Someday I may actually use this code you just posted! I kind of get your point, that I could piece together copies of other codes to make a code. Still seems a little intimidating, but I'm gonna give it a try! Thanks for sharing!
Silly me....didn't realize there was a strategy builder with Ninjatrader 8 that doesn't involve programming or require using a vendor such as Shark Indicators (Bloodhound). Just got done building the simple strategy shown in this video: This is what I plan to watch next: I've been asking myself why I'm trying to automate my trading plan as much as possible and wondering if it's worth spending so much time on it. I guess there's several answers to that question. I'm trying to fine tune my strategy. I need to know the statistics behind it. I want to have an alert system that helps me find a really good trade, and all of this should help with knowing which alerts will be the most helpful. It will be helpful to know the time of day the strategy performs best. Ninjatrader produces the results of a strategy instantly. I haven't found a way to do that with Sierra Chart. So, that is one good reason for switching from Sierra Chart to Ninjatrader for automated backtesting.
It may be easier than you think to get things moving since you have a direct and ready use that makes it easier to focus on the lang's relevant aspects and gain competency. Push the rock some every day and you'll get there. It looks like Ninja has a runway to pull down the learning curve and no reason not to continue with their program. If you want to look into your current chart, SC has a way to go about it too. Spreadsheet Systems, Alerts and Automated Trading https://www.sierrachart.com/index.php?page=doc/SpreadsheetSystemsAlertsAndAutomatedTrading.php The Spreadsheet System/Alert study and the Spreadsheet System for Trading study can be used to create a Trading System or an Alert for your chart. A trading system or an alert means rules that you define which will provide buy or sell signals when the rules are true for a particular bar in the chart. These signals will be shown as graphical indications on the chart, show text alert lines and give audible alerts. In the case of the Spreadsheet System for Trading study, actual trade orders will also be given. An alert refers to the signal given when your System/Alert rules are true on the last bar. All of this is described in more detail below.
Thanks for the encouragement and tip. I've only been working with Sierra Chart's "Color Bar on Alert Condition" to make signals, because I don't really know how I would use a spreadsheet for knowing what was going on in a chart. There's probably a lot I've been missing out on by not knowing what a spreadsheet trading system can do. Thanks! It's definitely something that seems like it will be worthwhile to learn about. Edit: Now that I've had a minute to think about it, I'll bet a spreadsheet would be good for things like the high and low of the previous day, and different sessions within the day. I should do some digging to see how other people are using spreadsheet trading systems.
Ninja training vids seem to do a good job and got the ball rolling. Why not follow that lead first to a milestone of some type? Get some workable code down. Then if you're still curious about how SierraChart would get you to that milestone, you could refer to some of the SierraChart training vids and see how they handle it.
I'm having a lot of fun with backtesting strategies!! The one that made a ton of money and made me super excited....for about 5 seconds, was run on a 15 minute chart and only worked so well because I forgot to attach a stop loss and target! It did make money--but the drawdowns, of course, were too large for what I'm trying to do.
Maybe this will help someone else along..... https://ninjatrader.com/support/for...n-strategy-builder-how-do-i-use-it-on-a-chart I haven't tried this yet, but apparently, if I understand this correctly, any AI generated strategies can be saved and used. Hope it works as easy as it sounds like it should in the reply given in the Ninjatrader Forum. The only thing that is difficult with using the AI generator is that I can't change the indicator settings to what I want....it only tests the default indicator settings. Not sure if there's a way to work around that. Also would be nice to be able to change those settings once I have the strategy on my charts. There is probably a way to do that by writing code, but that's not something I want to learn yet.
Well, I have the method I use that I can't share because it's not mine to share, it was given to me. What I want to do is use some of the things I've found with the AI generator to help give extra confirmation to what I'm already doing. I've found several things that might be helpful from the AI generator....but it is a little hard because I can't manipulate settings on indicators that I want put into a strategy. I guess what I'm wishing for is beyond what the AI is meant to do....I want the AI benefits added to a robot generator with my inputs (but no coding required) to come up with an accurately predicting automated trading system. Since I can't combine the AI strategies with my own to make one indicator, I'll probably have 2 strategies...or maybe 3, or 4, or more, running at the same time...until I get tired of having too many strategies going at once. Or if I find they aren't actually helpful.