NT8 time not sync to system clock

[junposlee]

I searched this topic tried many different time servers. and tried already with dimension 4
Also, I set my trading hours to cryptocurrency since I'm trading BTCUSDT
However, 1m chart current bar is running 5:45 and my system clock is 5:44
5m chart current bar is running at 06:00 and my system clock is 5:57 so on and on
they are 1 candle faster than it should be.
what can I do to fix this problem?

[bltdavid]

You're probably looking at the x-axis of the current bar as it is being built, right?

For time based charts, such as 1-min or 5-min charts, every charting software package
in the world knows exactly when the next bar closes -- bars are closing every minute, or
every 5 minutes, etc, depending upon the chart settings.

You're looking at the projected time of when that current bar that is being built on
your chart will close -- well, just relax, there is no problem, everything is fine.

So, what is NinjaTrader doing?

Remember, regardless of bar type, the timestamp of each bar on the x-axis is the
timestamp of when that bar closed.

What about the current bar?
You've noticed it has a future timestamp but it hasn't closed yet.

That's because the current bar is a special case.
How so?

Well, time-based charts have a special property: Even though the current bar hasn't closed,
NinjaTrader can easily predict the future 'bar-closed' timestamp of the current bar, because,
it's just simple math, bars are closing on a predictable time-based schedule on time-based
charts -- but this simple math only works for time-based charts.

The x-axis on time-based charts is, by definition, a regular and uniform thing -- the software
already knows when the current bar will close, and it knows the close of the next bar, and
the next bar after that, and so on. By definition, time-based charts are predictive in this way.

Volume charts and Tick-based charts (also, Range, Renko, etc) do not have this predictive
quality. That is, these charts don't have a uniform x-axis, meaning the timestamps can vary
greatly because each closed bar encompasses and defines the relative speed (or volatility)
associated with price (or volume) movements on that chart. These charts can dramatically
reduce the influence of time, allowing the chartist (and the indicators on that chart) to focus
more on the movement of price or volume alone, rather than movements of price over
uniform time periods.

[junposlee]

But the problem is NT8 has different bar stamps, showing me different OHLC values.
I can't trade with this problem.

[bltdavid]

One more thing.

So, what if one morning you open you 5-min chart at 9:06am (assuming USA Eastern time), but another
morning you open this chart at 9:12am, and open additional 5-min charts some odd number of minutes
later.

The timestamps on all of your 5-min charts are reflective of the same starting time and are the same
for everybody who is looking at the same instrument.

Think about this:
If you open a 5-min chart at 10:17am the next bar closes at 10:20am, right? It does not close 5 minutes
later at 10:22am, nope, it closes at 10:20am. Why is that?

Because the chart is counting time from the start of the session X number of days ago -- and that start
time is the same for everybody, regardless of their own local time or their local time zone -- so when you
start your 5-min chart at 10:17am, the first 2 minutes of that chart comes from historical data, after which
the internal state transition to real time data occurs, so the remaining 3 minutes of that bar are built from
real-time data, and the bar closes 3 minutes later at 10:20am, just as you would expect.

My point is, on a 5-min chart, bars are closing at the predictable rate of every 5 minutes. The timestamp
of each bar is predictable because they're measured from the start of the trading session -- the first
candlestick closes 5 minutes after the open, the 2nd candlestick closes 10 mins after the open, and
the 3rd candlestick closes another 5 mins after that, etc. If the exchange opens at 9am, then the
21st bar after the open on a 5 minute chart will start showing at 10:40am (technically, it will start at
the first tick after 10:40am) and will close at 10:45am. These bar close times are not affected by
when you happen to open your own 5-min chart -- they're already known in advance.

[junposlee]

Yea I understand what you are saying, but did you look at the photo I attached? Do the candles and OHLC values look the same to you?

[bltdavid]

But the problem is NT8 has different bar stamps, showing me different OHLC values.
I can't trade with this problem.

I would submit to you that the bar timestamps are the same -- it is the OHLC of the bars which
appear to vary somewhat.

