Setting stops & targets

[fxmutual]

How can I set my stop to the value of 2 times the ATR of the current bar that I enter on and my target 2 times the value of my stop. I keep getting errors compiling. Can some please help??!!

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

fxmutual,

Welcome to the forums. Here is one possible way to do this:

2 times the ATR of the current bar that I enter on and my target 2 times the value of my stop

double stopPrice           = 2 * ATR(10)[BarsSinceEntry()];
double targetPrice	= 2 * stopPrice;

This is just a literal translation of what you requested, but I don't see it working in a strategy. The prices won't typically be near market prices, so you may want to look into refining this a bit more. If you are just getting started building strategies, would recommend the point and click strategy wizard to start, and these strategy building code tutorials are also helpful:

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

[fxmutual]

Thanks for the help. I am new. And I am going though all the material I can get my hands on. LOL

The logic I am trying to work out is if the ATR is showing for example 50, then, for a long I want my stop to 100 pips below the entry and I want my target 200 pips above the entry.

Like a 1:2 risk reward ratio.


What section for the program would I put your code example in that you posted above ???

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

I see. In that case you could work with Position.AvgPrice to get the entry price simply. This property returns zero when not in a position, so you'll see in snippet below it's only checked when you are not flat.

If you're just getting started, OnBarUpdate() would be the place for this. This is only one of a few ways you could do this, and this snippet works best if you use the standard exit methods to submit your orders like ExitLongStop(), and ExitLongLimit().

if (Position.MarketPosition != MarketPosition.Flat)
{
	double stopPrice   = Position.AvgPrice - (2 * ATR(10)[BarsSinceEntry()]);
	double targetPrice = Position.AvgPrice + 2 * (2 * ATR(10)[BarsSinceEntry()]);
}

[fxmutual]

Thanks for all your help!

I am not sure but the code you posted for we....that updates on every bar close right?

It seem to me that would update my stop and target on every bar, I would just like to get the value of the ATR on my entry bar only and use for a fixed stop and target. Any ideas?

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Yeah it fixes the ATR value at the point of entry, since it indexes the value using BarsSinceEntry()

Even still, this idea can be done a bit cleaner with Set methods and mode ticks. You could do that with something like this:

double stopTicks   = Position.AvgPrice - (2 * ATR(10)[BarsSinceEntry()]);
double targetTicks = 2 * stopTicks;
	
SetStopLoss(CalculationMode.Ticks, stopTicks);
SetProfitTarget(CalculationMode.Ticks, targetTicks);