How to simulate futures trading with NT8

[Jclrk279]

I have watched countless videos on YouTube, NT website, and not one of them shows you how to simulate (practice) trading futures. I have downloaded historical data, I have watched replays but nothing allows me to actually simulate a trade on that data. Anyone have a step by step guide or resource that can help me on this?

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello Jclrk279,

Thank you for your post.

As your post did not have to do with development of NinjaScript items, I have moved your inquiry to the general technical support category.

As long as the account selected in the Account dropdown in any order submission window is the Sim101 account, you will be trading in simulation.

If you have a simulation only license key, this field will be locked to the Sim101 account and you will only be able to trade in simulation.

If you have a paid license key or a free live license key, you can opt to set the platform to "Global Simulation Mode" by going to File > Global Simulation Mode. When this option is checked, you will be unable to select a live account in any order submission window and all trades placed via any order submission window will be simulated trades.

Here is a link to our help guide that goes over the Simulator and Trading in Simulation:

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/simulation.htm

Please let us know if we may be of further assistance to you.

[Jclrk279]

Thank you. I read through those links already. I guess I'm looking for a tutorial step by step guide. I'm already in global simulation mode I have historical data loaded. I'm stuck from there. I've attached a screenshot if that helps.

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello Jclrk279,

Thank you for your reply.

Historical data may be used with the Playback connection to play back the market and trade just as if you were in real time. For all other connections, you must have live data coming in to be able to simulate trading. The Simulated Data feed may be used to practice with as well, though this provides generic data that is made up on your PC for testing purposes and has nothing to do with actual market movements. Once you have live data, placing a simulated trade functions exactly the same as placing a live trade would be.

Here is a video publicly available from our YouTube channel that goes over the basics of placing orders. All orders placed in these would be simulated orders:

https://youtu.be/YBs4cRXzE7c

Please let us know if we may be of further assistance to you.

[bltdavid]

Part 0:
Welcome to NinjaTrader!

I'll offer my 2˘.

Part 1:
First off, let's define 'data' a little more.

Historical data - past exchange data from a historical data server.
Real-Time data - present exchange data from a data feed.
Replay data - past exchange data that can be fed to Market Replay.

(NT7's 'Market Replay Connection' was changed to 'Playback
Connection' in NT8 -- same thing, just marketing semantics -- NT8
uses the term 'Market Replay data', I use 'Replay data' for short.)

You cannot make trades against Historical data. The purpose
of all Historical data is simply to back-fill your charts, so that you
(and your indicators) can see previous bars at previous times.

Even using the Sim101 account, you cannot trade Historical data.

You can practice trading with Real-Time data, or Replay data.
You can trade live using Real-Time data only.

Part 2:
Now, let's define 'Simulation' a little more.

When people speak of 'simulation' they usually mean the Simulation
account, known as 'Sim101'.

(People may also speak of 'simulation data', but this is usually just
Replay data going by a different name -- or it can also mean the truly
artificial data created out of thin air via the 'Simulated Data Feed', I'll
cover that shortly.)

Like I said, the 'Sim101' account cannot trade Historical data, but if
you connect to a Real-Time data feed, you can take trades in the
Sim101 account using the Real-Time data shown on your charts.

In other words, you can practice trading with Real-Time data using
the 'Sim101' account.

If you connect to the Playback Connection, you now have past historical
data (known as Replay data) being fed to your NinjaTrader charts as if it
were Real-Time data, which you can trade using the 'Playback101' account.

[NOTE: The Playback Connection works with either Market Replay data,
or with historical tick data -- but I'm only going to consider Market Replay
data here, because historical tick data is not that freely available.]

The Playback101 is a simulation account (just like Sim101) but it is special
because it is only available when connected to the Playback Connection.

In other words, you can practice trading using Replay data using the
Playback101 account associated with the Playback Connection.

In summary, Replay data is past historical data specially formatted for
use by the Playback Connection -- and is downloaded explicitly with
NinjaTrader.

In contrast, Historical data is past historical data formatted for use by
everything else (such as back-filling your charts, or back-testing your
automated strategies) -- and is downloaded explicitly with NinjaTrader's
Historical Data manager, or implicitly during normal use of the Chart
window or Strategy Analyzer window.

Yes, Historical data and Replay data are very similar. They have the
same values, but they are stored differently and used by different
parts of the NinjaTrader product.

