Unmanaged Approach Current Position Long, Short or Flat

[caveat_lector]

I am developing an Unmanaged Approach strategy and have a question about reliably determining whether a Ninjatrader Continuum account is currently Long, Short or Flat in real-time.

1) Market condition analysis is based on 15-second bars which are loaded as the primary data series.

2) A tick data series is added with during State.Configure.

3) Unmanaged Limit entry orders to go Long or Short are placed within OnBarUpdate() while processing the 15-second bars.

4) ProfitTarget/StopLoss OCO orders are created during tick data series processing after an entry limit order has filled.

I understand the necessity of assigning Order objects myself within OnOrderUpdate() to keep track of track of the current states of orders and I am doing that. My question is whether I also need to keep track of Long, Short or Flat market positions myself or whether something generally similar to this within OnBarUpdate() will be reliable:

if (position.MarketPosition == MarketPosition.Long)
{
    (Conditionally do something ...)
}
else if (position.MarketPosition == MarketPosition.Short)
{
   (Conditionally do something ...)
}
else  // Flat
{
    (Conditionally do something ...)
}

[caveat_lector]

I just noticed that I didn't capitalize "position.MarketPosition" in the code above. Both instances should have been "Position.MarketPosition".

[NinjaTrader_ChrisL]

Hi caveat_lector, thanks for your post.

It's reliable to use the MarketPosition variable, it will be updated when the position changes. You also have access to the OnPositionUpdate method so you can know exactly when the account/strategy position changes.

https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...tionupdate.htm - OnPositionUpdate

Kind regards,

-ChrisL