Stupid Newbie Question

[Instamess]

I still can't figure this out. NinjaTrader, you've made it so difficult that I'm almost giving up on this now!

On this page in the manual you say to right click for a menu that'll allow adding and removing targets. When I right click I get a menu, but there's no option to add or remove targets. After "simulated order" comes "cancel all orders" and all the other options shown in your image - like add target etc - are not available to me.

When I follow the easy look instructions on the video koganam linked to - yikes! - you've got to set a number in the stop loss and profit target boxes. Fair enough. You then have to click "market". Market!?! That ended up closing my open order!

[Instamess]

PS: The only time I get the "add target", "remove target etc, is when I already have a target set. Duh, why? Why not provide those options to your users even when there's no target already set?! And how does one set the original target in the first place (when the order has already been opened without a SL or profit target)?

[koganam]

PS: The only time I get the "add target", "remove target etc, is when I already have a target set. Duh, why? Why not provide those options to your users even when there's no target already set?! And how does one set the original target in the first place (when the order has already been opened without a SL or profit target)?

In that case, you place an OCO "target and stop" order combo. Look at the third item from the bottom on this page:

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

You are already in a position, so all that you want to do in that case, it to submit protective orders for the existing position.

If you had followed properly, you would have seen that the demo that you were looking at was for a situation where you were flat, and were placing an entry order at the same time as its protective orders. It is the same on every platform that I have used with a SuperDOM. I really do not see how this is any different on NinjaTrader.

If you simply want to add a target to a position that you already have, that is also the same that I have seen in other SuperDOMs: You simply add the requisite order directly. If you are long, you click to place a sell order; the converse if you are short.

OTOH, if you want to place protective orders, then just as on every other platform, you have to use an OCO order combo, using only the targets and the stops. If you place a market order opposite to your position, you will always be taken flat: again, regardless of the platform. That is what Market Order means and does.

Maybe you are overthinking things?

[Instamess]

If you had followed properly, you would have seen that the demo that you were looking at was for a situation where you were flat, and were placing an entry order at the same time as its protective orders.

Maybe I wasn't following properly. I asked about a specific situation in my opening post - about when there's already an open order. I had to explain it further when Lance didn't read it correctly. So when I saw your video I took it to be one that addressed my problem. I admit I missed that he didn't actually have an open position when he set that SL and TP and hit "Market".

If you simply want to add a target to a position that you already have, that is also the same that I have seen in other SuperDOMs

That's the thing - NT's explanations seem designed for people who already have experience with other SuperDOMs. I don't. For many years all I've been using is MT4 and the IGIndex platform (which, as with MT4, has a user friendly system - doubleclick on the open trade, click edit, set whatever you want by clicking or typing in a number, save. Simple).

Anyway, thanks for your reply. I'll take it that this can't be done in Basic Entry as originally suggested and that I have to do it in the SuperDOM. I'll investigate further. It doesn't help that the NT manual is so badly written! (I speak as someone with experience writing technical manuals for hardware. What's the point of putting a screenshot showing "add target", "remove target" etc when that's not what users see when they right click?! I'm sure the manual makes perfect sense to someone who already knows how to use the system.)

BTW, earlier you said:

That is pretty easy to do in the DOM. You click on the DOM where you want to place your order. You need a mouse with a middle button in order to place stops.

There's more to it than that. If you do use the middle button NT sticks it's middle finger up to you with a "You must select an active ATM strategy...."

While my grumble is with NT, I am most grateful for your several helpful posts in this thread.

[NinjaTrader_PatrickH]

Hello Instamess,

Thank you for your response.

If you want to view the option for Add and Remove Target all the time then right click in your SuperDOM > select Properties > then under General set the option Show Quick Buttons to True > OK.

[Instamess]

It's already set to true.

Listen, I'm no Einstein, but I'm not the village idiot either. It's a simple task: I clicked on a button and opened an order. It has no SL or target. I want to set a SL and target now. Should take 30 seconds to explain (on any of the previous platforms I've used). Instead I'm near the end of page two of this forum thread and have spent more than a couple of hours on this so far. I still don't know how to do it. That's ridiculous.

[koganam]

It's already set to true.

Listen, I'm no Einstein, but I'm not the village idiot either. It's a simple task: I clicked on a button and opened an order. It has no SL or target. I want to set a SL and target now. Should take 30 seconds to explain (on any of the previous platforms I've used). Instead I'm near the end of page two of this forum thread and have spent more than a couple of hours on this so far. I still don't know how to do it. That's ridiculous.

