is still cumbersome and seems to be a bit of a bottle neck in my progress.

I am using plain NT 'lines' and it takes me a while to get them horizontal after I have placed them on the chart.

I do not want to use the 'horizontal lines' tool because that places the line across 100% of the chart, and often the S/R lines are invalidated by price action and so have to "stop" - i.e. the line can't carry on 100% all the time.

Is there a setting I can change on the horizontal line tool to make it limited length? Are there 3rd party drawing tools available? Any recommendations? I think if I can just drop limited length horizontal lines onto my chart, this will save me hours in the long run.

I have also tried snap mode, but S/R lines only start at a price on the y axis, they rarely finish there, so there's nothing on the right for me to 'snap' to, thus I can't use that either.

Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello adamus,

Thanks for posting.

Unfortunately, what there is to work with is somewhat limited here. The horizontal line tool is the only tool which specifically creates horizontal lines, but if the length of the line doesn't meet your needs there's not a way to adjust it. As such, the only thing to do is use the plain lines. One thing you might try is copying a line which you're happy with and pasting a copy elsewhere - that would at least allow you to drag-and-drop within the same chart.

[adamus]

It gets worse

OK, that's a good tip, I didn't think of that. Thanks.

Unfortunately now that I've been working on this for a couple of days, I have hit some kind of NinjaTrader limitation.

I am trying to place S/R lines on the 8th day of my test period. I have marked up 7 days so far with approximately 6 lines per day. Now some of the lines just disappear when I expand or scroll the chart.

Maybe you can repeat this yourself.

I have 4 chart windows open with the period August 2010 to present for the $EURUSD forex, with these timescales: Daily, 60 mins, 3 mins & 1 min.

I compress the 3min chart quite tight so I can see the whole day on my screen, and then I draw about six lines per day, stretching from the beginning of the session to the end of the session. I then expand the chart so that I can see the detail. See the attachments.

I also add a few text notes, some arrows too, and some circles. Maybe a few lines on the 60 min chart.

Now I've marked up 8 days, when I expand the chart, the lines disappear. They reappear if I scroll to the start of the day or the end of the day. So the lines are not showing when their start or end are not in the visible part of the chart.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi adamus,

Thanks for writing in.

Based on the images and the steps, this looks to be a limitation of drawing tools - if any anchor point of the object (the black boxes you see when the line is selected) are out of the view of the chart, no part of the drawing object will be plotted.

[adamus]

But that's not true when I start charting. If I only have one line on my chart, then NT will show it all the time, regardless of the anchor points.

I can work around it though, so while it's a drag, it's not the end of charting as we know it, for me at least - as long as the situation doesn't continue to deteriorate the more I add lines to the chart.

Another question about what might help - is it possible when the line is selected to use the keyboard arrows or any key combo to shorten or length or move the line? Or is the mouse the only way?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Brett]

Hello,

Different drawing objects will have different sensitivities to the anchors being off the chart. Extended lines or Rays should be an example of a drawing object that has the least sensitivity to this. We are reviewing sensitivity of the trend channel drawing object, its a little too sensitive currently.

Also, mouse is the only way I know of.

-Brett

[steveg]

horizontal line properties

When attempting to change a horizontal line's properties from solid to dot, right click on the line for a menu, click properties, select dot (or anything other than solid). nothing happens.
Same for vertical lines.
Please advise.

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hi steveg,

Please press 'Apply' to see the change take effect in the chart.

[nicosxm]

Hi All,

I am looking for a simple horizontal line that would plot the price level it is at, I am surprise NT does not have this Indicator include into the platform.

Thanks.

Nico