Saving charts drawings

[yuvalw]

Hi,

This feature is REALLY missing in NinjaTrader, I'm keeping track on dozen stocks and like to draw support/resistance lines, fib lines and so on, unfortunately all those are not saved on the charts when I close it (also if I saved the workspace) hence making it impossible to have an on going analysis.
I guess that you are already aware of that but since it is really basic and important I thought to mention it again and hope that maybe it was already addressed on NT7.

Besides I really like NT, great support and sharing community - thank you for that.

Yuval.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Yuval,

This will be supported in NinjaTrader 7. Its beta version is expected to be released the second quarter of 2009.

Thank you for your patience.

[Stopped]

Saving chart drawings

Hi Jason and the broader NT team,

I would like to back Yuval's (and I am sure many others') old but very valid suggestion.

I have been using beta NT 7.18 for several weeks now, and either I am doing something really wrong or the improvements on this basic but critical area remain insufficient for someone who follows and maintains charts for 100+ of instruments:

• Yes, we can now save drawing objects on a chart. However, if you apply some drawings to it and then change the instrument and/or period interval of the chart, the original drawings would remain there - thus forcing you to use one chart per time interval per instrument.
• To work around this, I would then create four different charts for four different intervals (say, monthly, weekly, daily and hourly) and save them in a workspace for a particular instrument. This approach is definitely not ideal as it forces you to keep 100+ of workspaces (one per instrument), but at least allows to maintain those charts on an ongoing basis...
• Finally, to manage this monster, I'd go on to create yet another workspace whose critical components would be a Market Analyzer window containing the 100+ of instruments you follow linked to four different charts with different period intervals. I was hoping that, by doing this, I would be able to call, at the click of a mouse, the charts previously saved in their individual workspaces with their own drawings. Well, wrong answer!

Again, NT 7 allows you to send a rocket to the moon but for someone who uses basic chart analysis to make discretionary trading decisions it does not seem to be a great product as yet.

I like the product for many other reasons, but because of these deficiencies I still have to use different apps for different purposes. I dream of the day I will be able to use one app (hopefully NT!) for all trading purposes.

All the best and keep up with the fantastic work (but please do cover the basics first!),

Stopped

PS: Apologies again if NT 7 has already dealt with this and I was lacking know-how..

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Stopped,

Drawing objects are saved as per the instrument that is selected in the chart. If you select a different period type, the drawing object will remain - this is as expected. However the drawing object should not remain when selecting a different instrument in the chart. Are you able to reproduce such behavior? If so, please tell me what exact steps you perform.

So it is not necessary to create 4 charts for the same instrument for each period type. You can switch period types and the drawing objects will remain.

You can windowlink the Market Analyzer to charts. Whenever you click an instrument row in the Market Analyzer, the windowlinked charts will load the instrument in question. More information regarding windowlinking can be found at the following link.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/linking_windows.htm

Am I correct you ike drawing objects to remain in the chart even after selecting a different instrument?

[Stopped]

Hi Jason,

Thanks for your quick reply.

First, the reproduction of the problem(s):

• As you said, drawings on the price panel of a chart change with the instrument, which is expected. However, drawings on the indicator panels remain there, which should not happen (see six attached screenshots, four of which on this post only).
• By default, drawings stay on the chart when the period interval is changed, which does not seem right - particularly considering that users already have an option to choose whether a particular drawing object should be applied locally or globally (see ES 09-10 Daily attachment). Support and resistance or Fibbonacci levels (on high/lows) are period-independent. However, trendlines are period-dependant (compare Daily and Monthly charts for either instrument). Keeping drawings when the user changes the interval does not help.

On the back of this, my suggestion is the following:

• By default, drawing objects should be instrument and period dependant (whilst leaving the option to the user to change the settings), and all panels should be affected.

On your last question: no, I was not asking for drawing objects to remain on the chart even after the instrument changes - although, now that you say this, it could be useful to widen the current optionality (local vs. global) to the following:

1. Local (instrument- and period-dependant)
2. Instrument-dependant
3. Global (applies to all charts, irrespective of instrument or period)

Again, we are talking about basic - but pretty critical, I think - usability enhancements.

Many thanks,

Stopped

[Stopped]

Additional info for post #5

Fifth and sixth screenshots attached here. Thanks.

[NinjaTrader_Ben]

Hello,

I will have someone reply to you on Monday. Thank you for your patience.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Stopped,

Unfortunately the behavior you describe under 'the reproduction of the problem(s):' is as expected. Drawing objects in the indicator panel will remain upon changing the data series in the chart.

I will forward your suggestions regarding drawing objects to our Development team and ask them if they can add this to the list of future considerations of the software.

Thank you for your feedback.