NT8 - the great and the horrible

[EsNqYmGcCl]

I really love NT8. The flexibility, capabilities, and GUI are tops, and the open architecture provides a platform for some really smart Trader/Coders who write some wonderful software. I have learned a lot from these contributors, make use of their awesome add-ons, and am a better trader because of them. However…NT8 is not without glaring problems:

1. Chart lag. Often during fast, high-volatility trading, certain instruments (esp. equity indices) lag significantly, and only catch up once the market settles down. Of all the issues, this is the most egregious. I have tried both CQG and Rithmic: with either feed, this is not an ISP or a data feed problem. It is an NT8 issue which I do not experience in other platforms.
2. Excessive CPU usage. NT8 is the worst offender. No others (Sierra Chart, I/RT, ATAS, Jigsaw, MotiveWave) come close to NT8’s normal 25%-35% CPU usage.
3. Frozen charts/workspace following Indicator Control Panel interface. Whether or not changes were made, when closing or cancelling the indicator control panel, numerous charts go blank for 5 seconds, and the entire workspace freezes for 20+ seconds.
4. Corrupted work-spaces – frequently requires restoring from historical file, or re-creating altogether.
5. Excessive load times on startup – sometimes as much as 10-15 minutes.
6. Multiple-monitor (esp. 3 graphics card environment) quirks. On certain monitors, normally attached to a third graphics card, some (not all) charts display, but are otherwise unresponsive to inputs and data updates. In other cases, some (not all) charts do not display data initially, but if moved to another monitor/graphics card, and returned to the initial location, they then display data. Some charts work perfectly no matter which monitor/graphics card. This behavior is unpredictable.

I have significant experience with other platforms. While none are without glitches, NT8’s issues are by far the worst. I see recent posts about a couple of the issues listed. If others experience these types of problems, and/or have workarounds for these or similar, I would love to hear them. I'm sure we would all love to see the bright, capable coders at NT acknowledge and fix these problems in upcoming releases.

System: Intel i9 9900K (water-cooled), Intel Z390 Chipset, 64GB RAM, x3 GPU (NVIDIA P620), 1000Mbps ISP
NT8 Lifetime License

[cay7man]

#5. Strange. I've a workspace with 6 charts, T&S and Command center windows. The chart windows have 2 indicators each. It takes about 8 seconds to load. To be fair, my system is recent (i9-12900,64GB RAM, AMD GPU with 8GB and super fast SSD

[EsNqYmGcCl]

cay7man try searching "slow load" (or "load slow) and you'll see what I mean

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello EsNqYmGcCl,

Please note that you can experience slow and unresponsive behavior in NinjaTrader if you have many charts, indicators and other windows opened depending on market volatility as well. If market volatility increases, the same setup will need more PC resources.

The 'Calculate' setting for indicators and strategies can be important. If set to 'On each tick' or 'On price change', the indicator/strategy will be calculated on each incoming tick or each price change. During high volatility this can be very CPU intensive especially if the indicator/strategy makes complicated calculations. If you set it to 'On bar close', the indicator/strategy will only be calculated at the end of each price bar.

Could it be you have workspaces opened in the background? Please go to Control Center-->Workspaces. If you see a green icon in front of the workspace, it indicates the workspace is opened and displayed on your monitor. If you see a grey icon, the workspace is opened in the background. Meaning you don't see its windows, but it will use PC resources. You can only have 1 workspace display on your monitor at a time. Please close workspaces running in the background and check if the lagging behavior persists.

You can find more tips and suggestions to improve performance at the link below.

http://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/en-us/performance_tips2.htm

Do you notice any consistency when a workspace becomes corrupted? Could it be a certain indicator is present in a workspace when it becomes corrupted?


As per the charts on multi monitors, please send me your log and trace files so that I may investigate.

You can do this by going to the Control Center-> Help-> Email Support

Ensuring 'Log and Trace Files' is checked will include these files. This is checked by default.

Please reference the following ticket number in the body of the email: Att Jason, 3526546.

[Roman_786]

For me chart lagging during fast markets is the worst. 3-5 minute behind. It is not possible to trade with this lagging if you are a sclaper. This costs a lot of good opportunitys. I assume it is because NT8 is not able to handle incoming data fast enough. So the there should be the possibility to filter incoming data. I do not need every tick! This is possible in Tradestation for example since years. And it is working fine. So please, please, give us a solution.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Roman_786,

When you experience lagging data, it typically is caused by two different things. You receive delayed data or there is delayed rendering in the chart.

If you check ChartTrader when you experience the issue, do you have bid and ask prices in ChartTrader that are not lagging? Does the bid and ask price differ from the last traded price in the chart? You can find the bid and ask price in ChartTrader just under the ATM strategy field (A and B).

NinjaTrader has a 'Filter bad ticks' setting which you can find at Control Center-->Tools-->Options-->Market data. Please see the link below for more information.
https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...ime_tick_filte r.htm

[Roman_786]

Hello Jason,
it is definitely a rendering problem with the chart. Because data in SUPERDOM are not delayed or only a little. I assume there are coming in too fast and too much data during fast markets (and even almost always at 4pm est) for rendering properly the chart. Therefore there should be a filter to reduce the incoming data stream. That is what I was talking about. And this filter data option is possible to do in Tradestation for example. "Filter bad ticks" is a totally different story.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Roman_786,

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have submitted this as a feature request to the Development Team. I will follow up with an internal tracking number for your reference as soon as it is created.

Thanks in advance for your patience.

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Thanks for your patience.

The internal tracking number for your feature request is SFT-5486. Please reference this internal tracking number when contacting Platform Support if you ever have questions regarding this feature request.

When a feature request is implemented, you'll find a description of the new feature in the release notes:

• https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...ease_notes.htm

[[email protected]]

I had the same issues. The following workaround solution was my life-saver “Tick Refresh” (Utility Tool) free of charge available at https://ninjatraderecosystem.com/use...d/tickrefresh/.
This tool forces your charts to refresh every xx milliseconds. You have to apply this tool on every (individual) chart on your workspace. After 3 years of severe frustrations regarding the NT8 Platform, it is such a relieve that I over the past 4 months, worked with a flawlessly operating NT8 Platform. One tip on the settings of this tool: There is no need to enter an ultra-high refresh rate (for example 5 ms). This will unnecessarily taxes your computer system. I used the “NinjaScript Utilization Monitor” and arrived to my own preferred personal setting of 100ms (by the way I disregarded the advice from NT8 Tech Support not to use this tool, because this tool, managed to solve all the issues that I had with the platform). I hope that you will have the same positive experience with this tool.
Kind regards,
Robert