Question about realtime LineBreak charts not seeming to show properly

[RunnrX]

Hi,

I've just found out about LineBreak charts and think they could offer great possibilities for automated strategies, but shortly after using them I found something that seemed off and I'd like to ask if anyone can shed some light on it.

When using them in real time, the bars/"lines" display in odd ways that they are not meant to, such as showing a flat dash to represent unchanged values whereas a true LineBreak chart would simply draw nothing.

If I "reload all historical data" it redraws the LineBreak chart correctly, but it's requiring me to reload all historical data every time I want to look at the chart to evaluate the price data. Because of that, I wouldn't be able to make a strategy do anything with the LineBreak chart unless one of two things could happen:

1) The LineBreak chart would have to be tweaked to display the bars properly in real time and not require a reload of historical data

2) the strategy itself would need to have a trigger to reload all historical data on each OnBarUpdate (calculateonbarclose = true) in order to properly evaluate things and be usable.

Can any user or moderator help me know if either of these options are possible?

Thanks

[RunnrX]

Here is an example of the chart in real time, please notice the current bar is an unfinished bar but it is not appearing in the correct location (according to my understanding of Line Break charts, the flat dash-type bar to its left should not exist, and the current unfinished bar should have its low equal to the high of the prior bar)

After I hit "reload all historical data" the dash-bar disappears and the chart is constructed properly

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello RunnrX,

I will report the issue to development to further investigate. Once there is news, I will let you know.

Unfortunately it is not supported to reload historical data on each OnBarUpdate.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Thank you for your patience.

Could you please check if the flat bars persists after enabling the realtime tick filter. Go to Control Center-->Tools-->Options-->Data-tab and enable 'Filter bad ticks'. I suggest to enter a value of 5%.

If the issue remains, could you please tell us what data feed provider you use in NinjaTrader.

[RunnrX]

Thank you for looking into it! I've put the filter on and I'll write back soon with how it turned out.

I'll mention in the meantime anyway for now that I'm using MB Trading's forex data feed for this

[RunnrX]

So far it is still acting incorrectly in this way:

In the attached picture, a red bar shows up in the 2nd from the right, and it is a closed bar that was formed in real time. It should not be red though, it should be non-existent or not closed off, because it would only be red if price closed (on a theoretical unseen 10 min bar chart) below about 1.3204 or the low of the range of the last 3 green bars. If I press "reload all historical data" this red bar will disappear and the chart will appear correct again, but only the historical data appears correct (not real time ticks, pertaining to the fact that the bars are closing and adding new ones every 10 minutes when they ought not to)

I believe the issue is because the linebreak chart is closing off each bar and moving over to a new one every 10 minutes, which is not how line break charts are meant to work, rather than waiting until the range of the last few bars has been broken out of before drawing a red bar. The bars are however drawing correctly in the case of continuous trends up or down (or if a legitimate reversal happens all within one 10 minute period), it is just the way the bars are being drawn while the recent range hasn't been broken yet that is off.

However, I will try closing ninjatrader and reopening it since I have not done that yet after applying the filter, if that helps

EDIT: It is still drawing a bar every 10 minutes, which means that erroneous red ones are being drawn and it is only being corrected by reloading the data as historical. This ensures that no live strategy would be possible to use with line break charts in this case (at least with MB Trading data feed if that has anything to do with it) (thank you again for looking at this with me!)

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Yes, you are correct in your suspicion. If you check the timestamp of the Line Break bars, they all reflect times based on 10 minutes.

Can you please use a base period of tick data and check if Line Break bars are build as expected in realtime.

[RunnrX]

Thanks -- I'm trying it out with tick data now.. will write back how it works, however ultimately I hope to use 10min based periods because I've found it to have good results

[RunnrX]

Same results on tick data. It draws a new bar every time 150 ticks have passed, however it should only be drawing bars when either the upper range of the last bar (in uptrend) or lower range of last three bars (also in uptrend) has been broken, otherwise it should not be progressing to the next bar...

from what I know of it, the nature of line break is that bars are not meant to be drawn as ticks or time passes, but only when range is exceeded in one direction or another. The minute period that linebreak is based on would only refer to how often price is checked to see if a new bar is needed or not

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Yes, I experience the same on my end in this regard. A new bar is created once the base period is passed and the upper or lower range has been broken. I am not sure why Line Break bars are build on your end when either the upper or lower range has not been broken (while the base period is passed). Can you please double check if 'Line Breaks' is set to 3 in the Data Series menu.

Are you able to reproduce this behavior?

[RunnrX]

Yes, I am using 3 breaks.. here is the full list of my settings on the data series if it is helpful:

But what do you mean am I able to reproduce this behaviour? If you mean with the bars appearing before they should, it is always happening at least on this computer. I will try opening my laptop computer and running the chart and see if it does the same thing though.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

I referred to a new Line Break bar that is created when the base period has passed. I am not able to reproduce a Line Break bar being build once the upper or lower range has not been broken.

Sounds good, I will keep testing on my end as well.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Can you please check what setting is used for 'Quote currencies (FX) in'. You can find this setting at Control Center-->Tools-->Options-->Data-tab. Since you connect to MBTrading, make sure it is set to TenthPip.

[RunnrX]

Hi,

I've run it on my laptop using 5 min period to speed up the testing, and it still occurs. The laptop version on NT7 is just a recently installed version with default settings, and I did the tenthpip thing in the Data tab that you mentioned

It is still happening as seen in this pic where the line break is set to 3 break and 5min period - all historical data is fine, but anything that comes in since the last reload is off:

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Can you please send us your log and trace files. Go to Control Center-->Help-->Mail to Support in NinjaTrader. Put 'Att Jason, 888422' in the subject field and enable 'Log and trace files'.