Timing on multi-timeframes

[egan857]

Hi, I have a strategy that uses 1-minute bars as the primary timeframe and 3-minute bars as the secondary timeframe. How would I know when a new 3-minute bar is created? Is it related to the time of day (i.e., static, with one bar for 9:30:00-9:32:59), or is it related to the program startup time (i.e., program started at 10:02, so a bar for 10:02:00-10:04:59), or is it related to the current time (i.e., current bar is the past 3 minutes)? Let's start off describing the best-case scenario, where a stock has trades in every minute, but I do also want to follow up with a question on how this works with stocks that trade once every 5 minutes. Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

egan857, as Ninjatrader is solely event based as architecture, there's no guarantee when a bar while be build / stamped - once the closing tick of a bar is received a new one would be opend. However for your fairly liquid instrument example, you can expect to see a bar then at regular / specified intervals. The start would be determined by the applied session template.

[egan857]

OK, so what does that mean, regular / specified intervals? In the examples I gave, does that mean it aligns the bars to the market open time, to the program initiation time, or to the current time?

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

It will depend on which session template you use, this will set the begin time for the day to start the bars creation / stamping with.

[egan857]

OK, so if all my symbols are equities and are set to US Equities RTH, then the bars will be aligned with market start time (9:30), regardless of when I start the program, right?

That also implies that no matter when I look at the chart of this stock, even if I have restarted multiple times, the bars will always align the same, meaning the 10:30:00 - 10:32:59 bar will always have the same three minutes, right?

Next question: do all of the 1-minute and 3-minute bars update at exactly the same time, or is there some delay? I ask this because the 1-minute chart is my primary timeframe and I want to look at the 3-minute chart when the minute bar updates (barsSinceSession changes), and the minute is divisible by 3. I'll add special logic for stocks that have sporadic activity, but this will work only if the 3-minute bar shifts when the third 1-minute bar shifts.

[NinjaTrader_Bertrand]

OK, so if all my symbols are equities and are set to US Equities RTH, then the bars will be aligned with market start time (9:30), regardless of when I start the program, right?

That also implies that no matter when I look at the chart of this stock, even if I have restarted multiple times, the bars will always align the same, meaning the 10:30:00 - 10:32:59 bar will always have the same three minutes, right?

Basically both statements are correct using time based data

Next question: do all of the 1-minute and 3-minute bars update at exactly the same time, or is there some delay? I ask this because the 1-minute chart is my primary timeframe and I want to look at the 3-minute chart when the minute bar updates (barsSinceSession changes), and the minute is divisible by 3. I'll add special logic for stocks that have sporadic activity, but this will work only if the 3-minute bar shifts when the third 1-minute bar shifts.

They would update at the same time, keep in mind though NT stamps the bars with their ending time

[egan857]

I think that answers my questions. Thanks!