NexusChartTrader FAQ

A: Nexus Chart Trader is an advanced NinjaTrader indicator designed to enhance your chart trading experience with features like one-click order entry, sophisticated risk management for various account types, account rotation, customizable UI, and powerful hotkey functionality. It integrates directly into your NinjaTrader chart's Chart Trader panel.

A: The Panel Title setting (under 09. UI: Display & Aesthetics) allows you to customize the title displayed at the top of the Nexus Chart Trader panel on your chart. By default, it's "NEXUS TRADER".

A: These buttons are your primary order entry tools.

• "BUY" Button: Places a buy order. Its behavior depends on the BuyButtonOrderType setting (under 08. UI: Interaction & Behavior):
  • Market: Executes immediately at the current best available ask price.
  • Bid: Places a Limit order to buy at the current best bid price.
  • Ask: Places a Limit order to buy at the current best ask price.
  • In Position (Short): If you are currently short, the "BUY" button changes to "COVER" and places a market order to reduce or flatten your short position by buying back contracts.
  • In Position (Long): If you are currently long, the "BUY" button changes to "ADD" and places an order to increase your long position (DCA). The order type (Market, Bid, Ask) still applies based on settings.
• "SELL" Button: Places a sell order. Its behavior depends on the SellButtonOrderType setting (under 08. UI: Interaction & Behavior):
  • Market: Executes immediately at the current best available bid price.
  • Bid: Places a Limit order to sell at the current best bid price.
  • Ask: Places a Limit order to sell at the current best ask price.
  • In Position (Long): If you are currently long, the "SELL" button changes to "SELL" and places a market order to reduce or flatten your long position by selling contracts.
  • In Position (Short): If you are currently short, the "SELL" button changes to "ADD" and places an order to increase your short position (DCA). The order type (Market, Bid, Ask) still applies based on settings.

A: The "CLOSE" button will immediately attempt to flatten your current position for the selected Master Trading Account on the current instrument. It also attempts to cancel any open working orders for that account and instrument.

A: The "CLOSE ALL" button will flatten all positions across all connected accounts for the current instrument. It also attempts to cancel all open working orders across all connected accounts for that instrument.

A: If you are currently in a position on the Master Trading Account for the current instrument, the "CANCEL" button will cancel only any pending entry orders (orders named "Entry1_", "ClickEntry", or "DCAEntry_"). If you are flat on the Master Trading Account, it will cancel all working orders across all connected accounts for the current instrument, regardless of their name.

A: You can set the number of contracts/shares for your trades using the "ORDER QTY" input field (a numerical up/down selector). This corresponds to the Entry Quantity parameter. You can also use your mouse wheel over any of the main BUY/SELL/CLICK BUY/CLICK SELL buttons to quickly adjust the quantity up or down.

A: These buttons activate a "click trading" mode:

• "🖱️BUY" (Click Buy): When active (button turns green), clicking on the chart below the current Ask price will place a Limit Buy order at that price. Clicking above or at the Ask price will place a Stop Limit Buy order.
• "🖱️SELL" (Click Sell): When active (button turns green), clicking on the chart above the current Bid price will place a Limit Sell order at that price. Clicking below or at the Bid price will place a Stop Limit Sell order.
• DCA Mode: If you are already in a position and activate a click mode:
  • Long Position: Clicking "🖱️BUY" below your average entry price places a DCA Buy order.
  • Short Position: Clicking "🖱️SELL" above your average entry price places a DCA Sell order.

A: (Under 08. UI: Interaction & Behavior) This setting specifies how long a limit order placed via click-trading or the main BUY/SELL buttons (if set to Limit/Bid/Ask order type) will remain active. If the order isn't filled within this timeout, it will be automatically canceled. Select "Indefinite" for no automatic cancellation.

A: (Under 08. UI: Interaction & Behavior) This defines how many seconds the "Click Buy" or "Click Sell" mode remains active after you enable it. After the timeout, the mode automatically deactivates (the button turns gray).

