Hardware Software Configuration for NT7 on a multi-core CPU

[nightriderx]

Is there any way to adjust that? if not within NT7, is there any 3rd party software that you could recommend to make such adjustment?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

Unfortunately there is nothing you can do to adjust this.

[pkinoc]

No, only when there are multiple threads will it use multiple cores. For example, doing things like starting up NT and optimizing strategies would use multiple cores.

Josh,

Can you please elaborate on your statement below please? Are startup and optimizing strategies the only cases where multi-cores become useful? What part of Ninja uses multiple threads? I'm a programmer so you can be as technical as you want.

"No, only when there are multiple threads will it use multiple cores. For example, doing things like starting up NT and optimizing strategies would use multiple cores."



Suppose I have 20 charts with 5 indicators each = 100 indicator instances total. Is a single thread running all of the the OnBarUpdate code for every single tick that comes in or do all available cores(Eg 4 or 6 with i7) run the OnBarUpdate code?

It has been stated that increasing the "Display Update Interval" would greatly help performance. Why is this the case?

Some of the posts mention a "Single UI thread". What is this exactly?

NinjaTrader_Ray mentioned in one of the his responses that "NT7 will use as many cores as you have available". Is that again just for startup and strategies?

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=18436

Thanks,
Peter

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Peter, the charts would then all run in the main thread and would not be distributed amongst the cores - if you're optimizing strategies in the Strategy Analyzer all cores would be used to balance the load. The Display Update Interval defines how often the charts are updated, the higher this is the lower the load would be on the CPU carrying the chart thread, thus we generally recommend to use a reasonable settings, especially on ultra high volume events.

[JS999]

Josh,

Suppose I have 20 charts with 5 indicators each = 100 indicator instances total. Is a single thread running all of the the OnBarUpdate code for every single tick that comes in or do all available cores(Eg 4 or 6 with i7) run the OnBarUpdate code?

Correct. A single thread runs every single chart update, indicator update, and so on... which means that where it really counts in terms of performance, it is not multi-threaded. In order to get around this, you need to set up multiple copies of NT running in virtual machines. I use VirtualBox to have 3 extra copies of NT running dozens of extra charts, in addition to six main trading charts that I have updating very frequently. In this way, I can take full advantage of my quad-core CPU (sort of). It sucks, but you have to do it like this if you really want a lot of charts open.

On high volume events, even the most powerful CPU would have a problem if you had too many charts open and didn't split them up with virtual machines.

[pkinoc]

Hey, thanks for the info!

With multiple virtual machines do you need a data feed for each or is there a way to use a single feed? I just switched to IQFeed.

NT7 runs a lot better for me than NT6.5 but I'm very disappointed to find out that their multi-core support is limited!!!

Thanks,
Peter

[JS999]

Hey, thanks for the info!

With multiple virtual machines do you need a data feed for each or is there a way to use a single feed? I just switched to IQFeed.

NT7 runs a lot better for me than NT6.5 but I'm very disappointed to find out that their multi-core support is limited!!!

Thanks,
Peter

You need separate data feeds, as it is literally the same thing as running extra copies of NT on other physical machines. Unfortunately I don't think that one IQFeed subscription will allow you to have multiple connections, but you could ask them. I have an account with a Zen-Fire broker that has given me permission to connect to 4 simultaneous feeds... this means I have 4 times the data that I actually need streaming into my computer at once, but that's the only way I can set it up to make the software work the way I need it to. If you are trading futures your broker may set you up for extra feeds if you ask them, otherwise I don't know what to tell you.

P.S. Set the DisplayUpdateInterval to something like 1 or 2 seconds for your longer term charts, if you don't need them updating that often. A daily chart doesn't need updates more than 1 time per second, but a 1 minute chart should be set to update 10 times per second so you can see the price changes more quickly at that level. Setting the longer term charts to slower updates will save on CPU resources, since the indicators and chart will only be refreshed when the timer ticks once per second, or whatever you have set it to.

[pkinoc]

Yeah I trade ES/YM so I will ask IQFeed. I just switched feeds and started using NT 64 bit, followed some of NT's performance recommendations last night so I will see how things work in the next little while. It seems to be fine most of the time but right around news or FOMC announcements it can get pretty crazy!!

Prior to that I was shopping around for a really powerful desktop but with what I've recently found out about NT I have to change my approach. ie. a 6 core/12 thread PC will help at startup but then you're limited to how fast a single thread can run. Too bad Dell doesn't do crazy overclocking and use 2.5Ghz memory!! A faster PC will definitely help but I'm not as anxious to pull the trigger on that.

Thanks,
Peter

[JS999]

Yeah I trade ES/YM so I will ask IQFeed.

When you talk to them, please post the results of that conversation in this thread if you don't mind... I'd be curious to hear what they have to say about this topic. Thanks!