Issues with the displacement of indicators

[Harry]

NinjaTrader 8.0.1.0

There are still a few issues, when an indicator is displaced.

AutoScale is not taking into account the displacement (screenshot 1)

See below a default MACD that comes with NinjaTrader being displaced by 50 bars. The plot is cut off, as AutoScale seems to be based on the non-displaced values of the indicator.

Now, I cannot continue the description, as I have just installed NinjaTrader 8.0.2.0. It does not even start on my PC.

[Harry]

Just as a reminder:

DrawRegion() is not working with displacements.

Negative displacement: Throws error messages. "Failed to call OnRender() for chart object 'Region': 'Array dimensions exceeded supported range.'

Positive displacements: No error messages but incomplete fill for the fill area.

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello Harry,

Thanks for your posts.

I have confirmed your displacement/autoscale observation in 8.0.2.0. We will investigate and update this thread when we have further information.

Regarding DrawRegion, this is covered under bug report NT8-10847 which is still in process.

Thank-you for reporting.

[Harry]

Displacement not working properly on tick charts with non-equidistant bar spacing

The displacement feature of indicators does not yet work correctly on tick charts with non-equidistant bar spacing.

It seems that the algorithm that calculates the position of the future bars does not take into account the moving position of the current price bar, which makes up for a reverted plot.

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello Harry,

Thanks for your post.

I have been able to replicate. Thanks for your report.

We will investigate and update this thread when we have further information.

[Harry]

Just to note that the problem also occurs with standard charts (equidistant bar spacing) when the indicator is set to Calculate == Calculate.OnEachTick. Sample charts attached.

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Just to note that the problem also occurs with standard charts (equidistant bar spacing) when the indicator is set to Calculate == Calculate.OnEachTick. Sample charts attached.

Hello Harry,

Thanks again for reporting.

This has been assigned to NT8-11066.

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello Harry,

Thanks for your patience on NT8-11066.

This is being difficult to sort out and we would appreciate your input.

We've observed that the bug also shows in NT7, so we are trying to understand what your expectations would be in this unusual situation of tick bars, displacement with non-equidistant bar spacing.

For example, with nonequidistant spacing on non time-based bars are you looking for a time displacement feature request?

If looking for a bars displacement, you may have 50 bars in 1 minute and 10 in the next. Are you wanting those 50 bars of info then applied to the 10 bars of the next minute or do you want it to wait it 50 bars to properly displace all of that info?

Hopefully, you can see the dilemma faced here and as always we value your considered input.

[Harry]

Sample for reverting and non-reverting plot on a non-equidistant chart

The displacement feature is mostly used for displacing moving averages. Numerically it is easy to calculate a displacement based on equidistant bar spacing. For non-equidistant bar spacing - such as observed for tick charts on time based bars - a synthetic bar width (distance between two consecutive bars) needs to be determined.

The way this has been implemented for NinjaTrader is that the displaced plot has been aligned to the second but the last bar. The last bar itself is not taken into account and may well move beyond the first projected bar position. This explains that the plot reverts, which is obvious nonsense.

All that is needed is to

- determine the bar width based on any sample of prior bars
- and then align the forecasted x values for the plot to the last bar instead of the second but the last bar

I have now coded this for a number of indicators. Below I have attached two charts. The first one shows the behaviour of default indicators that ship with NinjaTrader 8. The current bar distorts the projection as can be seen in the red rectangle. The second chart shows a manually coded plot and region, which is well-behaved.

Both charts show the same TMA(55), TMA(21) moving averages displaced by 10 bars. The two screenshots were taken at the same time.

[Harry]

Here is a second example. This is an Ichimoku chart with non-equidistant bar spacing displaced by 10 bars.

The first chart shows an Ichimoku indicator that uses standard plots(!) and the displacement feature of DrawRegion(). The displaced plots cannot cope with non-equidistant bar spacing and the displacement feature of DrawRegion() seems to be inspired by cubism...

The second chart is what is expected.

I am aware that the combination of displacement and non-equidistant bar spacing is a rare occurence. Nevertheless, if NinjaTrader comes with those features, they should work.

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello Harry,

Just to update.

The bug was assigned to NT8-11066, "Indicator displacement can cause plot to retrace over itself".
This has been fixed and will be available in the next release of NinjaTrader8.

Thanks for your efforts to report and improve NinjaTrader8.

[Harry]

Thank you for your feedback.