Trading manually on same contract as the strategy

[jiminssy]

What happens if a running strategy on the same futures contract has open position and you place an order that goes against it manually?

Respectively, what happens if your manual trade has open position and strategy kicks in and places orders opposite direction?

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello jiminssy,

Thanks for your post.

In both cases your account position would be made flat and in both cases your strategy would be in a strategy (virtual) position. In both cases when the strategy closes its strategy (virtual) position it would be placing live orders and if your account position is flat it would put you into an account position. The process is now one of the strategy being out of sync with your account.

Said another way, your strategy is unaware of any other activity and will place orders according to its strategy code.

An important concept to understand prior to using NinjaScript strategies in a real-time trading environment (live brokerage account, for example) is the difference between a Strategy Position and an Account Position. To further clarify, please review: http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpG..._account_p.htm

If you wish to trade the same instrument as the strategy this would best be done by using another account. Your strategy would be operating on one account and be in sync with it and your manual trades in another account would not effect the account positions of the strategy. You can test this by using two sim accounts, one for your strategy and one for your manual trades.