Suggestions / Comments

[byzantium]

Suggestions / Comments:
1. Put a "Are You Sure" message box behind the "Delete" button for instrument lists. I deleted an instrument list by accident.
2. Exit on close, and high-level function SetTrailStop() are great.
3. It's a hassel to download the same instrument data when backtesting each time you re-open the strategy analyzer (try downloading several years of 1 minute data for nz 100 from open tick).
4. Make more of the strategy analyzer settings persist from session to session (or make them settable from code). Ex: Session Begin / End time.
5. The biggie...get a real debug environment. I certainly would pay for it. There are a lot of great features in the system, but to do complicated strategy development it's really necessary to step through code. I really like SmartQuant's approach, but they don't have your ease of use. They don't have a debug environment either, but at least you can attach Visual Studio, and step through the code.

All in all, very nice product.

[NinjaTrader_Chris]

Suggestions and Feedback

Hello,

Thank you for your suggestions and comments. I will forward them to development and ahve them add it to our future enhancement list.

[VagyokC4]

Debug Environment

I AGREE! There are times when the ability to step through the code line-by-line when building advanced strategies would be so helpful.

Can we put a POLL on this questions to see if we can get it bumped up the list.

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Unfortunately this is a .NET limitation where NT can't do anything about it.

[VagyokC4]

dotNET

But in dotNET you can attach a debugger and step through the code... I do this all the time?... and SmartQuant is doing it

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

We debug here all the time too. That's not the issue. The issue is that you can not debug a DEBUG build of your custom DLL (which is loaded dynamically) from a RELEASE build of NT without loosing all the valuable DEBUG info from your custom DLL.

[VagyokC4]

Ahh I See...

Can we get a debug version to debug our strategies??? On the start menu have two entries "NinjaTrader" and "NinjaTrader (debug)" so that way we can still debug when needed????

Maybe even a special build / download of NT.. calling it the "Developers Edition" or something like that???

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

This likely won't happen.

[byzantium]

Another couple for the strategy analyzer.

1. Porfolio optimization of parameters. I'd like to see what values for my optimizable parameter optimize my strategy across a basket of instruments.

2. I'd like to be able to optimize the session begin and end times for a strategy.

3. I'd like to be able to select individual instruments within an instrument list to run a strategy with. For example, if I build a long instrument list, run my strategy, and identify the stocks that are most successful with that strategy. I then want to spend more time working with just that subset of my original instrument list without having to make a new instrument list out of the reduced list.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Thanks for these suggestions, will put that on our list for future consideration. I know the time frame optimization is already on it.

[byzantium]

With all due respect Dierk, integrated debugging is coming to a strategy development tool near you. I don't know when, but when someone does do it, they are going to capture a large user base.

Every once in a while I talk to some old curmudgeon who insists real developers use UltraEdit. I spend hours every day in a number of debug environments, and I cannot image going back to writing my source in a basic text editor. Aside from intellisense, that is exactly what people are doing in NT.

A decent debugger will make your clients so much more productive when doing anything more than basic work that, once they experience it, they'll NEVER go back. You'll own them.

Of course, you are much more familiar with your target market, and product strategy, than me. I do see lots of posts from people struggling with C#, and obviously a debugger isn't a panacea. For example, it won't help people confused with static compile errors, and inheritance and generics are likely to remain confusing to most users. But, for clients using the basics of the language, trying to find the bug in their entry point code, it would be a tremendous help.

I'm offering my opinion with the best intentions. I like NT, and would like to see it continue to be a market leader.

byz

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

Thanks for your comments.