Even though they seem the same, they are not the same thing.

Part 3:
Now, let's talk about a 'Connection' and start to tie some of these
concepts together.

Look at the Connections menu in NT8.
Everything you see there is actually a data feed -- I mean, everything.

A 'Connection' may (or may not) have a live brokerage account associated
with it -- it is not required. In contrast, a Connection will always have
a data feed. (This is why you can subscribe to paid data feed services,
such as Kinetick and IQFeed -- they are added to NinjaTrader just like a
Connection but they have no associated brokerage account.)

The 'Simulated Data Feed' is truly the training wheels of data feeds. If
you connect to this, your charts will be populated with back-filled historical
data, but then an artificial data feed with fake data is fed to your charts
as if it were real-time data. For developers, this can be extremely useful.
For new users who want to practice manual trading, not so much.

So, technically, there are actually 4 categories of data:

Historical data - past data from a historical data server.
Real-Time data - present data from a data feed.
Replay data - past data formatted for use with Playback Connection data feed.
Simulated data - fake data generated for use with 'Simulated Data Feed'.

Note how the Connection named 'Kinetick -- End of Day (Free)' is a special
connection to a data feed supplying historical Day data only. The data
downloaded from this connection will be saved as Historical data -- but
even when connected to this Connection, you cannot take trades on your
charts because you cannot trade Historical data (well, maybe you can with
this Connection, but that would be long term overnight practice trading, and
the entry orders will not fill immediately -- but let's forget about that.)

This critical point I'm making is this:
A Connection may not have a live brokerage account associated with it, but
it will always have a data feed and it will always have a simulated account.

Part 4:
So, how does one use NinjaTrader to practice trading?

Remember, you cannot trade Historical data.
(But downloading historical data is a good thing, because this data will be
used to back-fill your charts.)

Trading fake data using the Simulated Data Feed is not real enough.
(This method generates very little volatility -- the fake data gently
trends one direction or the other -- which you control, all good for
developers, but not very practical when learning to trade.)

Trading 'Kinetick -- End of Day (Free)' data is also not very practical.
Why? Because you usually want more than just 'Day' data.

Within each of the 4 categories above, there a 3 types of data, known
as 'tick', 'minute', and 'day' data.

The free 'End of Day' data from the builtin Kinetick connection is nice,
but typically, new traders will need either tick and/or minute data in
order to learn or simulate trading.

Ok, so where do you get that data?

Part 5:
Ah, now we've come to the heart of the matter.

Since you cannot trade Historical data, you must either practice
your trading using either Real-Time data or Market Replay data.

So now you have two questions to answer:
1. How do you get Real-Time data?
2. How do you get Market Replay data?

#1 is easy.
A. Open a brokerage account. Most futures brokerages accounts
come with a Real-Time data feed (Continuum or Rithmic) bundled
together. The username/password credentials used to setup your
account Connection will already be associated with a data provider.

But forget #1, let's assume you're a brand new trader, or at least,
you're brand new to NinjaTrader.

Ok, so how do you do 'simulated' trading using NinjaTrader 8?

You'll need to practice trading using the Playback101 account, which
is only available after you connect to the Playback Connection.

Ok, great. So, how do you get tick and minute Replay data for use
with the Playback Connection?

Ah-hah!
All tick and minute Replay data must be explicitly downloaded by you
using NinjaTrader's Historical Data manager.

Go to Control Center -> Tools -> Historical Data -> 'Load' tab.
Expand 'Get Market Replay data'.
Select the Instrument.
Select the Date.
Click Download.

Don't see the instrument you wish to trade?
You may first need to add it via Instrument Lists, which can be a pain,
but you won't need to deal with that dialog very often.

Unfortunately, when downloading Replay data, the Historical Data manager
does not support specifying a date range, so you'll have to download each
instrument one day at a time.

Study how to setup and use the Playback Connection using this link,
https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...connection.htm

A video describing Playback is available here,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CktTvESKo4w

Part 6:
Still having problems?

Fire away with your questions!

[Jclrk279]

Thank you for the in depth response! They should pay you for your input, SERIOUSLY!

I have a live continuum account.

I would like to practice trading market replay data and live trade data. I have the first week of August downloaded for market replay data, I can access it in Playback Connection but when I "go to..." date/time. The playback says the date i chose with Market Replay selected and the time I chose. When I hit play, the time moves but the chart doesn't. If I pause and then open a new chart it loads but doesn't load to the specific date/time the playback says.

