Chart Trader Graphics for Strategies.

[DaveS]

When I write strategies, I like to include lines to indicate the positions of orders, executions etc. Although I try hard, I cannot do this with the efficiency and beauty of the chart trader.
I know that I can see the chart trader displaying my strategy trades on a seperate chart, but it would be nice not to need two charts. Since the graphics of the chart trader are obviously already in existence, why not just make them avaiolable in a strategy with a command, which might be -
ShowChartTraderGraphics();

[NinjaTrader_AdamP]

Dave,

You could try using Ray's and Triangles here, however I will make a suggestion to our development team on your behalf and get you a suggestion tracking ID.

[NinjaTrader_AdamP]

Dave,

Your suggestion has ID : 1947

[DaveS]

Hi AdamP.
Thanks for your suggestions about Rays and Triangles. I did try, and may have gotten somewhere were it not for the fact that the Chart Trader is able to plot on top of the price bars, but NT draw commands place lines, text etc behind the bars, so obscuring my text. Do you know of a way round this?

Thanks
Dave

[Radical]

Hi AdamP.
Thanks for your suggestions about Rays and Triangles. I did try, and may have gotten somewhere were it not for the fact that the Chart Trader is able to plot on top of the price bars, but NT draw commands place lines, text etc behind the bars, so obscuring my text. Do you know of a way round this?

Thanks
Dave

This might help: http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/f...94&postcount=2

[DaveS]

Thanks very much for that Radical. Just what I wanted.

[DaveS]

Spoke too soon. It makes no difference what I set ZOrder to, I ve tried loads of different values. It makes no difference at all that I can see.

[NinjaTrader_AdamP]

Dave,

Generally the ZOrder should affect where these are plotted, i.e. it changes what "layer" the object is in. Could you post a small code snippet of the section where you draw these objects?

[DaveS]

Hi Adam.
I'm trying to mimic the Chart Trader graphics as close as possible. Sorry, its difficult to get it nicely indented in here. The price bars plot on top of the text and line, obscuring the text.


{
EntryOrder = SubmitOrder(0, OrderAction.Buy, OrderType.Limit, Quantity, LongOrderPrice, 0, "", "BuyOrder");

TradeNumber++;

DrawText("EntryOrderText", false, "Buy LMT", 7, LongOrderPrice, 2, Color.Black, regularFont, StringAlignment.Center, Color.Black, Color.LimeGreen, 10);

DrawLine("EntryOrderLine", false, 5, LongOrderPrice, 0, LongOrderPrice, Color.Cyan, DashStyle.Solid, 2);
}

[NinjaTrader_AdamP]

Dave,

I have found a thread that may be helpful :

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=41894

It looks like others had a similar issue, but Koganam seems to have solved it using ZOrder with different numbers than 1,2,3, etc.

It looks like you can set ZOrder in Initialize()

ZOrder = 1;  //set here

Also, if you are setting the ZOrder from the chart, its possible that the drawing objects are not set to have a separate ZOrder from the indicator.

I believe things like IText inherit IDrawObject. If you look at the IDrawObject info in the help guide :

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/index.html?idrawobject.htm

You can see there is a "SeparateZOrder" setting that allows you to change whether a drawing object has the same ZOrder as the indicator/strategy, or if it can be set separately. So for example :

IText drawntext = DrawText("EntryOrderText", false, "Buy LMT", 7, LongOrderPrice, 2, Color.Black, regularFont, StringAlignment.Center, Color.Black, Color.LimeGreen, 10);

drawntext.SeparateZOrder = true;

[DaveS]

Thanks Adam.
ZOrder = 100; gets my lines in front of the price bars.

[NinjaTrader_AdamP]

Dave,

No problem, glad I could help.