Buggy Playback

[Kraken29]

I have been trying to use the market replay feature. I download several days worth of ES MAR24 charts, in this case March 4, 5, 6 and 7. I tell it to replay from March 5th. I create a chart, set it to 5 minutes and load my template. I start the replay. Very often, especially when using the time slider, the replay dialog will turn all grey and stop responding to clicks. At this point I'm stuck, and the only way to get it going is to disconnect the playback session, then reconnect and start from scratch. This is with NT8.1 running on Windows 11.

Is this a known issue and, if so, is there a workaround?

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

Hello Kraken29,

I recommend to use the 'Go To' function if you like jump to a different date/time. Please right click in the Playback control window and select 'Go To'. Select the desired date and time and click OK.

You can experience slow and unresponsive behavior in NinjaTrader Desktop if you have multiple workspaces, charts, add-ons, indicators and other windows opened depending on market volatility as well. If market volatility increases, the same setup will need more PC resources.

Please check how many workspaces you have opened in total. You can view the workspaces you have opened at Control Center-->Workspaces. If a workspace has a green or grey icon in front, it indicates the workspace is opened. The green workspace shows on your monitors. The grey workspaces are opened in the background - you don't see its windows on your monitors, but they are active and take up CPU and RAM. Check if performance improves when you only have 1 workspace opened (one green workspace and no grey workspaces).

The 'Calculate' setting for indicators and strategies is 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.

You can find more tips and suggestions to improve performance in the NinjaTrader 8 help guide
https://support.ninjatrader.com/s

Please click Desktop Help Guides-->Configuration-->Performance Tips.

[Kraken29]

I now find that when I have the chart trader open, and there is playback data displayed on a chart, I can right click to place a limit order. I have an ATM strategy selected. The conformation for the number of contracts comes up, I click the check mark to confirm just 1 and a dialog with an error pops up. It says:

Playback101, There is no market data available to drive the simulation engine. affected order: Buy 1 Stoplimit @ 5162.5 x 5162.75.

Did I do something wrong in my setup?

Regarding the original issue I reported, it's not a performance issue, I have only one workspace open, and then just one chart. As I play with this I see other issues as well. Are there any plans to fix these bugs?

[NinjaTrader_Jason]

The error message indicates no realtime data is received for the instrument in question which indicates Market Replay or historical tick data is not present for the instrument and time that is replayed. Realtime data is required to submit orders.

You can check the data you have present as follows. Please right click in the Playback control window and select 'Show Available Data'. This will open a new window that shows all data that is present. If 'Market Replay' is enabled in the Playback control window, it will use Market Replay data to replay the market. If 'Historical' is enabled, it will use historical tick data to replay the market.

You can download Market Replay data at Control Center-->Tools-->Historical Data-->Load-tab-->Get Market Replay data for the last 90 days (while disconnected from the Playback connection). Historical tick data can be downloaded at Control Center-->Tools-->Historical Data-->Download when connected to a broker/data feed that offers the requested historical tick data.

I don't experience issues with the Playback when I only have 1 chart opened. What steps do you perform when the issue happens? Do you have indicators applied in the chart? If you test without any indicators applied in the chart, does it improve?