Evaluating bars on a 5min chart

[devatechnologies]

Hello,

I'm working on a strategy that evaluates the first few opening bars(6:30am PST to 7:00am PST, 5 minute chart) on the S&P500. The code below does work. However, I'd like to evaluate the bars at 6:59:00AM. When I change the time to 6:59:00, the strategy won't detect any patterns, it does detect several of them when I leave the time at 7:00:00.

I've tried adding a second data series

AddDataSeries("^SP500", BarsPeriodType.Minute, 1);

. And changing the 'DateTime now' to [CODE][DateTime now = Times[1][0];/CODE]. But when I do that I get an out-of-range error.

So I would like to evaluate the bars on the 5-minute chart, but at 6:59am. Is there any way to do this?

Thank you in advance.

-Madhava







Full code

namespace NinjaTrader.NinjaScript.Strategies
{
    public class DEV_unlocked : Strategy
    {

protected override void OnStateChange()
{
    if (State == State.SetDefaults)
    {
        Description = @"Enter the description for your strategy here.";
        Name = "Dev_unlocked"; // Give your strategy a unique name

        // Set other defaults as needed
    }
    else if (State == State.Configure)
    {
        
    }
}

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
    // Set up time for checking the pattern
    DateTime now = Times[0][0];
    DateTime checkVPatternTime = new DateTime(now.Year, now.Month, now.Day, 7, 00, 00);

    // Check if it's the correct time to evaluate the pattern
    if (now.TimeOfDay == checkVPatternTime.TimeOfDay)
    {
        // Index of the first bar
        int firstBarIndex = 5;
        // Capture high and low from the first bar at 6:30 AM
        double firstCandleHigh = High[firstBarIndex];
        double firstCandleLow = Low[firstBarIndex];

        // Paint the first bar Ivory white
        BarBrushes[firstBarIndex] = Brushes.Ivory;

        // Define the allowable deviation
        double allowableDeviation = 1.5;

        // Boolean to track if a V pattern is detected
        bool vPatternDetected = false;

        // Variable to track if there was at least one or two closes above the first candle's high
        bool closeAboveFirstCandleHigh = false;

        // Iterate over the next candles to check for a V pattern
        for (int i = firstBarIndex - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        {
            // Check if the current candle closes above the first candle's high
            if (Close[i] > firstCandleHigh)
            {
                closeAboveFirstCandleHigh = true;
                // Continue to the next iteration to only check for retracement after this condition is met
                continue;
            }

            // If a candle closed above the first candle's high, look for the retracement
            if (closeAboveFirstCandleHigh && Low[i] <= firstCandleLow + allowableDeviation && Low[i] >= firstCandleLow - allowableDeviation)
            {
                // If retracement to near the low of the first candle is found after a higher close
                vPatternDetected = true;

                // Shade the bar where V pattern is confirmed
                BarBrushes[i] = Brushes.Yellow;
                Print("V pattern detected on " + now.ToString("MM/dd/yy "));

                break;
            }
        }
    }
}
}
}
​

[NinjaTrader_BrandonH]

Hello madhava,

Thanks for your post.

You could add a 1-Minute data series to your script, check if BarsInProgress == 1 is processing, and create a Time Comparison condition to see if the time (Times[1][0]) is equal to 6:59 AM.

I see that you do not have a CurrentBars check in the script to ensure you have enough bars processing for the data you are trying to access.

Add a CurrentBars check to the script to make sure you have enough bars for the data you are accessing.

See the help guide documentation below for more information.

CurrentBars: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...urrentbars.htm
Make sure you have enough bars: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...nough_bars.htm
BarsInProgress: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...inprogress.htm
Time Comparison Conditions: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...imeComparisons
Working with Multi-TimeFrame/Multi-Instrument NinjaScripts: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help...nstruments.htm

[devatechnologies]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for the quick reply, and the good advice.

So it does start to look for the pattern. But now instead of checking the 6:30:00am PST candle to the 7:00:00am candle, it's checking 5 minutes before. See the attached pic.

When I set the strategy to execute at 7:00am, Close[5] would be the 6:30am candle. If it's now set to execute at 6:59:00am Close[0][5] (primary index) it's now the 13:00pm candle.

Since the 5-minute candle closing at 7:00 isn't fully formed, and I execute at 6:59, does that affect the index numbers of Close[ ], High [ ], etc.

I hope that's clear.

Thanks again,
Madhava






Full strategy code:

namespace NinjaTrader.NinjaScript.Strategies
{
    public class DEV_unlocked : Strategy
    {
        protected override void OnStateChange()
        {
            if (State == State.SetDefaults)
            {
                Description = @"Enter the description for your strategy here.";
                Name = "Dev_unlocked"; // Give your strategy a unique name

                // Set other defaults as needed
            }
            else if (State == State.Configure)
            {
                AddDataSeries("^SP500", BarsPeriodType.Minute, 1);
                AddDataSeries("^SP500", BarsPeriodType.Minute, 5); // Add 5-minute series
            }
        }

        protected override void OnBarUpdate()
        {
            // Check if BarsInProgress is processing the 1-minute series
            if (BarsInProgress == 1)
            {
                // Set up time for checking the pattern
                DateTime now = Times[1][0];

                // Check if it's 6:59 AM
                if (now.Hour == 6 && now.Minute == 59)
                {
                    Print(now.TimeOfDay + " line 37");

                    // Continue processing only if we have enough bars on the 5-minute chart
                    if (CurrentBars[0] < 6) return;

                    // Index of the first bar
                    int firstBarIndex = 5;
                    // Capture high and low from the first bar at 6:30 AM on the 5-minute chart
                    double firstCandleHigh = Highs[0][firstBarIndex];
                    double firstCandleLow = Lows[0][firstBarIndex];

                    // Paint the first bar Ivory white
                    BarBrushes[firstBarIndex] = Brushes.Ivory;

                    // Define the allowable deviation
                    double allowableDeviation = 1.5;

                    // Boolean to track if a V pattern is detected
                    bool vPatternDetected = false;

                    // Variable to track if there was at least one or two closes above the first candle's high
                    bool closeAboveFirstCandleHigh = false;

                    // Iterate over the next candles to check for a V pattern
                    for (int i = firstBarIndex - 1; i >= 0; i--)
                    {
                        // Check if the current candle closes above the first candle's high
                        if (Closes[0][i] > firstCandleHigh)
                        {
                            closeAboveFirstCandleHigh = true;
                            // Continue to the next iteration to only check for retracement after this condition is met
                            continue;
                        }

                        // If a candle closed above the first candle's high, look for the retracement
                        if (closeAboveFirstCandleHigh && Lows[0][i] <= firstCandleLow + allowableDeviation && Lows[0][i] >= firstCandleLow - allowableDeviation)
                        {
                            // If retracement to near the low of the first candle is found after a higher close
                            vPatternDetected = true;

                            // Shade the bar where V pattern is confirmed
                            BarBrushes[i] = Brushes.Yellow;
                            Print("V pattern detected on " + now.ToString("MM/dd/yy "));

                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
​