The chart looks like a days range in the Ticker I want but the graph looks the same/doesnt change no matter what day I change it too.

Thanks for any additional help.

[bltdavid]

Thank you for the in depth response! They should pay you for your input, SERIOUSLY!

Thank you for your kind words.

I have a live continuum account.

I would like to practice trading market replay data and live trade data. I have the first week of August downloaded for market replay data, I can access it in Playback Connection but when I "go to..." date/time. The playback says the date i chose with Market Replay selected and the time I chose. When I hit play, the time moves but the chart doesn't. If I pause and then open a new chart it loads but doesn't load to the specific date/time the playback says.

The chart looks like a days range in the Ticker I want but the graph looks the same/doesnt change no matter what day I change it too.

Are you using Playback with Tick or Minute based chart?
How long did you wait before you concluded the chart is not moving?
Was the playback set to start at a time when volatility is naturally low?
Did you speed up the playback to 'force' the chart to start moving?

Also, which contract?

Some other thoughts:

1. When using Playback Connection, make sure you're trading
the right contract for that moment in time.

2. Check which Replay data is available for Playback Connection,
you can look inside this directory,

"C:\Users\<username>\Documents\NinjaTrader 8\db\replay"

Each folder should represent a contract. Inside the contract folder,
make sure it contains the dates you want to practice trading.

3. I also have a habit of making sure I have enough Historical data
before the Playback date. I'll download 10 days or so before
the Playback date using Historical Data manager, as necessary.

Other than that, I'll let Support take over to help you with the
specifics of what you're seeing

[Jclrk279]

I'm using a 2000 tick chart. I've adjusted the speed setting to 500x and higher. The only things that moves is the replay time. No chart movement whatsoever.

ES 9-20

I have downloaded each day of the first two weeks of August for ES 9-20. Hopefully Support can further chime in. I've sent them emails but no response but the automated one so far. Thanks again for all your input.

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello Jclrk279,

Thank you for your reply.

I am not seeing anything in our ticket system regarding you having written in regarding replaying in simulation since the 27th, when my colleague Heath sent you instructions for using Market Replay data. You may want to check your spam folder if you did not receive that reply.

Did you download Market Replay or Historical data for those dates? Can you supply a screenshot of the Historical Data window showing this data is there? (Tools > Historical Data)

Have you selected the correct option in the Playback Controller for the data type you have? You have to specifically choose whether you have this set to the data type you've downloaded.

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

[jmcrae]

Follow up question: How to download replay/tick data for (for example) ES 09-18? I can download the data for ES 9-20; but I can't go beyond the most current SP500 ES futures contract.

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello jmcrae,

Thank you for your note.

Only the last 90 days would be available for download as Market Replay data, unfortunately. There are some third party providers that can provide larger amounts of Market Replay data but I'm not able to list any specifically.

Historical tick data availability would depend on your data provider. NinjaTrader Continuum provides approximately 1 year of tick data for most instruments, though some may go back farther.

Please let us know if we may be of further assistance to you.

[bltdavid]

third party providers

I've used MarketReplayData, they have a very nice bulk downloader.

They're not free, but the price is quite reasonable.

[jmcrae]

Hello jmcrae,

Thank you for your note.

Only the last 90 days would be available for download as Market Replay data, unfortunately. There are some third party providers that can provide larger amounts of Market Replay data but I'm not able to list any specifically.

Historical tick data availability would depend on your data provider. NinjaTrader Continuum provides approximately 1 year of tick data for most instruments, though some may go back farther.

Please let us know if we may be of further assistance to you.

Thank you very much!!

[jmcrae]

I've used MarketReplayData, they have a very nice bulk downloader.

They're not free, but the price is quite reasonable.

Awesome! Thanks!!

[rubyarcox]

Of course I could help you. What's more, I'm still dealing with something like this, and I can describe to you some of my experience. At first I didn't even know how this mechanism works, for this reason I turned to guide to stock research, to get some help. All the more after I formed a list of points that I want to get and later also a work team, with the help of the tips I was able to get the entire work program that will bring me success. So I wish you success and do not forget that you have to work very hard to achieve success, and the implementation of everything new makes us have even more weight for work