How to Request the Perfect NinjaTrader Indicator
Indicator Checklist
So you have this perfect idea for a trading indicator, and you need a programmer to put it together for you. The problem is talking in enough detail for a programmer to actually understand what you’re trying to accomplish. The perfect indicator is only perfect if you can communicate all the information to your programmer to make him understand what’s on your mind. Hopefully this quick little checklist will help you and your programmer be on the same page.
1. You can never have too much detail.
Always provide your programmer with volumes of information. A simple description of ”when it crosses above the line, I want it to buy…” just isn’t going to cut it. You need to create a visualization that will put your programmer into your head.
2. Screen Captures – Pictures really are worth a million words.
When writing up your requirements and description of the indicator that you want your programmer to write for you, take some screen captures of some charts using the timeframes, symbols and setup that you’re looking to capitalize on. Draw lines, arrows and circles to emphasize your point.
3. What Market should this work in?
Is your indicator for Forex only? Should it work for Futures and Equities? All of them? Make sure your programmer knows what market you will be working with, and if you will be trying this system out on any of the other markets. Sometimes a strategy or indicator is only good for a certain market, so be sure to clarify this with your indicator programmer.
4. What time frames should this work on?
Is your new indicator designed to work with historical data, or with realtime data? Daily bars? hour bars? minute bars? Volume Bars? Ticks? All of these things are important to discuss with your programmer. There are lots of different scenarios that need to be covered. Many of the time frames overlap (from a programming perspective), but other things are completely foreign, and will need to be programmed differently. This effects the time it takes to program your indicator (and ultimately the cost), so be sure to be clear with your programmer on what your time frame expectations are.
5. Input Parameters
Make sure that you are clear about what you want to be able to change. Bars back, smoothing periods, averages, and other input numbers. Remember to tell your programmer if you want to be able to change colors, or to set a threshold of some sort. Be as clear as you can, and just speak in logical laymans terms. Don’t try to talk in your programmers language – you won’t win.
6. Visual Outputs
Do you need background colors changed? Text drawn? Lines drawn? Line color changes? Is this a continuous change (like an oscillator), or is it a one shot change, like when a cross-over event happens? Let your programmer know in advance of what you expect to see in the charting panels when the indicator is done.
7. Alarms and Notifications
When an event occurs, how will you know? Do you need an auditory alarm? A visual popup? An event or log entry? How about an email? Do you want these to repeat themselves at every event, even if it happens 10 times back to back? In a real-time environment, this might get a little old. And for something like email would only be useful if you’re working on daily or hourly data, not real-time minute data.
These are just a few of the things that you need to be clear with when writing up a request for a NinjaTrader indicator to be custom written for you.
If you’re ready with your indicator, you can submit your NinjaTrader proposal to me anytime you’d like.