Setup Ninja Trader

Now that you have installed and activated Ninja Trader we need to set it up to receive the free EOD data that Sentient Trader requires for your sample workspaces. That is very easy to do.

Start Ninja Trader.
Import the Sentient Trader Indicator. Click on the File > Utilities > Import NinjaScript... menu in the Ninja Trader Control Center.
Browse to the location of the Sentient Trader installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\Sentient Trader) and select the NinjaTraderInteractEOD.zip file. Ninja Trader will import the necessary files. Note that if you are working with the Intraday version of Sentient Trader, you should import the NinjaTraderInteractIntraday.zip file.
Connect to the free Kinetick - End Of Day data feed. Use the menu File > Connect > Kinetick. If you have an account with another data provider then you should go ahead and connect to them (if you are following the getting started process then you will need KineTick EOD data for the sample workspaces).
Confirm that Ninja Trader is connected to Kinetick at the bottom left of the Ninja Control Center.
Now we want to create a Ninja Trader workspace that will be used exculsively for Sentient Trader. Do this by using the menu File > Workspaces> New Workspace.
Now create a chart in Ninja Trader (which will provide the latest data to Sentient Trader). Use the menu File > New > Chart.
- Expand the SP500 node to see all the available symbols and select the symbol (select AAPL as the first symbol - a list of all the symbols you need follows).
- Click on the New button to select the symbol.
- Ensure that the Type is set to Day.
- Set the Days to Load value to 1800.
- Finally click on the OK button to load the chart.
When the chart has loaded we need to apply the Sentient Trader indicator to the chart. Click on the "Indicators" tool bar button at the top of the chart.
Select the Sentient Trader EOD indicator by either double-clicking or clicking the New button. Click on OK to apply the indicator to the chart.
Confirm that the Sentient Trader EOD indicator has been applied to the chart by checking the top left of the chart area.
Now because you are going to need this indicator on ALL the charts that you will be analyzing with Sentient Trader, let's create a chart template so that you don't have to add the indicator each time. Right-click on the chart and select the Templates > Save-As menu.
Name the template ...
Now make this template the default template whenever you create a chart in Ninja. Right-click on the chart and select the Templates > Save As Default menu.
OK, now you have created your first Ninja Trader chart (of AAPL), and you are ready to create the rest of the charts you need. There are 26 in total, so you have 25 to go! Repeat the chart creation process (no need to add the indicator because that template is now your default) with the following symbols: (The names are provided for your interest only. You won't see them in the list of symbols in Ninja Trader)
1. AAPL (you've already done this one!) - Apple
2. AXP - American Express
3. BA - Boeing
4. BAC - Bank of America
5. BBY - Best Buy
6. CAT - Caterpillar
7. CL - Colgate-Palmolive
8. DIS - Disney
9. FDX - Fedex
10. GE - General Electric
11. HSY - Hershey Foods
12. IBM - IBM
13. INTC - Intel
14. JNJ - Johnson & Johnson
15. JPM - JP Morgan Chase
16. KO - Coca-Cola
17. MMM - 3M
18. MSFT - Microsoft
19. NKE - Nike
20. PEP - Pepsico
21. PG - Proctor & Gamble
22. TWX - Time Warner
23. WMT - Wal-Mart Stores
24. WFC - Wells Fargo
OK, now the last two are a little more complicated because they aren't displayed in the SP500 list. You are going to need to find them and add them to a list yourself. This is easy to do. First of all use the menu Tools > Instrument Manager:
Then in the Instrument Manager window click on the New button to create a new list:
Name the list whatever you like:
At the top left of the Instrument Manager window select your newly defined list.
And now we need to find the instruments to add to the list. The first is the EURO to US DOLLAR forex pair:
1. Select Currency from the Type box (a forex pair is the relative price between two currencies)
2. Type in the Name EURUSD which is the code for the EURO to US DOLLAR pair.
3. Click on the Search button.
4. Select the EURUSD row by clicking on it.
5. Click on the Add this instrument to list button (if you didn't earlier select your new list then do that first).
Now let's add the second instrument to this list. This is the current e-mini S&P500 future contract:
1. Select Future from the Type box (the e-mini S&P500 contract is a future contract based on the S&P500 Index)
2. Type in the Name ES which is the code for the e-mini S&P500 (you could type S&P 500 into the description box if you like).
3. Click on the Search button.
4. Select the ES row by clicking on it.
5. Then you must select the continuous contract from the Expiry dropdown box. This is described as ##-##, indicating that there is NO expiry date.
6. Click on the Add this instrument to list button (if you didn't earlier select your new list then do that first).
And now that you have found the last two instruments, you should create charts, as you have done with the other 24 instruments:
1. EURUSD - EURO to US DOLLAR forex pair.
2. ES ##-## - e-mini S&P 500 future continuous contract.
Now that you have created all your charts we need to save these charts so that you can open them with a single click next time. Do that by saving the workspace in Ninja Trader. Use the menu File > Workspaces > Save Workspace As...

Helpful Hints

Although your desktop might become very cluttered with 26 (or more) charts open, it is best not to minimize these charts, because when it comes time to update your data, Ninja Trader does not load new data into a minimized chart. You could of course create two or three separate workspaces in Ninja Trader, and then open them up individually.

We find it best to close the workspace before closing Ninja Trader. If you do this then when you next open Ninja Trader you will be able to first connect to your data provider, and then open your workspace. The advantage of this is that Ninja Trader will update the data which Sentient Trader uses automatically. If you don't do this, then Ninja Trader will open your workspace before you have a chance to connect to your data provider. Then once you have connected to the data provider Ninja Trader will only update the data used by Sentient Trader when you actually focus the chart - which means that you need to switch between all the charts in the workspace. Miss one out, and the data won't be updated.

And that is that! Now that you have set up Ninja Trader you need to get to know what you will be doing every day with Sentient Trader in order to make your trading decisions. We call that the Sentient Trader Daily Routine.

Getting Started Roadmap for Trader Edition

Getting Started Roadmap for Analyst Edition