When is Trading Signal Triggered?

[BillCh]

Hi All,

coming from Wealth-Lab I have no clue about NT but I hope I can soon recode my WL scripts and use NT for life intraday trading which is not possible in WL as there is not trigger on the ghost bar.

Am I right that NT can trigger orders per tick (or wait till a bar is finished and fire off then, if preferred)?

When tick based, how is an indicator calculated then, e.g. a SMA(5) based on close on a 5min time frame: the first 4 values are taken from the previous 4 bars, and with every new tick my SMA(5) is recalculated? So, if after 2 mins after the last bar my SMA(5) would reach its for my setup relevant level, the order would be triggered right now and would not be delayed for further 3 minutes until the actual bar gets finished?

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

That is correct. You can trigger orders per tick or at the end of the bar. Whichever you prefer.

In your SMA example that is correct. It will take the previous 4 bars and the latest tick data as it comes in for calculations.

[BillCh]

Thank you for your quick reply!

How would you approach backtesting then? If I would use 5 min bars, my SMA(5) example would then be calculated on the close of 5 bars (including last bar).

Could I somehow simulate intraday behavior by lets say using 1 min bars. Then calculate the last four "5 minute" bars (I guess I somehow can compress/decompress bar intervals or use different time frames in NT?) as if they would been based on 5 mins. And then use the next 1 min bars to simulate near intraday behavior, hmm? Loop thru the five one minute bars?

Or can historical tick data also used for backtesting as life data, meaning setting 5min interval but trigger signals on ticks within the last (ghost) bar?

[NinjaTrader_JoshP]

BillCh,

Normally you do not get the intrabar granularity when backtesting simply because the information is not available. You can mimic the intrabar though through this example: http://www.ninjatrader-support2.com/...ead.php?t=6652