NT8 current positions printout

[Matt Skinner]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to coding in NinjaTrader 8 (NT8) and need some assistance. I want to create an indicator that sends current position information to another app (which could be a text file). I've already developed a simple trade timer that I want to automate.

I discovered a Positions object that seems perfect for this task, but it appears to be used in strategies. I'm unclear about the differences between an indicator and a strategy. Is it possible to have a strategy running in the background that doesn't actually trade but instead just watches positions and sends that information to my Timer app? Or would I use an Indicator in this case?

Additionally, how can I get a printout of all positions that occurred on a given day?

Thank you in advance for your help!

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello Matt Skinner,

Welcome to the NinjaTrader forums!

From an indicator the addon approach can be used to get positions from an <Account>.

Below are links to the help guide.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/positions_account.htm

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/positionupdate.htm

"Additionally, how can I get a printout of all positions that occurred on a given day?"

Unfortunately, there is not a collection of historical positions. The Positions collection contains only currently open real-time positions.
You could view the <Account>.Executions collection to see what order fills have happened today.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/executions.htm

[Matt Skinner]

Amazing, thank you very much. This is exactly what I needed. As for the second part, that is shame. Hopefully executions will be enough for my purposes. Take care

[Matt Skinner]

So, I don't know why, but the code works really well on the Sim101 account. Everything gets handled well. Once I switch to my normal account though, the script no longer prints out 0 when I exit a position, it just gets stuck on whatever amount I was in before the flatten of the last order. Example: I enter 2 short, the program prints that out well. Then I exit on 1, the program catches that too. Then I flatten the last one, the program should now print out that the position is 0, but instead it prints out the position size when exiting. When I generate the execution history, the positions are shown well there (picture 1). The problem can be seen with printing out from the script (picture 2, first 2 lines are on normal account, next 4 lines are on SIM). Do normal accounts work in a different way than SIM? Looks like I need to work with the MarketPosition property instead of Quantity.

//This namespace holds Add ons in this folder and is required. Do not change it.
namespace NinjaTrader.NinjaScript.AddOns
{
    public class TimerAddon : NinjaTrader.NinjaScript.AddOnBase
    {
        protected override void OnStateChange()
        {
            if (State == State.SetDefaults)
            {
                Description                                    = @"Sends position info into a text file for processing";
                Name                                        = "TimerAddon";
            }
            else if (State == State.Configure)
            {
            }
        }
        
        private Account account;
        public TimerAddon()
        {
            // Find account
            lock (Account.All)
                  account = Account.All.FirstOrDefault(a => a.Name == "APEX-91531-10");
 
            // Subscribe to position updates
            if (account != null)
                  account.PositionUpdate += OnPositionUpdate;
        }
        
        // This method is fired as a position changes
        private void OnPositionUpdate(object sender, PositionEventArgs e)
        {
            // Output the new position
                string PositionSize = e.Quantity.ToString();
            string path = "C:\\Users\\matej\\Desktop\\Trading_Code\\TradeTimer\\PositionSize.txt";
            File.WriteAllText(path, PositionSize);
        }
    }
}
​

Picture 1


Picture 2

[NinjaTrader_ChelseaB]

Hello Matt Skinner,

You might be looking at the 'remove' operation.

Try using the e.Position.MarketPosition and e.Position.Quantity instead.