Documentation for AB-PowerX

The indicator is pretty straight-forward and works like virtually all other NinjaTrader indicators. Once installed, simply select it from the 'Indicators' dialog box, set the options as desired (defaults are pretty sane) and start using it. I tried to give all the options names that make sense and, if you hover over them with your mouse, I've included more detailed descriptions as appropriate. Overall, I don't think there's too much that's a mystery. However, this page will provide an overview just in case something doesn't make sense to you.

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Download Instructions

You can download the latest version of AB-PowerX here . Make sure you save the file somewhere you can find it easily -- your Downloads folder or your Desktop are usually the easiest places. If you wish to verify your download, the SHA-256 checksum is displayed below the download button for each release on the Downloads page.

Installation, Upgrades & Removal

installation

Open NinjaTrader and go to the main control window (the one with the main program menu) and select Tools | Import | NinjaScript Add-On... [Installation screenshot 1]
Navigate and find the ZIP file you downloaded. Select it and click "Open". NinjaTrader will install the file for you.
Assuming there are no errors, you should see a dialog box saying "NinjaTrader successfully imported all scripts contained in the NinjaScriptArchive File." [Installation screenshot 2]
That's it, you're done!

upgrading

Upgrading involves removing the previous version and then installing the new version just as you did in the initial installation.

You MUST remove the previous version or NinjaTrader will fail to perform the upgrade. If you don't remove the previous version, you will see a dialog box saying "Import failed..." [Screenshot showing upgrade error]

Follow the steps in the "Uninstallation" section below to remove the current (old) version.
Now, follow the steps in the "Installation" section above to install the newest version. Just make sure you choose the newest ZIP (it will have the highest version number) and that will do the "upgrade" for you. Upgrading really is just installing the latest version. Your existing templates will be unaffected and will be automatically reapplied after the upgrade.

removal

It is recommended you remove any custom indicators from within NinjaTrader instead of deleting the file manually (though I've never experienced any problems manually deleting files). We will go through the recommended procedure here.

for packaged DLL versions

On the main NinjaTrader Control Center window (the one with the main program menu), select Tools | Remove NinjaScript Assembly [DLL uninstallation screenshot 1]
A new window will appear asking you to select which assembly you want to remove. Select ABPowerX_version (where '_version' is the currently installed version number) and click "Remove". [DLL uninstallation screenshot 2]
NinjaTrader will display a confirmation dialog box asking if you're sure. You are. Say Yes.
Assuming no errors, you will get a success message. Click OK to close the dialog box. [DLL uninstallation screenshot 3]
Click CLOSE on the "Remove NinjaScript Assembly" dialog box to close it. [DLL uninstallation screenshot 4]
AB-PowerX is now uninstalled. If you removed the indicator as part of the upgrade process, please follow the "Installation" section above to complete the upgrade.

for packaged script file versions

On the main NinjaTrader Control Center window (the one with the main program menu), select New | NinjaScript Editor [Script uninstallation screenshot 1]
On the right-side of the NinjaScript Editor window you will see a panel called NinjaScript Explorer. In that panel, you will see a list of folders. If you don't see a tree display but instead see a vertical tab labelled NinjaScript Explorer, click it to expand the panel. [Script uninstallation screenshot 2]
In the NinjaScript Explorer panel, double-click on the AddOns folder to expand it, if necessary. Find the ABPowerX_addon file and right-click on it. Select Remove. [Script uninstallation screenshot 3]
NinjaTrader will ask if you are sure you want to remove the file. Say Yes.
At this point, NinjaTrader will recompile its indicators and you WILL see an error (code CS0234). Ignore it for now.
In the NinjaScript Explorer panel, double-click on the Indicators folder to expand it, if necessary, and find the ABPowerX folder. Double-click to expand this folder.[Script uninstallation screenshot 4]
Right-click on the ABPowerX FOLDER and select Remove. [Script uninstallation screenshot 5]
NinjaTrader will ask if you are sure you want to remove the FOLDER and will warn that all scripts within will be lost. This is what we want. Say Yes.
Once again, NinjaTrader will recompile its scripts but, this time, you should no longer receive any errors.
Review the NinjaScript Explorer panel and notice that 'ABPowerX' no longer appears in either the 'AddOns' or 'Indicators' folders.
AB-PowerX is now uninstalled. If you removed the indicator as part of the upgrade process, please follow the "Installation" section above to complete the upgrade.

