Testing a strategy that requires tick data

[acre94]

I am constructing a strategy that uses tick data and my broker does not appear in the chart (MBT) to provide historical bid and ask tick.

I am trying to understand how I would thoroughly test the strategy before taking it live.
What are my options?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

That's correct acre94, that would not be supported on the MBT connection unfortunately. As alternative you could use Kinetick here to provide you with the needed tick data for your backtesting - www.kinetick.com

[acre94]

Can I import historical data from MB myself to use for a backtest? If so, how?

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

Yes, you could import data from txt files as well for backtesting in NT -

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

[acre94]

Thanks.

I am still a little confused on the functionality in NT of using imported tick data to backtest strategies.
I would think that you would need a vector of timestamp, bid price, bid volume, ask price, ask volume at each epoch time.

The documentation says:

Data Type:
Select one of three options available for the data type:

1.Ask - Data values in the text file represent historical Ask prices
2.Bid - Data values in the text file represent historical Bid prices
3.Last - Data values in the text file represent historical Last prices (trades)

Data Type:
Select one of three options available for the data type:

1.Ask - Data values in the text file represent historical Ask prices
2.Bid - Data values in the text file represent historical Bid prices
3.Last - Data values in the text file represent historical Last prices (trades)

How do I bring in the data that would usually accompany building a book?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

acre94, you could unfortunately not backtest on book / depth / Level 2 data, as only Level 1 tick or time data could be imported and stored in the database.

If you wish to work on Level2 data, then consider our Market Replay feature - as the needed source data could be downloaded from our server for most futures contracts you would have a reaslistic book to execute against -

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