Info on when/how NT7 updates disk database files with today/current chart data.

[AMATX]

Pls clue me in on how/when NT7 updates the .ntd disk files with -today's- data. Is it done when NT7 is shutdown, or updated the next time NT7 is booted up, or even having to wait until the next day, when NT7 is booted up?

I use minutes and seconds timeframe charts, which requires minute and tick data stored in the db on my C: drive. Sometimes when the market opens, some charts are all screwed up, requiring a data reload to fix. Other charts are just fine. This is NOT apparent in pre-market, when I have my charts up and ready to go. I use only daily session data, not any pre-market or post-market. So, at 9:29am eastern time, the charts look good, but when the market opens at 9:30am eastern, sometimes a secs chart or maybe a minute chart is all screwed up, indicating bad data. Rest of charts are good to go. This often includes NO data showing for the previous day(???) only, which adds to the problem.

Reloading data fixes everything, but with no easy way to tell ahead of time, I have no way of knowing if the charts will work correctly or not at market open. And, it's not practical to do reloads every day. So, I wanna find out when the most current data is actually saved to my C: drive in the db folder.

Pls list the steps/timeframes for these updates.

[NinjaTrader_Kate]

Hello AMATX,

Thank you for your post.

Incoming real time data is held in the cache unless you have chosen to save chart data as historical. When you open a new chart, NinjaTrader will first check to see if the necessary data exists in the cache first, and if not will submit a historical data request to provide the data for the necessary time frame. This historical data request is the information that is saved within .ntd files, and is updated when a historical bars request is made (like when you open the chart). It doesn't actually come from real time data unless you've chosen to record live data as historical, which isn't generally recommended unless your data provider doesn't provide historical data.

It's more likely that what you're experiencing is a performance issue caused by all of a sudden getting all these real time ticks when the market opens.

The first thing to do would be to double check that you're on the latest version of NinjaTrader - the current version of NinjaTrader 7 is 7.0.1000.40. You can check your version under Help > About. If it's anything other than the current version, please update NinjaTrader 7 and reset your instruments:

First, to update NinjaTrader, please follow the steps below:

• First get your license key from NinjaTrader under Help> License Key then exit NinjaTrader
• Click on the link: http://ninjatrader.com/PlatformDirect
• Enter your license key and press Submit
• Select 'NinjaTrader 7'
• Select 'Download'
• Critical: Before running the installer, ensure NinjaTrader is closed.

Lastly, to reset your instruments, please follow the steps below:

• Disconnect from your data feed: NinjaTrader Control Center> File> Disconnect> Select your data feed
• Reset your Instruments: NinjaTrader Control Center> Tools> Options> Data tab> Reset Instruments>OK
• Restart NinjaTrader> Connect (NinjaTrader Control Center> File> Connect> Select your connection

If you're on the current version already, or you've completed an update, we'll then want to look for potential performance issues.

Recently there has been high volatility in the markets resulting in an unusually high amount of ticks that must be processed by all indicators running on all charts in all open workspaces.

The performance when NinjaTrader is loading a workspace or opening a chart is attributed to the processing of historical data. After the workspace or chart has loaded and all historical data has been processed the performance is primarily affected by real-time data being processed. If you're running into performance issues, all manner of errors may occur, including what you've described where some charts are "all screwed up" but others are fine.

You can experience unresponsive behavior in NinjaTrader if you have many charts, indicators and other windows opened and this is depending on market volatility as well.

Focusing on real-time performance (after the workspace or chart has loaded):

Using 3rd party add ons that use lots of resources can cause performance freezes or unexpected behavior, especially during peak trading such as the open of the day.

The 'Calculate on bar close' setting for indicators can be important. If set to 'False' the indicator will be calculated on each incoming tick. During high volatility this can be very CPU intensive especially if the indicator makes complicated calculations. Please set it to True in the Indicator parameters and the indicator will only be calculated at the end of each price bar which reduces the load on your computer by a large amount.

The greater the number of charts open with indicators running with Calculate on bar close set to 'False', the more demand is placed on the CPU core that NinjaTrader is running on.

There also may be a recent increase in market activity for this instrument. The more ticks the exchange sends out, the more CPU cycles that need to be processed by NinjaTrader. This means a workspace/chart setup that was working fine for the last few months may not now have the overhead to keep up with the sheer number of ticks that are being processed today or in the last few days.

If you have workspaces opened in the background which you do not use, we suggest to close such workspaces.

To do this in NinjaTrader 7:

• Please go to Control Center -> File -> Workspaces and check what workspaces are listed below the separator line
• The workspace with the checkmark is the workspace opened on your monitor
  Any additional workspaces listed under the separator line in NT7 or are showing icon of two squares on the left in NT8, are opened in the background and are using resources
• Please select a workspace without the checkmark
• Subsequently, go to Control Center -> File -> Workspaces -> Close Workspace
• Repeat this procedure until only 1 workspace is opened

Below is a publicly available link to the help guide on workspaces in NinjaTrader 7.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/managing_workspaces.htm

On the chart, other items that will improve real-time performance:

• Remove redundant charts and indicators
• Set as many chart indicators as possible to 'Calculate on bar close' as 'True'
• In the Chart Properties set the "Display update interval" to a higher value on your chart to help improve real-time performance

Below is a link to the help guide on Working with indicators. Please see the section on 'How to edit an indicator's parameters'.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/working_with_indicators.htm

More tips and suggestions to improve the performance of NinjaTrader can be found at the link below.

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/performance_tips2.htm

Please let me know if reducing the load on the CPU does not improve the performance.

[AMATX]

Thanks, Kate. This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Lots of specifics, some I was aware of, at lot of which is new info

This gives me many things to check, which I'll do this weekend and next week.

Not yet sure how many diff issues I'm running into, but I have some ideas I was already working on. Combined with your suggestions, I suspect there's a happy ending in here somewhere.

I have a power box, so good there. Otoh, I'm running a lot of software on it, which sometimes doesn't play well together. Ninja performance has been one bright spot here, as after trimming way back on the number of NT7 charts I was running, I typically get excellent performance now, regardless of how wacko the market is trading. Open/close/all day long, it works really well Only issue has been this problem at the open. I also have all of my charts open and ready to go before the market opens, so the only updating to be done would be realtime ticks coming in after the market open.

I did notice(after the fact), thru some screenshots I'd made, that on Friday, May 1st, -before- the market opened, I had one(?maybe more) 1 min. chart that showed data thru EOD on Wed., April 29th. For some reason, Thur, Apr 30th was not showing; completely missing(!) Turns out this chart was one of the messed up charts, so that's an eye catcher I'll look out for next week. Kind of hard to get any continuity on charts when the previous day is missing. I also suspect that the way I'm shutting down NT7 may be a factor, so I will revert to a more normal way of doing so next week.

Btw, I checked and I'm running the most current version, so good there.

I'll report back sometime, when I know more...