Explanation/clarification sought of @Price value reporting in alerts please

[brucerobinson]

Hello,
I have Alerts configured to trigger when price crosses above an indicator which has a fixed value, and using a Tick Offset.
I have configured to display Message at_Price in the Alerts log.
Thing is, when the Alert triggers more than once, the price reported may differ, and I can't easily see how that can be the case other than perhaps 'slippage' between trigger price and reporting, and/or spread.
It would take an age to 'reverse engineer' what is going on, so seek an explanation from those with insight into how it works.

The pertinent stuff re: Alert configuration
Attached to Ninja OHL/Prior OHLC indicators on High and Low
To take the least variables example for ease of diagnosis, let's say it is a Previous Day Prior OHLC indicator, or Current Day OHL on a Session that has ended. Point being in either scenario the High or Low of the OHL indicator is a fixed/absolute value, it cannot change, unlike a Current Day's value - so that side of the condition is not changing, for elimination/the avoidance of doubt.

The Condition is

when price crosses above, configured

such that when triggered price is posted to the Alerts log. The other side of the Condition being the Data Series.

Simply put, if the High value of the OHL Indicator is 2000, Data Series set to trigger when the High of the current bar (0 bars ago) reaches and crosses above 2000, with an Offset of -10 ticks, I can't see how the trigger price and/or price reported to Alerts Dialogue message can ever be anything other than 1990, nor how the same Alert can trigger and report different prices i.e. the same alert may trigger 3 times in succession and a different price be reported each time. 2000 -10 = 1990. ?
Rearm type is Timer.

But it can/is.

So perhaps someone with knowledge of the inner workings could kindly shed some light for me.

(In reality, the Alerts are actually configured bassackwards in order to overcome a problem the requirement for a Look Back period causes , see attached)





Here is an example Alerts Log showing different Prices

See uppermost ZS examples.
6 alert triggers. Two different indicators PriorOHLDay which is the Day Session, and PriorOHLFull which is the ETH Session. The Condition is actually the same for both i.e. the High was put in during the Day Session so the two indicators are reporting the same thing - price crossing above 8 ticks below the High i.e. approaching Prior Days High from Below, 8 ticks before it gets there.

But there are multiple Prices reported in the Alerts Message?...…? The High of the Previous Day is a fixed value. 8 ticks beforehand is a fixed value. So the Price at which it crossed that price was a fixed value. And it was the same in each Alert/OHL Indicator. And the same each time it triggered

Kind regards
Bruce

Happy turkey-week

[brucerobinson]

keeps giving me help JSON parse error gobbledegook

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hello Bruce,

Thanks for the post.

An alert will just report the price at the time of alert trigger. Are these reported prices drastically different from the price on the chart when the alert is active? Is the price never actually at the levels that you are seeing? If you post screenshots of your alert conditions, I could try to reproduce what you're seeing.

I look forward to your reply.

[brucerobinson]

Hello Chris and thanks.
I'm not sure I can have conveyed my question/the 'issue' clearly.
"An alert will just report the price at the time of alert trigger" - OK, that's what I expected.
"Are these reported prices drastically different from the price on the chart when the alert is active?". Not drastically, but when the Alert is configured on an absolute/fixed value, how can they not always be that value, and not always the same?
"Is the price never actually at the levels that you are seeing?" - this isn't about what I'm seeing on the chart (which seems to be what you're suggesting), it is about the calculated Condition price, and the price reported in the Alerts log.
"If you post screenshots of your alert conditions, I could try to reproduce what you're seeing."
I have posted screenshot already? All my Alerts are the same format - trigger when price crosses above 8 ticks below the Previous Day's High, trigger when price crosses below 8 ticks above Previous Day's Low etc.
Please let me know if you want something else?
Kind regards,
Bruce

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hello Bruce,

Thanks for your patience.

If the reported price is just a tick or two away from the condition price It is certainly possible that the price moved before the alert had a chance to show up in the user interface. Another possibility is that you are comparing a Daily bar that has the adjusted settlement price and the PriorDayOHLC indicator which gives a non-adjusted settlement price for its close value. So if you were expecting for the PriorDayOHLC indicator to give you the adjusted settlement close for the prior day, I could see how that could look like an odd difference in price.

I look forward to assisting further.

[brucerobinson]

Hello Chris and thanks.

"If the reported price is just a tick or two away from the condition price " - please take a look at the screenshot of the Alerts log I posted.

Note the instances of the PriorOHLDay High from Below and of PriorOHLFull High from Below. There are 10 instances in the list. PriorOHLDay is the Day Session and PriorOHLFull is the ETH Session. As it is the 'Prior' Day and the Day has therefore ended, the high is an established value (i.e. fixed, it is whatever the High of the Day was). The High of that prior day was established during the Day Session - hence the high of the Day Session is the High of the (Full) ETH Session, also. Hence all 10 Alerts had the exact same value for that side of the Condition.
But if you look at the Price reported in the Message, the price varies from 884.0, to 882.75. That is 5 ticks of difference, not just a tick or two away from the condition price (although I guess feasibly it could be 'within 2 or 3 ticks either side'.

Given that ZS doesn't typically move particularly quickly nor have a wide spread, I cannot understand how the price reported in the message can vary in this manner, and be anything other than the exact same price as the High of the Day value, which is exactly the same in all 10 instances.

The reason for seeking to understand why/how price is generated is, having observed this and not understanding it, is the alert being triggered at the price price, or is it being triggered when price crosses above the High?

The reason that matters, is if I have a 6 tick Offset so that the Alert is triggered when price reaches 6 ticks before the High from Below, then if it may be '5 ticks out' per the variability on the price reported in the message, then it won't trigger until price is at the High in some instances and a 6 tick Offset is not providing an 'early warning' of price approaching the High from Below.

I understand your Close/Settlement Close aspect but I am not using any Close, only High and Low.

Kind regards,

Bruce

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hello Bruce,

Thanks for the reply.

I am having trouble actualizing the problem you are seeing here. Could you please write an email to [email protected] and reference this forum thread link and "ATTN ChrisL" in the body of the email so we can set up a phone call to address this?

I will update this forum thread once we have found a solution.

I look forward to your reply.