Using In NinjaTrader

You add the indicator to your chart like any other. In a chart window, right-click and select Indicators to open your indicators panel. Now look for a folder called ABTrading (in versions before v2.6 this folder is called ABPowerX) on the left side of the window. Double-click to open the folder and then double-click on the version of the indicator you have installed (you should only ever have one version). You can then customize any options you want and click 'OK' to add the indicator. You may change any options or remove the indicator at any time by opening your indicators panel again.

Interpretation

Long setup

Let's go ahead and take a look at a LONG trade setup first.

The '*' shows a bullish trigger bar. As you can see, the bars are coloured green to indicate bullish momentum. All lines are drawn on the chart at the close of this bar.
At (1) the trade is entered intra-bar since the bar passed the trigger line at (2). You can see a marker (upward triangle) is drawn as a visual reminder that you should be long.
(2) shows the 'Trade Helper - Trigger Line'. It shows that, based on your account size and risk tolerance or selected fixed contract amount, you should be trading LONG (up arrow) 2 contracts with an entry price at 4226.75.
(3) shows the 'Trade Planner' STOP line. It is telling you your sell-stop should be at 4223.75 for a cumulative risk of 24 ticks or $300.00. I am using cumulative mode in this example so it takes the per-contract risk numbers and multiplies by the number of contracts being traded. You can turn this off to see 'per-contract' instead.
(4) shows the 'Trade Planner' TARGET line. It is recommending an exit at 4232.75 based on the 'target multiple' parameter. If hit, you will make 48 ticks or $600.00. Again, I am using cumulative mode here. In 'per-contract' mode, it would display 24 ticks and $300.00.
(5) shows a bar hitting our target. Great trade!

Short setup

Now, let's take a look at a SHORT trade setup.

The '*' shows a bearish trigger bar. As you can see, the bars are coloured pink to indicate bearish momentum. All lines are drawn on the chart at the close of this bar.
At (1) the trade is entered intra-bar since the bar passed the trigger line at (2). You can see a marker (downward triangle) is drawn as a visual reminder that you should be short.
(2) shows the 'Trade Helper - Trigger Line'. It shows that, based on your account size and risk tolerance or selected fixed contract amount, you should be trading SHORT (down arrow) 2 contracts with an entry price at 4238. 00.
(3) shows the 'Trade Planner' STOP line. It is telling you your buy-stop should be at 4240.50 for a risk of 10 ticks or $125.00. I am using 'per-contract' mode this time, so these numbers would need to be multiplied by the contracts being traded. This is the opposite setting used in the 'long' example.
(4) shows the 'Trade Planner' TARGET line. It is recommending an exit at 4233.00 based on the 'target multiple' parameter. If hit, you will make 20 ticks or $250.00 per-contract. If, like in the 'long' example, you were using 'cumulative' mode, this would display 40 ticks for a total of $500.00.
(5) shows that the same bar as our entry ended up hitting our target. Another great trade that actually kept going quite a bit passed our target!

Tips & Ticks

Sometimes it can be difficult to see the Trade Planner boxes at the hard-right edge of your screen. You can make this easier by adding a 'right-margin' to your chart. Right-click on your chart and select Properties. In the dialog box, you will see an option called Right side margin. Set this somewhere between 150-250 (pixels) depending on your screen resolution. That should give you enough padding to fully see the boxes.
Remember that Trigger-Line and Trade-Planner labels are set separately!
You can turn off the label boxes entirely if you just want to see text. The boxes, I think, make the labels more visible. If you don't like the extra clutter, uncheck "Display label box" in the "Trigger Line Label" and/or "Trade Planner Labels" section.
You can customize the label box appearance using a combination of "Label box opacity", "Label box outline" and "Dotted outline" options. You don't have to use the defaults!
You can turn off the label box background by setting its opacity to 0. This is the default on the 'Trade-Planner' level labels.
PLEASE feel free to make suggestions for new features, changes to existing ones, report any bugs/issues or provide any feedback you'd like. You can email me using the links on this site or, if you are familiar with git, you can file an issue in the git repo.

