How to get Account properties from the code?

[bebjo]

Hello!

I am trying to update an old Turtle strategy that I found on this forum.
After reading Van K. Tharps thoughts on money management, I have decided to code the strategy to risk 2 percent of total capital per order.

My question is, how do I get the value of the account size?
Is there an Ninja Trader API somewhere? (I looked, but could'nt find one)

I am going to try to implement the following:
1. Get the actual ATR (14 days)
2. Set a stoploss Close[0] - 2 * ATR
3. Calculate (2 percent of total capital) / 2 * ATR = Number of shares
4. Place the order.

Wish me luck

Ps. At what performance rating do you guys consider yourself to have a good and sound strategy?

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_Austin]

Hi bebjo, there is a method called GetAccountValue() that you can use for this purpose. It only works in real-time though, so you can't backtest it - http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h...countvalue.htm.

As for the performance rating, I would say once you have a strategy that has a profit factor greater than 1.7 or 1.8ish (including a 1 or 2 tick slippage), you can start working on refining it and running it real-time to see how it performs.

[bebjo]

Hi Austin,

I just have a quick follow up question about performance.
You mentioned that I could settle for 1.7 - 1.8 in performance rating.
Is that measured by best possible timeframe or how do I choose what time segment to measure.
2008-2010 Gives a different rating than 2006-2008 for instance.

Hope you understand what I mean
Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_Austin]

bebjo, just to clarify, nothing I say here should be construed as trading advice. A ~1.8 profit factor means that the profits are 1.8 times the losses. The profit factor you decide to start trading at is entirely up to you. I'm just saying a higher profit factor means a more profitable strategy, but not for every case.

You will also have to decide what timeframe you want to optimize your strategy on, as well as the duration.

[NinjaTrader_Austin]

Also, you can find the reference manual for the NinjaScript API in the NinjaScript section of the help guide - http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/h...nt7/index.html.

[bebjo]

Thanks for the link to the API Austin.

But I am afraid I did'nt get much clearer on the time frame issue.
Backtesting gives different profit factors from different timeframes.

Should I choose worst result as my base or my best result?

Lets say I get a profit factor of 1.4 between 2008-2011 and 2.0 between 2005-2008
How do I know it's good enough?

Or am I just over analyzing?

Thank you again Austin!

[NinjaTrader_Matthew]

bebjo,

This would depend on your personal tolerance to your profit factor and we couldn't make any recommendations further than what has been suggested so far.

[bebjo]

Ok, I understand.

Thanks!