So Close And Yet So Far....

[BigWaveDave]

I offer a few shortcomings in charts that, if fixed, would take NT from being a great product to develop trading systems with to a great general purpose charting and trading platform.

It's oh so close right now. But I have a few serious gripes about the charts. Please take this as constructive criticism.

1. Only 1 chart per Frame Window. Supporting grids of charts is a requirement of mine. Screen landscape is already at a premium. Having to manage a dozen or more separate Frame Windows containing 3 or 4 different instruments on 3 or 4 different timeframes is exceedingly painful. See ThinkOrSwim for the way to do it right. I'd be happy with anything close to what they do. Alternatively, you could give developers the ability to create ChartControl objects by documenting a few things, and then we could do with them what we please...

2. Ability to switch between tick-based and time-based bars in a single ChartControl without having to jump through hoops...

3. Time axis scaling is busted... It is literally driving me nuts. I can elaborate on this if anyone would like to hear it, but when I click and drag for a pixel or two, the chart should scale cleanly. As it stands right now, it's chunky. Only certain scaling appears to be acceptable. This part of the ChartControl needs to be seriously reworked. Worse yet, assuming I can get it scaled and looking exactly the way I want, when I release the mouse button, the scaling snaps to some different factor. I can almost never get my charts looking the way I need them to look as result. The lack of precision here just doesn't work for me. And it doesn't have to be the way it is.

4. No built in zoom. Again, see TOS for an example of how to do it right.

If I just haven't figured out how to enable or achieve any of the issues that I've described, please let me know.

Dave

[NinjaTrader_Kyle]

Hello Dave,

Thanks for your post.

I will forward your feedback regarding items 1, 2 and 3 on to our development staff for further consideration.

In terms of zooming, we do offer a tool with which to magnify the chart - zoom can be accessed by selecting the icon which appears as a magnifying glass in the chart's toolbar.

If you were aware of the feature but find that it doesn't meet your needs, I apologize for the confusion and would happily forward any feedback on this feature along with your other suggestions.

[birdog]

1. Yes...Time Grids is a real need (I requested this too in a prior thread):

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=53393&highlight=thinkorswim

I believe they will do something...

Also, having the ability to globally change time frames, indicators, etc etc across all grid charts would improve upon ThinkorSwim's Grids too (as they don't have that).

2. I also agree on the ticks etc...

3. I believe I understand what you are saying...

4. Yes, the Zoom In and Out is buggy...When I zoom and then restart, then it will not snap back. I hope they add a "Snap Back" feature to when it Zoom in or out, the bar width size or spacing is adjusted, that there would be a "Snap Back" button to reset as well.

However, Ninjatrader is awesome, as we all know, and there will continually be feature requests (after all we are traders and are always demanding more...hehehe...). This is why Ninja is great (because of trader input and Ninja's awesome support and execution staff)!!!



Greg

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Greg,

Thank you for your feedback and kind words.

I will forward your suggestion regarding the Zoom feature in charts to development.

[Alfred]

Work-around...

3. Time axis scaling is busted... It is literally driving me nuts. I can elaborate on this if anyone would like to hear it, but when I click and drag for a pixel or two, the chart should scale cleanly. As it stands right now, it's chunky. Only certain scaling appears to be acceptable. This part of the ChartControl needs to be seriously reworked. Worse yet, assuming I can get it scaled and looking exactly the way I want, when I release the mouse button, the scaling snaps to some different factor. I can almost never get my charts looking the way I need them to look as result. The lack of precision here just doesn't work for me. And it doesn't have to be the way it is.
Dave

Here is a work-around on this problem....If you add a second data series to a chart the horizontal scaling will then become smooth.
For example you can add a 2nd data series as a transparent line on close...

......

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Greg,

The suggestion is added to the list of possible future enhancements. It has been assigned to ID# 2231.