Bug: Kinetick data feed not in "Connections" by default on fresh installs

[EquityTrader]

Hi NinjaTrader support,

When I install NT8 v. 8.1.1.3 on a machine that has never had an older (pre-v. 8.1.x.y) version of NT8 installed before, the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed is not displayed in the "Connections" by default; in fact, the only market data feed is "Playback".

I did not encounter this problem when I installed NT8 v. 8.1.1.3 on a machine that previously had an older version of NT8.

To fix this problem, I had to search the forums to find a thread that said that the "Multi-provider" checkbox in the Options window had to be checked. By default, on a new install it is unchecked. When I did this, NT8 said that I needed to restart NT8, so I did, and the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed showed up like it did by default for new installations of older versions of NT8.

From a sales and marketing perspective, the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed should be available by default for all first-time users in the Connections main menu.

Hundreds of thousands of first-time users will download NT8 this year. If they have immediate access to the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed so that all the other features of NT8 that set it apart from most other trading platforms, such as back-testing trading strategies in the Strategy Analyzer, "just work", they will be significantly more likely to pay for the NT8 paid platform, Kinetick market data feed, and brokerage services. If all they have is the "Playback" connection, and it's not obvious how to get the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed, they will quickly lose interest in your products and services because they couldn't get any value out of them in their first attempt.

Thank you for considering making the "Kinetick - End of Day (Free)" data feed available by default for all first-time users in the Connections main menu.

EquityTrader

[NinjaTrader_Emily]

Hello EquityTrader,

Thank you for your feedback.

The behavior you have reported is a feature of the platform. In order to connect to the Kinetick - End of Day (Free) connection on a new installation of NinjaTrader, it is required to enable multi-provider mode. For more information about multi-provider mode:

• https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...ulti-provi.htm
• https://support.ninjatrader.com/s/ar...language=en_US

I have submitted your feedback 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.

[EquityTrader]

Hi Emily C.,

Thank you for submitting that feature request to the developers so that first-time users will have a valid option for market data rather than having only the invalid "Playback" option when they have no market data to play back since they are first-time users.

One idea for how this could be done without the developers having to change the "multi-provider" field's default value for new NinjaTrader 8 installations might be to have a menu item in the "Connections" main menu that when selected opens a help doc in the user's default browser that explains how they can turn on multi-provider mode so that they see valid market data options.

Thanks again,

EquityTrader

[NinjaTrader_Emily]

Hello EquityTrader,


Thanks for your patience.

The internal tracking number for your feature request is SFT-5855. 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

Thank you for using NinjaTrader.

[EquityTrader]

Hi Emily C.,

Thanks for your help. New users will appreciate being able to connect to market data without having to search the forums or bother your support team for the hard-to-guess trick that they need to check the "multi-provider" checkbox in the Options form to see the market data options that first-time users used to be able to see by default in the "Connections" main menu.

Best regards,

EquityTrader