TradeCounter in custom strategy not working?

[daghost_88]

I'm trying to implement a trade counter in my custom strategy to serve 2 purposes:
1.To make sure I take no more than 2 trades per current bar (of any bar type)
2. To perform a different type/quantity on the 2nd trade executed on the current bar

The initial strategy was created with Strategy Wizard and worked fine without my added code when I unlocked. All code typed in blue & italic is what I added to the code after unlocking it:


namespace NinjaTrader.NinjaScript.Strategies
{
public class MyStrategy : Strategy
{
public int TradesTaken;

protected override void OnStateChange()
{
if (State == State.SetDefaults)
{
Description = @"Enter the description for your new custom Strategy here.";
Name = "MyStrategy";
Calculate = Calculate.OnEachTick;
EntriesPerDirection = 1;
EntryHandling = EntryHandling.AllEntries;
IsExitOnSessionCloseStrategy = false;
ExitOnSessionCloseSeconds = 30;
IsFillLimitOnTouch = true;
MaximumBarsLookBack = MaximumBarsLookBack.TwoHundredFiftySix;
OrderFillResolution = OrderFillResolution.High;
OrderFillResolutionType = BarsPeriodType.Tick;
OrderFillResolutionValue = 1;
Slippage = 0;
StartBehavior = StartBehavior.ImmediatelySubmit;
TimeInForce = TimeInForce.Gtc;
TraceOrders = false;
RealtimeErrorHandling = RealtimeErrorHandling.IgnoreAllErrors;
StopTargetHandling = StopTargetHandling.PerEntryExecution;
BarsRequiredToTrade = 0;
// Disable this property for performance gains in Strategy Analyzer optimizations
// See the Help Guide for additional information
IsInstantiatedOnEachOptimizationIteration = true;
}
else if (State == State.Configure)
{
SetProfitTarget("", CalculationMode.Ticks, 31);

}
}

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
if (BarsInProgress != 0)
return;

if (CurrentBars[0] < 1)
return;

if (IsFirstTickOfBar)
{
TradesTaken = 0;
}


// Set 1
if (Condition 1)
&& (Condition 2)
&& (Condition 3)
&& (TradesTaken == 0)
{
EnterLongLimit(Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity), (Close[1] + (45 * TickSize)) , "");
TradesTaken++;
}

// Set 2
if (Condition 1)
&& (Condition 2)
&& (Condition 3)
&& (TradesTaken == 0)
{
EnterShortLimit(Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity), (Close[1] + (-30 * TickSize)) , "");
TradesTaken++;
}

// Set 3
if (Condition 1)
&& (Condition 2)
&& (Condition 3)
&& (Condition 4)
&& (TradesTaken == 1)
{
ExitShort(Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity), "", "");
EnterLongLimit((Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity * 3) ), (Close[1] + (45 * TickSize)) , "");
TradesTaken++;
}

// Set 4
if (Condition 1)
&& (Condition 2)
&& (Condition 3)
&& (Condition 4)
&& (TradesTaken == 1)

{
ExitLong(Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity), "", "");
EnterShortLimit((Convert.ToInt32(DefaultQuantity * 3)), (Close[1] + (-30 * TickSize)) , "");
TradesTaken++;
}



I've tried replacing "public int" with "private int", I've tried assigning "public/private int TradesTaken = 0", I've tried defining a "TradesTaken" field and properties
I tried "TradesTaken += 1" and "++TradesTaken"

When I remove the parts of code I added, it will perform set 1 and 2 (more than twice of course). I don't bother testing for sets 3 & 4 because they're useless without having the ability of tracking how many trades I've taken.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello daghost_88,

Thanks for the post.

Can you confirm what is not working? Are you saying that the sets 1 and 2 don't happen at all with the code you added?

I look forward to being of further assistance.

[daghost_88]

Hello daghost_88,

Thanks for the post.

Can you confirm what is not working? Are you saying that the sets 1 and 2 don't happen at all with the code you added?

I look forward to being of further assistance.

You are correct. I "think" I have the script working now. I kept all my code in it's current place and syntax, but I added "TradesTaken = 0;" to the encapsulated segment following "else if (State == State.Configure)......" which is part of the protected override void OnStateChange() method. Do you know why that made the script finally recognize my variable? Im new to coding so I don't know much about declaring and assigning variables.

Thank you

[NinjaTrader_Jesse]

Hello daghost_88,

I don't see anything in what you provided that should have caused that, int defaults to 0 as a C# type default. Its possible that one of the conditions was equating true before the BarsRequiredToTrade which would present as no order submitted but your variable would be incremented.

The best way to review the case would be to use a Print before the conditions to see what the value is on each bar, you could do the following to chase down the exact cause if you wanted to:

if (CurrentBars[0] < 1)
return;

if (IsFirstTickOfBar)
{
TradesTaken = 0;
}

Print(Time[0] + " " + TradesTaken);

I look forward to being of further assistance.