Parameters

Click on any of the options below to expand it and read a more detailed explanation of what the particular parameter does. This section will be updated with each new release version.

display options

Uptrend colour, Downtrend colour, Neutral colour

The colour bars should be painted depending on the PowerX indicators. If they are showing bullish momentum, the uptrend color will be used. If momentum is bearish, the downtrend colour will be used. If the indicators do not agree, the neutral colour will be used.

Defaults: Uptrend: LightGreen | Downtrend: LightCoral | Neutral: DimGray

Candle fill

This applies only to candlestick and candlestick-variant charts. Based on your selection, candles will be 'filled in' if the closing price is lower than the opening price (default) or vice versa.

Default: Close < Open

indicator settings

Customize indicator parameters

Checking this box will reveal the settings for each of the PowerX indicators. If you want to change the defaults, this is where you do it. The options are self-explanatory. If you uncheck this box any changes you made will still apply despite being hidden in the properties grid!

Default: Unchecked

trade helpers

Trade helper

If this is unchecked, no other options are displayed in the parameters grid. This effectively turns off all advanced features of this indicator including all entry lines and stop/target lines. The only thing displayed will be the painted bars indicating momentum.

Default: Checked

account and risk

Use fixed position size

This will force the contract, risk and target calculators to use the number of contracts you specify in the Number of contracts field. No consideration of your account size or risk tolerance will be taken into account. Selecting this checkbox hides the dynamic risk calculator options.

Default: Checked

Number of contracts

This will tell the contract, risk and target calculators how many contracts you want to trade at all times. This field is only visible when Use fixed position size is selected.

Default: 1

Account

The auto-position sizer needs to know which account you will be trading. Select it from this drop-down box. This field is only visible when Use fixed position size is NOT selected. Starting in Version 2.6.2 this defaults to a blank entry.

Default: Blank (none) --> effectively 0 contract size

Risk %

The percent amount of your cash account balance you want to risk per trade. This is how the auto-position-sizer determines how many contracts to suggest you trade. Note that this value is divided by 100 to arrive at a percentage, so you should enter "5" instead of "0.05" for 5%. This field is only visible when Use fixed position size is NOT selected.

Default: 2 (equals 2%)

Include commission

If selected, any commission values defined for the instrument being displayed will be applied to the contract number and risk calculations. This will affect the content of the labels shown but, obviously, not the lines drawn since your trade levels are unaffected. If you have not defined any commissions for the current instrument, this option will have no effect. If using 'fixed-position size' then only the risk calculations will be affected.

Default: Unchecked

trigger lines

Trigger lines

Determines which trigger lines to show.

Show all trigger lines: Does exactly what it says and is great for looking back at historical charts and studying how the indicator works and how you would like to use it.
Remove expired trigger lines (deprecated): This option has been removed in all versions after 1.0. This functionality has been implemented by default and cannot be disabled via the parameters.
Only most recent trigger line: Only shows the immediately active trigger line and nothing else. There is no history shown in this mode. In addition, nothing will be drawn if there is no currently active trigger. The instant one is available, the trigger-line will be drawn. This is how I prefer to use it when actually trading (not backtesting/studying) since it keeps the chart very clean.

Default: Only most recent trigger line

Entry trigger distance

Number of ticks away from the trigger-line where an entry stop should be placed. This is used when the indicator is calculating where to draw entry markers and calculating entries for position sizing, etc.

Default: 3

Validity period

Number of bars after which a trigger-line is considered expired if not activated by price surpassing it. The indicator will automatically remove invalid trade levels based on this setting.

Default: 5

Bullish/Bearish trigger line

Style of the bullish (buy) and bearish (sell) lines. This includes the line colour, width, style and opacity. Since version 1.0 this new setting incorporates the previous separate ones that allowed specifying line attributes individually.

Default: Bullish: LawnGreen, Dash, 100% opacity, 5px wide | Bearish: FireBrick, Dash, 100% opacity, 5px wide

Mark trade entries

If this is checked, the indicator will draw up and down arrow markers where trades would be triggered based on your settings and the 'Entry trigger distance'. If this is cluttering your chart, just turn it off.

Default: Checked

trigger line label

Display trigger line label

If checked, a label will be drawn to the right of the trigger line. If you feel this clutters your chart and prefer just the trigger line itself, deselect this option. In older versions, there was no option to remove this label. If unchecked, none of the other parameters in this section will be visible.

