Hold connection over weekend - FXCM

[radicaltrader]

Can anyone hold a connection over the weekend.. I have a very good strategy that needs to run longer than a week. (willing to share to anyone that can help me)

I am using FXCM.

[NinjaTrader_RileyS]

Hello radicaltrader, thank you for writing in.

You may, however, there are few items to consider.

We recommend to always to restart a PC on a daily basis--if you eventually come across difficulties while using NinjaTrader, you may want to consider a restart if you haven't done so in a few days.

Lastly, ensuring that your PC doesn't sleep when NinjaTrader 8 is running as sleep mode is not supported.

Please let us know if any questions come up.

[radicaltrader]

Thanks for your quick reply.

So Ninjatrader is not a suitable tool to be used for strategies that run longer than 1 day.

thanks for clearing this up.

[radicaltrader]

is this still the case?

[NinjaTrader_DrewO]

radicaltrader,

Thanks for the reply post.

Correct, we still recommend restarting the platform on a daily basis and we do not support the PC entering a hibernation or sleep state when using NinjaTrader. This would at very least disconnect the platform.

Something else to consider is that some account connections experience maintenance, whether it be regular (sometimes nightly) or as needed. The platform would not be able to prevent disconnects during the night due to server maintenance.

[radicaltrader]

I understand your answer.
Just to make sure you understand how the connection works with FXCM at maintenance.

FXCM goes into maintenance.

1) connection to data and the order connection disconnects.

FXCM comes finishes maintenance

1) connection to data reconnects (live)
2) connection to orders fails (broken)

3) strategies fail to submit orders (i may have 100 orders that are pending fail to submit)

You did supply me with a test version NT (had a different test api) a long time ago that didn't fail with connection loss due to maintenance. I no longer have that copy(lost) I would like to have that again if possible.

[NinjaTrader_DrewO]

radicaltrader,

I am not able to find such a test version of NinjaTrader as mentioned in your reply. Could you please provide a ticket number or the name of the technician you were working with regarding this?

[radicaltrader]

Patrick looked into it for a while...

I think the version didn't update the CASH Value but NT didn't crash during FXCM Maintenance.
I am sure the demo connection is fine, the problems only occurs if you are trading live.





Hello

Thanks for the reply.

The internal build of NinjaTrader 8 is using a new FXCM API. I would like you to install this version and test to see if the behavior persists.

Close all running applications.
Make sure NinjaTrader is closed from the Windows Task Manager:
Press CTRL + ALT + DEL on your keyboard > Start Task Manager...
Processes tab
Locate and highlight "NinjaTrader.exe" > Click "End Process"
Then from the Start menu select --> Control Panel --> Add and Remove Programs or Programs and Features
From Add and Remove Programs select NinjaTrader 7 and click Remove.
Navigate to the following folders and delete any "NinjaTrader 7" folders located here:
C:\Program Files (x86)\
or
C:\Program Files\
Once these steps are completed, download and install NinjaTrader from the link below (please do not share this link):
Deleted
Please let me know the results of your testing.
Sincerely,
Patrick
NinjaTrader Customer Service

[NinjaTrader_DrewO]

radicaltrader,

Thanks for your reply.

Please note this matter would relate to the cash balance updating. I did not find any mention of maintenance periods being excluded from this updated API in this particular support case with Patrick.

In general, all servers will need maintenance at some point and would generally be down during this time. This would prevent connections to the servers and is not something that could be avoided in the platform.

[radicaltrader]

This test api didn't lose connection it just didn't update the cash balance.

I understand that FXCM needs to conduct weekend maintenance. NT should automatically reconnect to the order server after the maintenance period. Currently, NT is limited to day trading if it cannot reconnect automatically. (currently, need a NT reboot losing all pending orders)

FXCM's free platform can reconnect automatically after maintenance

https://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?p=10921128#post10921128

Why is it so hard for NT to reconnect to the FXCM order server after a maintenance period.

[NinjaTrader_DrewO]

Hello,

Thanks for your note.

All subsequent editions of NinjaTrader would have this same version of the API.

The platform contains logic to automatically reconnect, but would not be able to predict that the disconnect that is occurring at the time is maintenance or a general connection loss. For this reason, if the platform is not able to reconnect due to the server being down, the connection would eventually time out and have to be manually reconnected.

[radicaltrader]

Ok thanks very much for explaining the issue. Why would the data reconnect but order connection fails to reconnect. Is it only the order connection that times out.

[NinjaTrader_PatrickG]

Yes, the issue you're describing indicates that the connection to the order routing server cannot be successfully re-established.

If this is still a consistent issue every weekend, I would suggest writing in so we can continue the conversation we had originally back in January of 2017 (ticket #1586800).

If you do decide to write in, send an email to PlatformSupport[AT]NinjaTrader[DOT]com and make sure to include 'ATTN Patrick G' along with a link to this forum post and 'RE 1586800, 1794954' in the body of the message.

[radicaltrader]

Thanks, I have sent you an email, let hope there possibly of a fix for the timing out.

[radicaltrader]

I don't know if FXCM did anything different this weekend, but it the first weekend that I can remember where NT didn't crash with maintenance!

How sweet it is.