Multiple data series and bar spacing

[Ricam]

a tick is not THE ^TICK

To answer your question in English:

Updates of the ^TICK index occur at fixed time intervals. For example, for Kinetick and DTNIQ there is an update every second. For others this differs. I think Barchart updates the ^TICK every fifteen seconds.

^TICK is the name of an NYSE index. This has nothing to do with a tick of a futures contract. For a futures contract a tick is a TRADE. Trades do not occur on any predetermined time schedule. A tick is the data for ONE TRADE and also does not arrive on any fixed schedule.

When more than one data series is plotted on a chart, the chart must have a time based horizontal scale. The bars of the ^TICK will be equally spaced because they arrive at uniform time intervals. The bars of the futures contract cannot possibly be equally spaced unless they are also TIME BASED bars. If they are tick based bars they wlll not be equally spaced because the time for a given number of trades to occur is not constant.

[chinapassage]

apologies i guess i didnt make myself clear ...
the update i was referring to is what this thread was talking about where you can have equidistant tick charts on the primary data feed and all additional data feeds regardless of tick/time are squished together or spread apart ... instead of the primary data feed always being the one out of whack....

as you could easily have a equidistant chart as the primary default ... and all subsequent just line up with the time axis of the primary .... seems a very useful feature

[The Alchimix]

enhancement

I would like to vote in favor of such an enhancement.
Thanks.

I need to work with range chart and need another hidden 5 minutes data serie.with a correct bar spacing for my range chart.
Hope we'll get this in a newer release.

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi The Alchimix,

Thank you for your post.

Since the multiple data series do not enable the Equidistant Bar Spacing to be modified I have forwarded this item to development so that it can be counted among the enhancements that we are considering for inclusion with NinjaTrader.

[leafsfan]

I'd like to push for this enhancement as well. I use range charts overlaid in the primary window and the time scale reverts to seconds when I do this. When the market is moving fast, several candles paint over each other on the same second rendering the chart unusable. Thanks...

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

To all interested...

I understand the visual requirement to have bars evenly spaced however, I am soliciting your input for how you would resolve the following scenario?

- Multi-series chart with
- 100 tick chart
- 1 minute chart (invisible) with 20 SMA (visible)

- You want the 100 tick chart evenly spaced --> This means the at the x-axis cannot have a unform time axis
- How would you plot the time based minute plots of the 20 SMA when there is no identifiable time slots on the x-axis?

[leafsfan]

Good question Ray.

Could the 20 SMA (visible) based on the 1 minute chart be painted only after one of the bars on the tick chart has closed that is past the last minute?

I have vertical timelines on my chart that paint every 15 minutes on the hour, 1/4 hour and 1/2 hour. On a minute chart, they paint perfectly on the minute. When I put them on a range chart, they paint on the first candle after the close of the 15 minute window. Sometimes the close of the candle can be several seconds or even minutes after the 15 minute mark, and then the vertical line paints but I live with that.

Right now, my range chart with 2 different ranges on it is a mess. I hope we can do something. Thanks...

[NinjaTrader_RyanO]

Hi leafsfan,

Thank you for that post and for the feedback, and I have forwarded this particular aspect of the general enhancement to development so that we can further consider the possibility of this type of enhancement.

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Good question Ray.

Could the 20 SMA (visible) based on the 1 minute chart be painted only after one of the bars on the tick chart has closed that is past the last minute?

I have vertical timelines on my chart that paint every 15 minutes on the hour, 1/4 hour and 1/2 hour. On a minute chart, they paint perfectly on the minute. When I put them on a range chart, they paint on the first candle after the close of the 15 minute window. Sometimes the close of the candle can be several seconds or even minutes after the 15 minute mark, and then the vertical line paints but I live with that.

Right now, my range chart with 2 different ranges on it is a mess. I hope we can do something. Thanks...

I don't think so since what do you do if you have for example, 100 tick bar with time stamp 9:01:30 and the next 100 tick bar is 9:03:30...When the bars are evenly spaced, where would you now plot the 9:32:00 and 9:33:00 SMA plots? What I have seen other products do in this case is create two evenly spaced slots in between the two 100 tick bars. So in essence, you have 4 data points (in above example) of mixed time frame and you just put them in sequence in time, but evenly space them. If you were to look at this with the 1 min visible, the result is you see two empty spaces on the tick chart.

There are many implications to this.

[The Alchimix]

To all interested...

I understand the visual requirement to have bars evenly spaced however, I am soliciting your input for how you would resolve the following scenario?

- Multi-series chart with
- 100 tick chart
- 1 minute chart (invisible) with 20 SMA (visible)

- You want the 100 tick chart evenly spaced --> This means the at the x-axis cannot have a unform time axis
- How would you plot the time based minute plots of the 20 SMA when there is no identifiable time slots on the x-axis?

For those who work with tick or range chart as primary chart i don't think it would be a problem if the minute based indicators are based on the last known values. Just to have an information on what happen on higher TF.

[leafsfan]

Agree there are many implications to this, but I think both suggestions (either time sequence based on the multiple range timestamps, or painting one on top of the last known value) are superior to what we have now. The way my chart is painting now, its unreadable when the market moves quickly and generates a number of bars - they paint on the same timestamp. I'm using 2 ranges and the time axis has reverted to seconds. So if 3 range bars are generated on the same second they pile on top of each other, as do the indicators. Thanks for your attention to this...

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

Agree there are many implications to this, but I think both suggestions (either time sequence based on the multiple range timestamps, or painting one on top of the last known value) are superior to what we have now. The way my chart is painting now, its unreadable when the market moves quickly and generates a number of bars - they paint on the same timestamp. I'm using 2 ranges and the time axis has reverted to seconds. So if 3 range bars are generated on the same second they pile on top of each other, as do the indicators. Thanks for your attention to this...

I am sure I am missing something, but I am not sure what is meant by "last known values" ?

[leafsfan]

I got that term (last known value) from one of the other posts. I interpret it as using the primary instrument time stamps as the time axis (ie range chart that prints irregularly), and then fitting the secondary instrument time stamps (ie minute) to the primary on a "best fit basis". So if the minute chart was supposed to paint at 0:04, it would paint on the next range bar after 0:04. As per your observation, there could be more than 1 secondary waiting to paint depending upon the timeframes. I could live with that for my needs. It might be an issue for others.

[JoshDance]

I am sure I am missing something, but I am not sure what is meant by "last known values" ?

If several minute bars pass for a single tick bar, then plot the value of the indicator AS OF THE CLOSE of the tick bar.

[RJBen]

OK I'll be the dummy here- how relevant is the x-axis apart from reading at what time a bar plotted? What I am saying is I never have looked at the time for whether I am taking a trade. I look at price and the tools I am using. OK maybe a time based chart is relevant to time but other bars are time independent. Volume bars don't use time. Tick bars don't use time. Range bars don't use time. Why do they have to be anchored to the x-axis? Perhaps I'm just ignorant on how bars are formed. Not enough praise and thanks can go out to NinjaTrader for enabling this awesome feature. I think that multiple Time frames on a single chart is phenomenal. But do they have to be anchored to the x-axis? Volume charts are based on volume- not on the time for the bar to close. Tick bars are based on the number of contracts traded regardless of hor long it takes. Why do they have to then be fixed to the x-axis? Obviously Range bars- my favorite type of chart- are based on price. T&S may have Time as a component but do nontime based bars have to be anchored to time as well?