Reversing positions vs Closing

[MisterGee]

I just ran into this today and was wondering what the best supported method/setting is for having strategies reverse positions rather than close when running a short and long strategy simultaneously?

For example: Today my short strategy entered a position, a few bars later my long strategy attempted to take a position but actually ended up closing the short position and leaving my account flat.
As a secondary issue, since the short strategy was closed, but not by the coded method (X number of bars since entry = close position), when the bars since entry condition occurred, instead of closing a short position with a buy order, it ended up opening a long position.

These strategies were built in strategy builder and run on different time frames - so I have two enabled strategies in the strategy tab.

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_Jim]

Hello MisterGee,

Thanks for your post.

You cannot be long and short at the same time on the same account. In order to be long and short at the same time, you will need to trade with two separate accounts. If you consult your broker, you could ask to open a linked account so you can have 2 accounts to trade with when you connect with your login credentials in NinjaTrader.

Also keep in mind, strategies run independently of the account. (Strategy Positions and Account Positions are separate.) A strategy running on one account/instrument should be the only thing placing trades to that account/instrument, otherwise the strategy and account will fall out of sync. In your case, one strategy submitted a buy order which closed the short position on the account. The strategy which was short has no knowledge of trades submitted to the account, and is then out of sync.

It is possible to program strategies to monitor account positions with PositionAccount, but you would also want to consider an Unmanaged Approach where the strategy does not use Exit methods which are tied to the internal strategy position.

To move forward, I suggest considering linked accounts from your broker to go long and short at the same time.

Please also review our Strategy vs. Account Position documentation for more details - https://ninjatrader.com/support/help..._account_p.htm

We look forward to assisting.