Something Wrong with Charts of Comex Metals

[klopfgeist]

Hi Folks,
I wasn't sure, really, where to post this. Sorry if I picked the wrong place. It does involve charts, but I don't think charts are really the issue, but I needed a place to begin, and, well, this seemed like the best place to start.

I am running version 7.0/1000.10 on 32bit WinXP, Rithmic data from Vision and have had no issues so till now, and, no issues with Nymex or Globex symbol based charts. I have charts of Treasuries, Currencies and Indexes up that are working fine.

The problem I'm having pertains to Comex metals data and charts from them. When I call up a chart for, say Dec Gold, the part of the chart that would have already occurred (recently past data) seems spotty in the same way a thinly traded, further out chart would look. However, the part of the chart that forms while the data for that window comes in live seems to form normally. If I go to another instrument and come back, the correctly formed bars are gone and replaced by small range/no range bars like the previous rest of the chart. Again, new bars form normally. Also, the thin bars for Gold are the same for all of the Golds, as are Silver for Silver, or Copper for Copper. And, the x-axis labels are advanced by one minute, ending on '6' and '1', not '5' and '0'.

I made a Market Analyzer window for Comex Gold, Silver and Copper, all contracts from 9-12 to 3-13, and included a column of 5min Vol as an Indicator column. While the DailyVolume column data seems to be sensible, the 5min Vol data (column heading of 'Vol') does not seem to make sense, with all the GC contracts being 1, most of the HG contracts being 325 and the SI contracts being 6 or 8.

I called my IB to ask if this might be a data provider issue because it only seemed to be happening with Comex symbols. He thought it might be an issue with the expiry date or rollover date being incorrect.

Here are some images to show what I'm talking about. Note how the last 10 bars or so of Dec Gold look pretty normal, but the bars from before don't. Also, the x-axis on the chart, and the Vol column on the Market Analyzer.

Thanks for any help in advance,
Chris

[NinjaTrader_JC]

Hello klopfgeist,

Could you verify that your settings inside the Instrument Manager is correct for GC.
Please follow the steps below:

* Open the Instrument Manager by clicking Tools > Instrument Manager.
* In the Manager, select GC from the list on the right then click Edit to open the Instrument Editor.
* In the Editor, navigate to the Misc tab and scroll down to the Contract Months section - select that property then click the '...' button which appears.
* In the Contract Months menu, select 12-12 and change the rollover date to 7/30.
* Click OK to exit the Contract Months menu.
* Click OK to exit the Instrument Editor.
* Click OK to exit the Instrument Manager.
* Restart NinjaTrader.
* Reload All Historical data

See attached image.

Let me know if this does not resolve it.

[ScottieDog]

Hi JC,

Same problem for me too. Was about to send a post about it and saw this message.

Did what you said and it has fixed it! Changed the date, reloaded historical... and the chart rectified itself.

Thanks.

[klopfgeist]

Hi JC,
Okay, same as with ScottieDog, taking the steps described resulted in charts that look much more normal, but mine still have the x-axis labelled with bars ending on 1s and 6s, not 0s and 5s.

Also, should I make the same changes for SI and HG as those done for GC? My SI and HG NOW look okay, even though the change I made was to the GC instrument only, but they also end on 1s and 6s.

What I mean by 1s and 6s is, after some observation, what I'm seeing is that my Comex 5min charts start a bar 1 min later and end that bar 1 min later than, say, an E-mini chart. So, an E-mini 5min bar will start at 9:00a, and another at 9:05a, and be labelled as correctly such, but a GC chart will wait a minute longer and start at 9:01a, and another at 9:06a, and be labelled as correctly such. It's not just mis-labelling.

Any thoughts?

Thanks for help with the rollover date. BTW what is the correct place to find that kind of info?

Best,
Chris

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

The roll over date wouldn't affect the time stamps. This would be controlled by the session template.

Can you please tell me what session template you are using on the chart? You can check this by right clicking on the chart--> select "Data Series"

Please also tell me if you have Equidistant Bar Spacing set to True or False? This is checked by right clicking on the chart--> select "Properties"

[klopfgeist]

Hi Matthew, Thanks for looking in. The session template being used by all of these charts is "CBOT Metal Futures ETH" and Equidistant Bar Spacing is set to "True" for all of them. Chris

[Harry]

Hi Matthew, Thanks for looking in. The session template being used by all of these charts is "CBOT Metal Futures ETH" and Equidistant Bar Spacing is set to "True" for all of them. Chris

You don't trade GC do you - if you even do not know the correct exchange?

There were gold contracts traded a CBOT under the symbols ZG and ZI prior to the acquisition of NYMEX by CME group in 2008. The contracts ZG and ZI are now traded at NYSE/Liffe.

The contracts GC, SI and HG are NYMEX contracts, and you should use the appropriate NYMEX session template. Let me also explain your problems in details.

No or thin chart data

You need to know which contracts are liquid for each instrument. For gold there is a particular situation where there are 5 liquid contracts, which are February, April, June, August and December. NinjaTrader had originally included the October contract as well with the default settings. You need to delete it and make sure that your roll date from August to December is set to July 28 for volume cross.

For silver and copper, NinjaTrader mostly had the appropriate contract months per default, which are March, May, July, September and December. No change is required here.

1-min Problem

This is due to the false session template that you select. The CBOT ZG and ZI contracts - which do no longer exist - started at 6:16 PM. NinjaTrader aligns all bars to the start time of the session. For example the ES session starts at 3:30 PM Central Time. All 60 min bars will end at xx:30 and not at the full hour.

For GC things are easy. Just use the correct session template and your problem is solved.

[NinjaTrader_JC]

Hello klopfgeist,

The reason why it is going to show 1/6 intervals is because of the session template that you are using. When using CBOT Metal Futures ETH is going to start at 6:16PM which will in turn start the first bar using a 6 Min base so every 5 minutes after that it will be either 1 or 6. You can view the hours of the session templates or define your own by using the Session Manager. To access the Session Manager go to the Control Center -> Tools -> Session Manager. You may view the link below for more information about the Session Manager.
http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h...on_manager.htm

Let us know if we may be of further assistance.

[klopfgeist]

Hey JC, Thanks again for looking in. Okay, I get the thing with the Session Templates, and mostly I've just been using what the program provides by default. I don't trade GC, which has been kindly deduced somewhere , I just watch it. What would really help is if you could name a specific template that I should use. If there really isn't one that I should be using for these metals, it would really help to have a few specific steps to take. Which Session template should I choose and how should I modify it in a way that will not have inadvertent negative effects elsewhere? Unexpected effects elsewhere is the main reason at this point that has me asking for direct guidance. I really appreciate your help. Thanks, Chris

[Harry]

The correct session template for GC would by NYMEX Metals/Energy ETH. In case of doubt, just go to the homepage of CME group, look up the contract specifications for GC and make sure that the trading times from the contract specifications match the session template.

GC is traded from 6:00 PM EST until 5:15 PM EST (NYMEX is located in timezone EST, therefore the session template needs to be EST). These times should be shown in your session template. If an appropriate session template does not exist, you can create your own template.

[klopfgeist]

I would like to thank JC, Matthew and Harry for their help.