Futures rollover - how to add forward contract?

[brucerobinson]

Happens all the time. Need a 'Rollover by Volume' option

[NinjaTrader_JamesG]

Thank you for the suggestion. I have submitted this as a feature request to the Development Team. I will follow up with an internal tracking number for your reference as soon as it is created.

Followup:
The internal tracking number for your feature request is 2686. Please reference this internal tracking number if you ever have questions regarding this feature request.

[James108]

Tthis makes absolute sense I had to struggle with this stupid GC contract issue also. Ninja should make it a priority to add features that make the trading experience smooth and less prone to errors.

Instead I see all this effort being put in Volume profile feature set because is seems to be latest craze. Vol Profile and Order Flow is all very well but if you have to struggle to figure hoe to get the right contract month on your chart it is sort of ass backwards in my opinion.

I have the same opinion on various user interface issues that were detailed by many back in the beta yet I don't see any updates in that area. there are numerous areas when NT in their wisdom made changes to the user interface that when discussed on the forum the popular opinion seems to be if it isn't broke why fix it. i have basically given up spending time detailing these frustration because it appears to me nothing ever happens based on this feedback.

Adding contracts is a perfect example I still can't figure out how this is sup[pose to work.

Other examples are thing like adding and subtracting fib lines, the number of mouse clicks required is higher in NT8 than NT7, it should be the same of less, if it isn't then in my view it is not better even though it may be more visually appealing.


Once again I will not hold my breath waiting for any useful feature enhancement to NT8

[NinjaTrader_JamesG]

Hello James108,
The best way to let us know what feature requests are a high priority for users is doing what you are doing, letting us know.
I have submitted this as a feature request to the Development Team, which will add your vote to the ongoing tally. I will follow up with an internal tracking number for your reference as soon as it is created.

[brucerobinson]

Hello JamesG and thanks.
Hopefully and what should happen is that you find that there is already a feature request with a tracking number, because I've already done this and been issued one. No I don't have a record of it etc etc, it's not my job,

If this thread doesn't link up with the previous request, then it isn't working well.
The problem is that with time, things fall off the top of the list.

I see that there is already another related 'problem' reported here https://ninjatrader.com/support/foru...d.php?t=108720

This thread came about as a result of another 'problem' i.e. problems rolling over due to NT's insistence on only offering date-based rollover, when volume is needed.

I battled with this for about 3 years and many tens of hours with support and shouting loudly before finally someone remoted in to my machine and showed me what was required was to change the contract date, describing it as 'not very well documented' by NT. It is not documented at all, and as far as I can see isn't in 8, in fact the opposite - the effect on the new Rollover feature obfuscates rolling over by volume

The other day when GC rolled over by volume, I was in a private room where colleagues using NT8 hadn't a clue, were trying to use the new automated Rollover feature which didn't do the job and were very frustrated. I don't expect they would be coming to the forum and adding their vote to the feature request. Meanwhile others there using Sierra and eSignal were oblivious, happily rolled over by volume on continuous contracts.

This is what CME has to say on the issue of contract rollover:
"Rollover
Rollover is when a trader moves his position from the front month contract to a another contract further in the future. Traders will determine when they need to move to the new contract by watching volume of both the expiring contract and next month contract. A trader who is going to roll their positions may choose to switch to the next month contract when volume has reached a certain level in that contract."
That's what traders DO, but Ninja doesn't facilitate this.

This is what happened on GC recently, and happens all the time, It is especially brutal on more thinly traded contracts such as FDAX where volume shifts almost instantaneously and most usually NOT on the contract expiration date.

Sierra Chart has had volume-based rollover feature as an option for some considerable time - Detect Rollover Of Current Futures Contracts Symbols Based On Real Time Volume (Global Settings >> General Settings >> General 4)
eSignal likewise since 2004.
The problems with merging back-adjusted data, backtesting etc are well documented.

What I believe to be an unintended consequence with the new Rollover feature is that it does make things easier for the User when contracts rollover per the Contract Spec date, which I expect is the intent. However the downside is that some futures contracts often don't rollover by date, they rollover by volume, and the shift can be abrupt.

The method of addressing this was already almost invisible to the user and is now more so due to the increase prominence of the Date-based solution.
By contrast, Sierra puts all rollover solutions in the same place/menu - so volume-based is as visible as date-based.

In case this is helpful to other traders, my solution in NT7 was to maintain a Market Analyzer window showing Contract Volume. In 8, as far as I can tell, I will be able to attach Alerts such that when the contract volume shifts I receive an alert. I've yet to invest the time to explore and implement.

What is disappointing is that NT8 does not address the practicalities of contracts rolling over by volume before expiry date at all, and in some ways the enhancement of the date-based method makes things worse for the 'uninitiated'.

At the very least inclusion of the issue in Help, with a video on why you may need, and how to rollover by volume, because in 7 it was a million miles away from obvious and apparent, now it is 2 million

KR

[NinjaTrader_JamesG]

Hello,
Thank you for using NinjaTrader.

I would like to address your forum post and hopefully clarify what rolling over means in terms of the process in the platform.

The rollover for instruments happens typically when most users switch over to a new contract so the volume is on the new contract. This is determined by the exchanges and gives suggested dates. Futures will typically trade before and after rollovers.

Specifically, the GC 06-18 contract rolled over on 04/30/18, the GC 04-18 contract was still being traded even though the majority of the volume switched to the 06/18 contract. The NinjaTrader platform does not force any user to switch contracts.

If clients wish to roll over early then they must turn off features on the platform that makes the data seem continuous. Those features are the Merge Back Adjusted settings. This feature makes the chart seem continuous when you roll over to a new contract. Meaning without that setting there would be gaps between the settlement price of the previous contract and the starting price of the new contract.

Your feature request was added as a vote to the ongoing tally for 'Volume based rollover' to be added to the NinjaTrader platform. That's internally tracked and we add votes as this comes up.

I would like to emphasize the goal of the NinjaTrader platform as well as the rollover system. The goal of the NinajTrader platform is to be highly customizable, have a feature for every user, and to allow users to modify and add to it. The rollover system supports these goals by not forcing traders to change contracts based off dates or volume if they do not wish, to be able to trade contracts regardless of the volume and to choose when they wish to use the new contract months.