NT time zones while trading outside of the usa

[2inthebush]

I need some clarification about handling the time zone in my NT8 Options menu/trading hours templates. Let's say that my trading machine is frequently traveling to various time zones worldwide. And I want the time displayed on my charts to always match NYC local time while live trading, regardless of where my machine is located. And I also want my charts to match NYC local time when I'm trading historical/market replay data. What is the best way to set that up? Also is it possible to have everything automatically switch over for Daylight Savings beginning and end?

[QuantKey_Bruce]

Can't you just set Tools -> Options -> General -> Time Zone to the desired time zone UTC-5:00 Eastern Time (US & Canada) and that's that? Your computer time zone should not matter (which I mention in that you could have your laptop set to automatically switch time zones), provided you are not switching time zones while NT is running. Daylight savings should be handled automatically, provided you have selected a time zone that has daylight savings observed.

[2inthebush]

Thank you for your reply, Bruce. However, I'm still awaiting a detailed response from NT support. Attention NT support, please respond to this post.

[NinjaTrader_Oxana]

Hello 2inthebush ,
Thank you for your post.

As Bruce already posted, it's possible to change Time Zone in the NinjaTrader 8 (Desktop) platform, by going to Control Center->Tools->Options->General. Then select the desired Time Zone and click OK.
After that you would need to restart the platform.
Plus make sure to reload historical data on your chart by right clicking on a background of the chart and selecting Reload all historical data.

Here is a link to the help guide: https://ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt8/index.html?general_section.htm#UnderstandingGenera lProperties

Let us know if you have any further questions.

[2inthebush]

Thank you for your response, Oxana. However, you have not answered my question about time zones while trading historical/market replay data, including in the Strategy Analyzer.

Also, does reloading historical data on my charts affect the historical data that I have saved on my hard drive?

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hello, Setting your time zone will cause the charts to match the time zone you have selected. E.g. If you select US Eastern Time under Tools>Options>General, the platform will always display charts in this time zone regardless of the time zone the computer is in. This will also happen in market playback mode. For the strategy analyzer, this will also display the charts in your application selected time zone. If the historical data is cached on your hard drive, the strategy analyzer will use this data to run backtests/optimizations. If your PC does not have the data cached, the data connection will be used to pull historical market data, which is typically sent in time stamped in Central time, then converted to the application time zone.

[2inthebush]

Thank you for your response, Chris. I have one more question about trading hours templates. For example, let's assume that my NT platform time zone is set to US eastern time. Then I choose a trading hours default template, CME US index futures ETH, and leave template time zone as default US central time. Does NT follow the trading hours template according to the US central time zone of the template, regardless of the NT platform time zone being set to US eastern time (both live trading and processing historical data in Analyzer)?

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hi, the platform will still translate the time into what you have set under Tools>Options>General. The time zone setting in the trading hours templates is telling NinjaTrader where the time stamps of the data should be originating from.

[2inthebush]

Alright. So if a backtest in Analyzer shows a particular trade was taken at xx:xx time, that time is derived from the time zone of the trading hours template, or from the platform time zone set in tools>options>general?

[AndyM]

I travel a lot. Different countries different time zones. I don't live or travel to the US. However, my trading machine is set to US Eastern standard time and region to US. I then add additional clocks for the time zones I travel too. Then in NT8 Tools>Options>General also set to US Eastern Standard time. Works for me.

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Alright. So if a backtest in Analyzer shows a particular trade was taken at xx:xx time, that time is derived from the time zone of the trading hours template, or from the platform time zone set in tools>options>general?

This is correct.