Question about renaming ATM strategies for use with DOM drop-down

[JS999]

Right now, there are always 2 standard strategies that are shown in the DOM drop-down list, namely <Custom> and <None>. We can also create our own strategies and name them whatever we want.

When you create a strategy and then actually execute a trade with it, it automatically appears in the DOM drop-down list with the following text in front of it:

* Active ATM Strategy

What this means is that because the strategies are listed in alphabetical order, any "active" strategies are automatically going to be listed first, ahead of the <Custom> and <None> strategies mentioned earlier. (Due to the * character in ASCII being listed ahead of the < character)

This is actually a problem for me, because I use hotkeys to perform various complex actions on the DOM (I use AutoHotKey, not the built-in NT hotkeys which are insufficient for my purposes).

One of the hotkeys that I have is the ability to place a stop order after first selecting the <None> strategy. This works fine when there are no strategies already active, because <None> appears in the second spot, right after the <Custom> strategy. However, if an ATM strategy is already active, the * character at the front of that strategy name causes it to be listed first, pushing <Custom> to the second spot, and <None> to the third spot. In other words, I can't program a hotkey to select the <None> strategy because it is always shifting depending on whether or not an ATM strategy is already active or not.

So, my question is:

Is there a hack somewhere in a config file where I can go and rename <None> to something else, for example to #None, which would cause it to be listed ahead of the active ATM strategies which always start with the * character? Or is this value hardcoded in your .NET assembly, so that I can't change it?

If it is not possible to change these things, it would be VERY nice to have a feature in NT7 which allows me to disable the fact that all active strategies start with the * character, or perhaps allow me to change that * character to something else. This actually affects the types of trades that I am able to quickly place in real-time, so it's not a minor issue.

Thanks!

[JS999]

Another thing that would work, is if I could be allowed to create a custom strategy that had the same properties as <None>, but just rename it to something else. So I could create my own strategy that acted just like <None>, but I saved it as #None.

Right now when I select <None> and try to right-click, the "Manage Strategy Templates..." option is grayed out, so I can't save a copy of the <None> strategy.

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hello JS999,

Unfortunately there isn't control over the naming when the ATM strategy is active. This is the convention used to differentiate between a selected ATM, and one that is running or active.

What may work for you is setting the ATMStrategySelectionMode to "KeepSelected..." More information on ATMStrategySelectionMode here:

http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/HelpGuideV6/StrategyMode.html

[JS999]

Hello JS999,
What may work for you is setting the ATMStrategySelectionMode to "KeepSelected..." More information on ATMStrategySelectionMode here:
http://www.ninjatrader-support.com/H...ategyMode.html

Unfortunately, this does not work. The issue not the particular strategy that is selected, it is the fact that all active strategies appear in the drop-down list regardless. The * character is the issue here.

Unfortunately there isn't control over the naming when the ATM strategy is active. This is the convention used to differentiate between a selected ATM, and one that is running or active.

Understood, that you cannot change the * character for active strategies. However, there was another solution to my problem - can I rename <None> somehow to something else, like #None? There would have to be a hack in a config file or in your database to allow me to do that... is this name hard-coded or saved in a configurable spot?

Barring that, I suggested having the ability to save a strategy that acted exactly like <None>, but I could call it whatever I wanted, and select that strategy instead of <None> whenever I wanted to use it. Could we for example enable the ability to have a strategy that had no profit targets and no stop losses, that made it act like <None>?

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Thank you for your suggestion.

The names are stored in the database file, and unfortunately we do not support editing this file for custom atm names.

[JS999]

Thanks for the response... obviously I realize that you don't "support" this as an official feature, and I also fully realize that if I chose to go into the DB and attempt to do this myself that it would be a pure hack, and the consequences would be my own. However, I believe that Ray did say at some point earlier that you guys would be establishing a policy where people would wanted to go "outside the bounds" of normal support would be given pointers on how to do so, albeit at their own risk. Would it be too much to ask to at least be pointed to a location in the DB to look at if I wanted to take this on myself?

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

We provide support for documented features and editing the database is outside of this scope. You may want to post to the current undocumented / unsupported thread, as this is currently the best place for connecting with other users about unsupported features.