A: (Under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility) When enabled, if you place multiple click-based entry orders for the same instrument, and one of them fills, all other pending click-based entry orders will be automatically canceled. This ensures you only enter with one position from your click attempts. You can toggle this feature directly via the "OCO" button on the UI.

A: The "Targets" section of the UI provides buttons to quickly select a predefined Take Profit target in ticks.

• TP1, TP2, TP3, TP4: These buttons correspond to the Take Profit Ticks 1 through 4 settings (under 03. Main Trading Parameters). Clicking one will set the active TP for new trades and attempt to adjust existing TP orders for your current position.
• "NO TP": Sets the active Take Profit to 0 ticks, meaning no automatic TP order will be placed for new or existing trades.
• "Show Advanced Targets": (Under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility) Toggles the visibility of TP3 and TP4 buttons.
• "DCA TP % of Main TP": (Under 04. Advanced Trading: DCA) This percentage determines the take-profit target for any Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) contracts added to your position. For example, if your main TP is 20 ticks and DCA TP % is 50%, DCA contracts will have a 10-tick TP.

A: You can select a predefined Stop Loss amount in dollars from the "SL ($)" dropdown.

• "Stop Loss (Dollars)": (Under 03. Main Trading Parameters) This is the default stop-loss value the indicator will use.
• "Custom SL 1 ($)" and "Custom SL 2 ($)": (Under 03. Main Trading Parameters) These allow you to add two additional custom stop-loss values to the dropdown menu for quick selection. Set them to 0 to exclude them.
• When you select an SL value from the dropdown, it will be applied to future trades and will attempt to adjust the stop-loss order for any current open position on your Master Trading Account.

A: This button will cancel any existing Stop Loss and Take Profit orders for your current position on the Master Trading Account and then immediately re-place them based on the current market conditions and your selected Stop Loss and Take Profit settings. This is useful if orders get stuck or you want to ensure they're at the correct calculated price after manual adjustments.

A: (Under 04. Advanced Trading: DCA)

• Max DCA Count: Limits how many additional "ADD" (DCA) orders you can place after your initial entry for a given trade. For example, if set to 2, you can click the DCA button twice to add to your position. After the second DCA, the button will change back to "BUY" or "SELL".
• DCA TP % of Main TP: Determines the Take Profit distance for contracts added via DCA. If your main TP is 40 ticks and DCA TP % is 50%, any DCA contracts will have a 10-tick TP.

A: (Visibility controlled by Show Lock Risk Button under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility) This button allows you to "lock" your current Daily Profit Threshold, Max Daily Loss, and Daily Trade Limit settings for both Evaluation and Professional accounts. Once locked (button shows 🔒 and is disabled), these risk parameters cannot be changed in the indicator's settings until you manually edit the saved settings file (NexusChartTrader_Settings.xml in your NinjaTrader UserData directory) and set RiskSettingsLocked to False. This can help prevent accidental changes to your crucial risk parameters.

A: Use the dropdown menu in the "Account" section of the UI. This selects the account on which all primary trading actions (BUY, SELL, CLOSE, Click Trading) will be executed. You can also select (None) if you do not wish to assign a master account to this instance of the indicator.

A: (Under 01. Setup & Verification, read-only) These fields provide an informational list of accounts that Nexus Chart Trader has identified as either "Professional/Funded" or "Evaluation" based on keywords in their names (e.g., "PRO", "SF", "EV", "SIM", "TAKE", etc.). This classification is used to apply the correct risk management rules (from 06. Risk Management: Evaluation Accounts & 07. Risk Management: Professional Accounts).

A: The "NEXT" and "PREVIOUS" buttons allow you to quickly cycle through your eligible connected accounts, automatically setting the next/previous eligible account as your Master Trading Account. Accounts are ordered alphabetically within their type (Professional, then Evaluation, then Other). Accounts on your Skip Account list or SIM accounts (if Hide 'SIM' Accounts in Dashboard is enabled) will be skipped during rotation.