Default: Checked

Label font

Sets the font family, size, bold and italic options used when drawing the label.

Default: Lucida, 11px

Label colour

Sets the colour used for the label.

Default: Azure

Display label box

If checked, a customizable box will be drawn around the label to add emphasis and aid visibility. If unchecked, related options will not be visible.

Default: Checked

Label box opacity

Sets the opacity of the label box background fill. If you want a transparent box (e.g. outline only), set this to 0. This field will not be visible if Display label box is unchecked.

Default: 30

Label box outline

If checked, an outline will be drawn around the label. This option is especially useful when the Label box opacity is set to 0. If unchecked, related options will not be visible. This field will not be visible if Display label box is unchecked.

Default: Checked

Outline width

Determines the width, in pixels, of the outline drawn around the label background-box. This field will not be visible if Label box outline is unchecked.

Default: 1

Outline opacity

Sets the opacity, in percent, of the outline drawn around the label background-box. This field will not be visible if _ Label box outline_ is unchecked.

Default: 100

Dotted outline

If checked, the label background-box outline will be drawn as a dotted line instead of a solid one. This field will not be visible if Label box outline is unchecked.

Default: Unchecked

trade planner

Show trade planner

If this box is unchecked, the trade planner (risk and target lines along with their labels) will be disabled and no other parameters in this section will be visible.

Default: Checked

ADR period

Stops and targets are based on the Average Daily (Bar) Range. This is the number of previous bars (starting at and including the trigger bar and going backwards) to use in this calculation.

Default: 7

ADR stop multiple, ADR target multiple

These are the multipliers to use when calculating the stop and target, respectively. In other words, multiply the ADR value by 'x' to get the stop and by 'y' to get the target.

Default: 1.5

Line length (bars)

The number of bars into the future the Trade Planner lines are extended. By default, this is equal to the Trigger Lines 'Validity period' setting.

Default: 5

Stop/Target level

Style of the stop and target lines. This includes the line colour, width, style (dash/solid, etc.) and opacity. Since version 1.0 this new setting incorporates the previous separate ones that allowed specifying line attributes individually.

Default: Stop level: FireBrick, Dot, 100% opacity, 3px width | Target level: LawnGreen, Dot, 100% opacity, 3px width

trade planner labels

Display labels

If unchecked, Trade Planner level (stop and target) labels will not be displayed and no other parameters in this section will be visible.

Default: Checked

Display ticks

If checked, stop and target labels will show the number of ticks for risk/reward. This can be combined with Display dollars.

Default: Checked

Display dollars

If checked, stop and target labels will show the dollar amount of risk/reward. This can be combined with Display ticks.

Default: Unchecked

Cumulative risk

By default, risk and target amounts are displayed 'per-contract'. If this box is checked, those values will be multiplied by the number of contracts being suggested to arrive at a cumulative value for the position as a whole. While not the default setting, I like using this for realtime trading so I know exactly how much I'm risking in total.

Default: Unchecked

Label font

Sets the font family, size, bold and italic options used when drawing the label.

Default: Lucida, 11px

Label colour

Sets the colour used for the label.

Default: Azure

Display label box

If checked, a customizable box will be drawn around the label to add emphasis and aid visibility. If unchecked, related options will not be visible.

Default: Checked

Label box opacity

Sets the opacity of the label box background fill. If you want a transparent box (e.g. outline only), set this to 0. This field will not be visible if Display label box is unchecked.

Default: 0

Label box outline

Default: Checked

Outline width

Determines the width, in pixels, of the outline drawn around the label background-box. This field will not be visible if Label box outline is unchecked.

Default: 2

Outline opacity

Sets the opacity, in percent, of the outline drawn around the label background-box. This field will not be visible if Label box outline is unchecked.

Default: 100

Dotted outline

If checked, the label background-box outline will be drawn as a dotted line instead of a solid one. This field will not be visible if Label box outline is unchecked.

Default: Checked

contact me

Want to stay updated on new releases? Have questions or found a bug? Want to submit a feature request? Feel free to email me by clicking the button below. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have, help you get the indicator set-up, or let you know about incorporating your suggestion(s) into future versions. If you know how to program for NinjaTrader or in C#/.NET in general and want to contribute, email me using the button below or file an issue or pull request in the git repo (preferred).

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