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;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
​

[NinjaTrader_BrandonH]

Hello Madhava,

Thanks for your notes.

When a script's Calculate mode is set to Calculate.OnBarClose, the OnBarUpdate() logic will only process at the close of a bar.

Calculate: https://ninjatrader.com/support/help.../calculate.htm

Passing in a BarsAgo value of 0 when Calculate.OnBarClose is used means that you are accessing the value of the last closed bar on the chart, not the currently forming bar.

So Close[0] would refer to the Close of the last bar that closed, not the Close price of the currently forming bar.

Ultimately, if a script is not behaving as expected it is necessary to add debugging prints to the script that print out all the values in the script along with the time of the bar and CurrentBar.

See this NinjaTrader Support article which details Debugging with Print(): https://support.ninjatrader.com/s/ar...nd-TraceOrders