Please explain data: Market Data, Download data, replay data - when to use what

[DaFish]

Hi I am confused on why there are different areas of data and their use, and where we get it from.

Here is what i want (and I suspect most users)

Connection: Live connection - I use Kinetick live

1) Live data - is this HISTORICAL - after I run the market intraday live? (and tick the box to save as market replay)

2) Live data saved as Market Replay - is a second copy saved in a different area on my drive?

3) Tools->Historic Data->Downloaded data - I download this - I believe I can chart it, why can't I then Market replay it? How do I get to do the Market replay of that data ? (only when I use my live connection and tick the option to save as market replay?)

Why.... Why have 2 areas of data - this is confusing the crap out of me and a lot of people I am sure.

Why not have 1 area of data - downloaded, market replay, live... if we choose to use TICK then great, if not then we miss certain features.

Can you please explain the use of all this.

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello DaFish,

Yes, historical and market replay data are saved in different files.

Historical data, meant to load quickly as a chart is loaded, contains only the Open, High, Low, and Close of each bar. This means a minute candle will not load any intra-bar information and will represent the OHLC prices points during that minute.

Market replay data is a recording of a stream of real-time data. This data is much larger and contains the intra-bar information, and optionally level 2 data, which is not available with historical data.

Below is a link to the help guide which further details the differences with real-time vs historical data.

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/discrepancies_real_time_vs_bac.htm

Historical data can be downloaded from your connected data provider or broker.

Market Replay data is available to download from the NinjaTrader Market Replay servers for the previous 90 days of the most popular futures and forex instruments.

Below is a link to a video that demonstrates downloading data and playing this back in NinjaTrader 7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgB1y3df7l0&index=19&list=PL4D56536A44DD7105

That said, one of NinjaTrader 8's major enhancements is the ability to playback historical tick data in the Playback connection.

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/data_files.htm

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/index.html?playback.htm#HowToWorkWithReplayData

http://ninjatrader.com/Downloads/MajorEnhancements_NinjaTrader8.pdf