Time property

[edstaffin]

Hi,
I want to create a time property for my strategy such that I can optimize it based on start and end time. For example, if start time is 8:30 and end time is 12:00 noon, I would want my strategy to only take trades falling within that timeframe. What is the best way to write these properties so that I can use the optimizer to increment the time by 15 minute increments? Clearly, text won't work. What does?
Thanks ... Ed

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hi edstaffin,

To optimize over the start and end time, use a start hour variable and a separate start minute variable, as well as an end hour variable and an end minute variable.

Then add them together with:

((startHourVariable * 100) + startMinuteVariable) * 100.

So 14 as the hour and 33 as the minute becomes 143300. 143300 would be equal to 2:33 PM.

By having these as separate variables, they can be incremented.

Or these could be used as the hour an minute for timespan.

TimeSpan startTime;
startTime = new TimeSpan(StartHour, StartMinute, 0);