Clean intervals on time axis

[Lonneman]

I just reinstalled Ninjatrader. With the previous install, my chart had vertical grid lines at clean 30-minute intervals, like 09:30 - 10:00 - 10:30 etc.

In the new install, I can't get that to work. However I manipulate the time axis (left click on it and drag), I always get "unclean" intervals like 09:55 - 10:20 etc.

What do I do to make the x axis stick to 09:30 - 10:00 intervals?

I read somewhere about setting "Equidistant bar spacing" to False, but that is very inconvenient, as the bar sizes are a pain in the ass to get right then. It worked in the previous install with that setting at True.

Thanks in advance

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Can you please clarify what interval type you are using? Are these tick, minute, range, etc.

Who is your data provider?

I look forward to assisting you further.

[Lonneman]

I am using 5min candlestick charts with a Zen-Fire demo feed.

Does the data provider make a difference for this?

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello,

Depending on how the provider stamps their data, it could have an effect, but not in this case with Zen-Fire.

Can you also clarify what session template you have loaded on your chart? If you change to the Default 24/7, do you see an even number for the intervals?

What happens when you right click on the chart and select 'reload all historical data'?

[Lonneman]

I am using a custom session template. Changing it to Default 24/7 and/or 'reload all historical data' doesn't change the intervals.

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello,

Can you detail what the start and end times for your session template are?

[Lonneman]

Sure:

09:30 to 16:15 EST

Changing it to Default 24/7 and reloading historical data didn't make a difference, though.

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Hello,

Thanks for the clarification.

There is no way to set what interval the bars will be spaced in. You should see each bar at an even interval from the start time depending on the bar, however the actual value you see plotted will depend on the scale and range of the chart.

[Lonneman]

There is no way to set what interval the bars will be spaced in.

That's too bad.

So what do I have to do to see 30min intervals starting at 09:30?

It worked in my 7.0.1000.7 install.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Lonneman,

You will need to ensure you have a session template selected that starts at 9:00 AM. So the first 30 minute bar will be timestamped at 9:30 AM and so on. NinjaTrader timestamps its bars at the closing time.

The Session Manager can be used to modify or create session templates. More information can be found at the link below.

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

[Lonneman]

You will need to ensure you have a session template selected that starts at 9:00 AM. So the first 30 minute bar will be timestamped at 9:30 AM and so on. NinjaTrader timestamps its bars at the closing time.

As I mentioned above, I am using a 5 minute chart (not 30min). Does 9:00 or 9:30 make a difference then? Or does that mean I should start at 08:55 in my session template?

BTW, the settings in the Chart properties, the data series and the session template are the same (to the best of my knowledge, I have checked it a couple of times) as I had them in my previous NT 7.0.1000.7 installation (on a different computer), where I had perfect 30 minute intervals (09:00, 09:30 etc.) on the x axis.

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

Lonneman,

I've put together a short 2 minute video to try and offer some clarification on what you're seeing and what can be expected.

http://screencast.com/t/jogddiuNGqQ

[Lonneman]

Thanks for the video, great service! I knew that already, though.

This is strange, I just thought that the problem fixed itself, but that was a bit premature. I took pictures to explain it better.

image 01:
This is what I would like the time intervals to look like.

image 02:
The timeline changed to 'unclean' intervals. All I did was scroll the chart a bit to the right by dragging it with a left mouse click. I did *not* touch the horizontal scale!

image 03:
This I like even better than image 01 - the chart is a bit more compressed horizontaly.

image 04:
This happened after I dragged the chart a bit to the right - the intervals vanished. Again: I did *not* change the horizontal scale.

I would like the chart to stay how it is in image 03.

EDIT: Wow, I feel foolish - I accidentally wrote "I would like the chart to stay how it is in image 04". That was a mistake of course, I corrected it.

[Lonneman]

Did you check out the images?

nudge

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Lonneman,

Unfortunately scrolling the chart can change the time intervals as well. Please see the attached screenshots. The first one is how the chart was opened - it uses 30 minute intervals.

The second screenshot was taken after scrolling back in time a little. It now uses hourly intervals. The top and bottom values of the price axis increased as well. If the price axis changes, it can affect the intervals on the time axis as well.

You will need to (de)compress the time axis as Matthew displays in his video to set the intervals as you like after you scrolled the chart. Unfortunately you cannot have the intervals on the time axis to be fixed.