Control Center locking out unresponsive to any commands.

[demarcog]

Hi,

I've been running into this problem a few times a day recently after the complete reinstall I did following the OneDrive incompatibility issue.

I seems to happen following use of the Strategy Builder. The Strategy Builder frequently when I'm using it following a command will freeze for an instant and I get the windows message:

Application not responsive
Click To terminate task
or Wait for application .

I usually click wat for application and it quickly completes whatever I was doing.

But in this case the Control Center is unresponsive to any option or tab selections. I can move the window from screen to screen so it's not entirely looping as the cpu is the normal 30% or so.

Sometimes I can click on the NT icon and see the shadow of a chart or other task that will not paint the screen with the chart and appears white with a spinning circle which seems to indicate that chart is not responding and X'ing that chart will sometimes fix the problem but that's not working now.

Is there anyway of avoiding a task manager end and NT restart as I have 30 or so charts open and it takes a few minutes which during market hours can be a problem and in a fast market takes longer?

In addition it takes and additional 15 minutes or so to reload all the strategies previously loaded in the charts, select the correct account in the strategy parameters, then make sure the same account is selected in chart trader. It's a 30 minute process each time.

Is there anyway of setting up a template for 20 different charts with different strategies and strategy and chart trader account selection setting being retained across NT restarts?

Thank you.

glen

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello Glen,

Thanks for your post.

It sounds like you are hitting general performance issues rather than having an issue with the Strategy Builder. You can test to confirm this by closing all charts and workspaces, closing other resource intensive applications that are running on your PC and to test using the Strategy Builder.

It is also a good sanity check to test closing all of your charts and workspaces, other resource intensive applications, and then to test one chart that does not load a lot of data and does not have indicators added or uses any templates. This would show the platform running at expected speed before it would get slowed down by adding to much.

Understanding Performance with NinjaTrader 8

The impact NinjaTrader has on your PC will be dependent on how much NinjaTrader has to calculate. For example, having several charts with multiple complex indicators running can cause NinjaTrader to stutter and can cause short freezes. We typically advise the following as tips to improve platform performance.

1. Configure charts so their Days To Load is an absolute minimum, just enough for your indicators to function properly
2. Configure indicators to use Calculate.OnBarClose when possible as opposed to Calculate.OnPriceChange and Calculate.OnEachTick.
3. Use less charts and less complex indicators
4. Avoid using Tick Replay.

Various performance tips can be found here — https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...ance_tips2.htm

You may also wish to use the NinjaScript Utilization Monitor (Control Center > New > Output window > Right click > NinjaScript Utilization Monitor) This tool will tell you which components in your workspace are creating the most impact on your system.

After you leave this utility running, the items on the top will be those that are taking the most CPU time. Reducing/eliminating these items will be bring the most performance improvement. Please note that some NinjaScripts, like ChartStyles, require drawing every visible bar with every render pass. Having a ChartStyle at the top of your utilization Monitor would be normal.

I also suggest to use the Windows Task Manager to view other programs that are using your CPU, and to close resource intensive programs that are taking juice away that NinjaTrader would otherwise be using.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

[demarcog]

Hi Jim,

Thank you for the very helpful response that is some great information there for sure.

I did what you suggested. I should mention that unlike other times when I've had NT related performance issues and the CPU was flat out 100%, the entire time it never went above 40%.
I closed out everything else running except NT. I closed all the other workspaces and one by one started closing the 20 or so charts that were open. There were 4 or 5 I couldn't close with X'ing it out on the task manage bar finally had to task manager bring it down.

I also loaded my charts with no indicators and then loaded up the usual indicators and no problem. Then I loaded up the strategies and it's running rune now.I have no need for tick replay as my understanding is an indicator has to be coded to process the tick data which I have no need for.

The term 'tick replay' does not refer to playback mode as far as I understand. I will work on the other suggestions and let you know if it occurs again.

One issue I'm a little confused on and check the doc and it's still not sinking in this old brain of mine.
I understand the running Playback has two options Market Replay and Historical. Do both of these options utilize the Market Replay data?

The reason I ask is in Tools > Historical Data there is an option for Historical or Market Replay data to download. Is the Historical Data Option there to download data used in Playback Historical?

My understanding is that Ninja Servers have the historical data so for a "normal" Ninja user with the Continum Data options there is in general no need to download historical data?

Or is the Market Replay option where the tick data is downloaded to run Market Replay of Historical?

What I want to do is at times when I need to back test strategies that use non standard bar types the most accurate is Market Replay. What's more important for me is to using whatever chart style I normally use during trading hours to be able to Playback Historical to be able to "trade" the days price bar activity after hours. It's a powerful and amazing feature of NY. To fire trades as if the market was open, tracking you P & L, having several charts going, even loading up some strategies.

The terminology is a bit confusing for me but those are the two things I want to do, tick by tick testing of strategies and replaying the days historical bars. The confusing part for me is presumably playing Market Playback will also build the bars but using the downloaded or captures Market Replay Data. Does the Historical option also process that tick data but not present it intra bar but on bar completion only? Or us the source for running Playback > Historical the historical data loaded from the NT servers either real time when running Playback or from the NY historical database.

Thank you again for all the fantastic help. I still need to nail down that who OneDrive issue as apparently MS even when it's uninstalled and the storage options specify the local PC. They manage to force the use of OneDrive regardless. It's most unfortunate that they resort to essentially hijacking your system, knowing there are serious problems/incompatibilities to force people onto their "cloud".

Thanks again for all your help and patience with my asking for way to many questions. I love this product and with the power and features comes some complexity.

glen

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello Glen,

Market Replay is a complete snapshot of level 1 and level 2 data. The Historical data option in the Playback connection would mean you want to use historical tick data to simulate realtime data instead of the full Market Replay recording. Bar developments will still be done with each tick, albeit without the full accuracy of Market Replay.

If you are testing strategies with the Playback Connection, we would suggest using the Market Replay option for the most accuracy.

We look forward to assisting.

[demarcog]

Jim.

Thank you for the informative response. Aa as always there is something important I'm learning.

Many years ago tick data was the best you could get and it was a stream of each trade price.

You response implies Market Replay data has l1 and l2 data, I'm showing my age but that is incredible and NOW I understand so much of what we've discussed. I thought all tick data as just the actual trade data. I did not know there is this "total picture" of the market at any given time.

So mow you can really run an accurate test in the sense that if you assume you pay the spread on each trade which then the you can only o better in live trading.

thanks very much for the response.

glen