But the problem you have is fundamentally different that what you think.

NinjaTrader gets its data from its data feed, and TradingView gets its data from its data feed, and is this
data exactly the same? It looks like from the charts that the data is not the same.

Ok, so now your problem has nothing to do with "NT8 time is not sync'ed to system clock" but is really
understanding why some candlesticks on two 5-minute charts from two different products are different.

Short answer: the data is different.
Long answer: could be many reasons, the programmers are different, so the code is different, these guys
are competitors after all -- perhaps some tick filtering is happening, perhaps the tick data is transmitted
through different routes, in different formats, and is timestamped by the server differently -- perhaps
the data is coming from two different data feed services (did both feeds get their data from the same
exchange?) but they each process they data a little bit differently, and then one feed gets fed to NT8,
and the other feed goes to TradingView -- and these slight differences accumulate. The comparison
can be difficult -- it's apples and oranges -- these are two different products. Another possible reason:
maybe Bitcoin is too new, meaning stocks may not have this problem maybe because NYSE/NASDAQ
software is more mature, such that bugs and kinks have been worked out, so that stock quotes from
Schwab/ScottTrade/TDAmeriTrade/Kinetick/etc all report the same stock prices perfectly in sync --
meannig the data is the same for everybody, which puts me back to my initial short answer: the data
received by NT8 is different from the data received by TradingView.

[bltdavid]

Are you saying these products don't operate the same?
This should not be a surprise.

The crosshair on the NT8 chart is on the current bar which, I assume,
is still being built, so NT8 shows the projected timestamp of when this
current bar will close -- which is at 13:40 -- 3 minutes into the future.

The TradingView crosshair is also on the rightmost current bar,
but its timestamp is different.

Why are these timestamps different?
No clue, I'm not familiar with TradingView.

You'll have to reconcile your expert knowledge of these products
and find the juxtaposition of how their charts operate differently.
Perhaps that will explain the difference in the timestamps.

I'm thinking both products are operating correctly and you'll just
have to understand where and how they're operating differently.

[junposlee]

NT8 used to show me the exact same picture as TV. But not now.
Left picture: screenshot when I was trading using NT8
Right picture: Now I go back to the time when screenshot was taken
They are different right?

[bltdavid]

It's a bit difficult to tell ...
Are you saying the left and right chart in that screenshot are both NT8 charts?

What specifically are referring to when you say "they are different"?
Different how?

[junposlee]

yes they are both from NT8 and it just a few days ago.
Just look at the HLC values that I highlighted.

[bltdavid]

Yep, they're different.

The chart on the right looks like a continuous contract, I'm pretty
sure you can not execute trades on a continuous contract chart.

What is the full instrument name in the chart on the left?
(The attached screenshot is clipped and we can't see it.)

Just to be sure, doesn't the "##-##" in "BTCUSDT ##-##" mean
continuous contract?

Sorry, I don't know much about Bitcoin ... still learning.
Is "BTCUSDT ##-##" a futures contract or a currency pair?

[bltdavid]

Does right clicking in one of the charts and selecting "Reload All Historical Data" from the context menu fix both charts?

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello junposlee,

bltdavid is accurate here in that we would expect that Tradingview and NinjaTrader would display differently - it appears that Tradingview stamps the bars with the opening time while NinjaTrader stamps the bars as the closing time. We would also expect that the data provided by Tradingview may be slightly different from that provided by the data provider you're using with NinjaTrader.

Who is the data provider you are using with NinjaTrader? What version of NinjaTrader are you using? You can find this under Help > About - the current version of NinjaTrader is 8.0.21.1.

Thanks in advance; I look forward to assisting you further.

[weeclemans]

I searched this topic tried many different time servers. and tried already with dimension 4
Also, I set my trading hours to cryptocurrency since I'm trading BTCUSDT
However, 1m chart current bar is running 5:45 and my system clock is 5:44
5m chart current bar is running at 06:00 and my system clock is 5:57 so on and on
they are 1 candle faster than it should be.
what can I do to fix this problem?

check a local time on www.time.is