What you describe as happening is not what happens when I do it, so it appears to me that you have a different issue. I can place protective orders just fine in the DOM to protect an existing position, without first having to select an ATM Strategy. I left a public offer for you to connect to one of my systems so that I could demonstrate for you. After it was up for 3 hours, I took it down.

If you want to take me up on it, send me a PM, and I will fire it up again.

[Instamess]

Thanks for the offer. I do not need to connect to your screen to see what action is happening in your copy of NT. I trust your account. But I'm obviously seeing a different behaviour in my copy of NT.

I've given up on this. NT support staff don't even read my original post/previous posts before commenting. I always praised NT's support in the past, but this has been, to say the least, a frustrating experience.

For any future readers of this thread, I have found a way around - an answer to my questions in the OP:

Find and click the "Chart Trader" button on your chart.
Right click at the point on the chart at the price level where you want to set a stop loss or profit target.
Choose from the menu you then get.
Once you've set those prices you can click them to pick them up and move them.

Hope that helps you a darn sight more than the support staff's posts above.

koganam, many thanks for all your efforts and offers.

[koganam]

Thanks for the offer. I do not need to connect to your screen to see what action is happening in your copy of NT. I trust your account. But I'm obviously seeing a different behaviour in my copy of NT.

I've given up on this. NT support staff don't even read my original post/previous posts before commenting. I always praised NT's support in the past, but this has been, to say the least, a frustrating experience.

For any future readers of this thread, I have found a way around - an answer to my questions in the OP:

Find and click the "Chart Trader" button on your chart.
Right click at the point on the chart at the price level where you want to set a stop loss or profit target.
Choose from the menu you then get.
Once you've set those prices you can click them to pick them up and move them.

Hope that helps you a darn sight more than the support staff's posts above.

koganam, many thanks for all your efforts and offers.

Well, you can certainly use Chart Trader instead. It is just another one of the many flexible ways in which one can enter orders in NT.

[jparrie]

If you want to trade, then you need to get the correct equipment.

A little condescending me thinks. I have the correct tools; a suitable laptop, but that apparently doesn't conform with Ninja's requirements. Maybe that's why there's a new 9G replacement DOM for Ninja out there?

Or maybe as a long time Tradestation client I have become accustomed to having stuff that just works with what I have? I don't know, but my impression is that NT doesn't have much consideration for how people really trade out in the real world. We don't all sit behind multi-monitor desks.

[koganam]

A little condescending me thinks. I have the correct tools; a suitable laptop, but that apparently doesn't conform with Ninja's requirements. Maybe that's why there's a new 9G replacement DOM for Ninja out there?

Or maybe as a long time Tradestation client I have become accustomed to having stuff that just works with what I have? I don't know, but my impression is that NT doesn't have much consideration for how people really trade out in the real world. We don't all sit behind multi-monitor desks.

For the avoidance of doubt, my trading installation of NinjaTrader runs on a laptop, on one screen, not the multi-screen setup at which you seem to be snickering. Yes, I have an external mouse with a middle button, because my choice of platform, NinjaTrader, was designed with a middle-button as a very important part of its operation. I want to trade with NinjaTrader, so I get the necessary hardware.

Middle buttons in mice have become standard, and no longer exotic for mice. It is unfortunate that laptops mostly do not have mice with middle buttons.

So if, instead of a desktop, you insist on using a laptop, with no middle button on the mouse, then get the supplemental equipment. If you refuse to do so, do not blame the designers of the program: they designed for a wide audience, and an intent to use a piece of equipment (mouse) that is rather inexpensive (can be bought for less than one /ES tick !) and widely available.

The choice to be an luddite is purely yours. Get what is necessary, or stick with the program that you so evidently seem to think is superior. Yes, I am responding with the same snarky intent of the comment to which I am responding. You may choose to continue your sarcasm or not. I shall not see your response. Fortunately this forum provides the ability to remove vexations to my spirit.

[jparrie]

Clearly when there are others making improvements of what is on offer (9G DOM), that must tell you something?

I think the Luddite reference is rather inappropriate, I mean do cars still use a starter handle? Likewise as a rule, laptops don't need a mouse.

But anyway, I think I'll do as you suggest and stick to the superior platform.