last vs close

[kalkanis]

Hi. I am not sure what the difference between LastClose and LastPrice is. Can you help me with that?

[NinjaTrader_JC]

Hello kalkanis,

The LastPrice is going to be the last trade price, and the LastClose is going to be the previous days closing price.

[kalkanis]

Thank you. So this means that when markets are closed, last and close price coincide, right?
how can I build an indicator based on close price, for instance SMA(14)? i only found the option to choose "last"price, but not close price...

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

kalkanis, unfortunately the LastClose would not be directly available as input series for the SMA calculations. As potential workaround I would look into having your SMA being calculated on a daily series for example.

[kalkanis]

I am afraid that I do not understand your answer. Can you please elaborate more?

Also, can you confirm if markets are closed, last and close price coincide? (in which case SMA would actually be calculated on closing prices)..

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

The LastClose would be directly coming from the data provider, so is the closing price as of the native session they would use for the instrument - this would usually be an event happening for every day, hence the idea to run your SMA on a daily price chart.

[kalkanis]

Let me see if I understand. Suppose I have a SMA(14) indicator on market-analyzer, based on EoD quote from Yahoo. If I calculate such SMA while the market is open, it would use the closing price for days -1/-13, and the last price for day 0 (current day). However, if I calculate it when the market is closed, it would use the closing price for all 14 days (0/13). is that right.

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

You Yahoo feed would provide EOD data, so that's correct - for other feeds that would allow access to realtime data as well, the behavior for the current bar / candle would be determined by the CalculateOnBarClose setting you use -

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