Strategy with AddChartIndicator Crashes Simulated Data Feed

[kevinenergy]

Jim has been assisting me with issues with my Strategy crashing in the following thread:

https://ninjatrader.com/support/forum/forum/ninjatrader-8/strategy-development/1035971-when-do-i-need-to-call-update

It turns out this was nothing to do with my code but an issue with AddChartIndicator() which sometimes crashes on the Simulated Data Feed. I've attached a strategy which reproduces the issue.

Run the attached strategy from a chart connected to the Simulated Data Feed - I'm using ES 12-18 / 5 Range Bars but I don't think the Instrument/timeframe are significant
Go to the Strategies tab on the control center and enable the strategy. If it doesn't freeze immediately, enable and disable it a few times quickly.

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Thanks for opening the new thread kevinenergy,

I'm able to reproduce on my end. Before submitting this to our QA and Development teams, I would like to know if we can reduce the script even further to see if this can be reproduced adding 1 indicator multiple times, or even if it can happen with just 1 AddChartIndicator() and repeatedly enabling/disabling.

I'll be doing more tests later on in the day, but if you could let us know if the case can be reduced even further keeping the goals above in mind, it will help us to demonstrate the exact issue to Development.

I look forward to being of further assistance.

[kevinenergy]

Hey Jim, I'm glad you were able to reproduce. I think the issue is related to the amount of "work" that needs to be done. I'm not using ANY of these indicators in my own strategy by the way so this issue is not related to any specific indicator. I've used these indicators as I wanted to pull together lots of indicators to create work right before the call to AddChartIndicator which seems to be key to the bug. I thought perhaps indicators which used OnRender were worse so I chose many of them; although I've seen the issue with no OnRender indicators too.

I've been able to get rid of all the AddChartIndicator calls except one Vol and ZigZag indicator and it still crashes. But if I get rid of the instantiations of the other indicators then it doesn't crash. This leads me to believe that maybe the AddChartIndicator calls are happening before the indicators have finished setting themselves up.

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello kevinenergy,

Thanks for the additional detail.

I've opened a ticket and I will keep you informed as this progresses.

Thanks for the report!

[kevinenergy]

Is there going to another patch release soon to fix the issues, or are they going into the next minor release in a month or two? I rolled back to 8.0.15.1 because of this issue:

https://ninjatrader.com/support/forum/forum/ninjatrader-8/platform-technical-support-aa/1036242-strategy-with-addchartindicator-crashes-simulated-data-feed

But wondering if I should just put up with it as I would like to try some of the new features.

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello kevinenergy,

I don't have any additional information at this time for this item. Once QA/Development has been able to review and make a final call on if something will be changed/fixed in a newer release of NinjaTrader, then we will have a ticket ID number that can be referenced in the Release Notes page of the help guide. With that said, we still could not offer an ETA for release schedules.

If a fix becomes available we could arrange to have you test a continuous build, but I could not make such an offer at this time as the issue has not yet been fully reviewed.

If there is anything else I can do to assist in the meantime, please let me know.

[NinjaTrader_PatrickH]

Hello kevinenergy,

Thank you for your patience.

I have been unable to consistently reproduce this behavior without the need to perform an excessive number of disables and enables on the strategy. As the only means we have to reproduce the behavior and that means to do so is not normal user behavior I would like to schedule a time to look into this on your PC.

Please write to me at platformsupport[at]ninjatrader[dot]com with 'ATTN: Patrick H' in the subject line and a reference to this thread in the body of the email.

I look forward to assisting you further.

[kevinenergy]

Hey Patrick, sorry for the late response. I'm using 8.0.15.1 at the moment as I found it more stable, so its probably not going to achieve anything doing a test on my PC.

By doing an excessive number of disables and enables on a strategy you can FORCE the issue. Yes this is not standard user behavior as you say but is symptomatic of an underlying issue. I'm obviously not doing excessive enables and disables during normal use, but I do find that strategies with multiple AddChartIndicator calls crash frequently when using the simulator (less frequently when using a normal data feed; but it does happen).

I would test it on a very fast chart like a 1 Range or 10 Tick. I'm pretty sure if you enable and disable at "reasonable" intervals like ever 5 seconds you'll get an issue eventually.

You could also try editing Config.xml SimulatorOptions to make the simulator emulate a much faster market. Reduce TimerMilliseconds to 50. Increase TicksPerSecond to 30. I know these settings are not officially supported, but my gut feeling is that the issue is caused by the strategy not giving itself enough time to get the chart indicators set up before it starts processing. Changing these settings to emulate a fast market *might* cause the issue to appear faster.

I've not altered these settings on my config, but its just an idea I had.

[kevinenergy]

Hey Patrick, just wondered if you had any luck reproducing this issue?

[NinjaTrader_PatrickH]

Hello kevinenergy,

Thank you for your post.

This could not be reproduced without enabling and disabling in a quick fashion that would only be considered excessive and impractical in use. This means I had to quickly click Enable on and off in order to produce this behavior and only after I had done so for 10-30 seconds.