A: (Under 05. Account Rotation & Skipping)

• "Skip Account 1" through "Skip Account 9": These parameters allow you to permanently exclude specific accounts from Nexus Chart Trader's operations, including account rotation and dashboard display. This is useful for accounts that are paused, under evaluation, or that you simply don't want to trade with the automated rotation.
• "Add to Skip List" (➕SKIP) button: Clicking this button on the UI will automatically add the currently selected Master Trading Account to the next available "Skip Account" slot in your indicator settings. After adding, it will automatically rotate to the next eligible account. This provides a quick way to sideline an account from trading.

A: (Under 05. Account Rotation & Skipping) This setting allows you to specify a fallback account. If account rotation is active, but all other eligible accounts meet a risk limit (profit threshold, max loss, trade limit), the indicator will attempt to switch to this designated "Default Account on Halt" if it's connected and not on the skip list.

A: (Under 06. Risk Management: Evaluation Accounts and 07. Risk Management: Professional Accounts)

• You can set Daily Profit Threshold, Max Daily Loss, and Daily Trade Limit separately for "Evaluation" and "Professional" accounts.
• If an account (either the Master Trading Account or any account being considered for rotation) hits its defined profit threshold, maximum daily loss, or daily trade limit, Nexus Chart Trader will consider that account "halted" and will prevent further trades on it for the day.
• These limits are reset daily when NinjaTrader is restarted and all connected accounts show a $0.00 realized PnL. If PnL is non-zero at startup (e.g., from an overnight position or mid-day reload), the indicator assumes trading is ongoing for that day.

A: The dashboard provides real-time trading information:

• Unrealized PnL: Displays your floating profit or loss for the current position on the Master Trading Account. It is hidden when you are flat.
• Position Info: Shows your current market position (Long/Short), quantity, and average entry price for the Master Trading Account on the current instrument. It is hidden when you are flat.
• BALANCE: Shows the Net Liquidation value of your Master Trading Account.
• Trades: Displays your current trade count for the Master Trading Account out of the daily trade limit defined in your risk settings.
• Daily P&L Section: This scrollable list shows the total P&L (realized + unrealized) for all connected eligible accounts, categorized by "PROFESSIONAL", "EVALUATION", and "OTHER". Your Master Trading Account is highlighted for easy identification. A "Total" P&L for all displayed accounts is also shown at the bottom.

A: (Under 09. UI: Display & Aesthetics) This setting controls the maximum height (in pixels) of the scrollable "Daily P&L" list of accounts. If you have many accounts, increasing this value might allow more accounts to be visible without scrolling.

A: (Visibility controlled by ShowInstrumentSwitchButton under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility) This button (labeled "MINI" or "MICRO" depending on the current instrument) allows you to quickly switch between the full-size and micro-size contracts for common instruments (e.g., ES <-> MES, NQ <-> MNQ, CL <-> MCL). Clicking it will send a command to NinjaTrader to change the instrument on the active chart.

A: (Under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility and 09. UI: Display & Aesthetics)

• Enable Streamer Mode: When enabled, sensitive account numbers or parts of account names will be redacted (replaced with 'x' characters) in the UI for privacy, especially useful if you are sharing your screen or streaming.
• Redact Digits Count: Specifies how many of the last digits of an account name will be redacted. For example, if your account is "TF12345" and Redact Digits Count is 4, it might display as "TFxxx45".
• Abbreviate Long Account Names: If enabled, account names longer than 6 characters will be shortened in the "Daily P&L" dashboard (e.g., "TradingAcct123" might become "Trad...t123"). This helps fit longer names into the dashboard display.

A: (Under 09. UI: Display & Aesthetics and 10. UI: Style & Appearance (Advanced)) You have extensive control over the visual style:

• Panel Text Font Size: Controls the font size for all non-button text elements (labels, dashboard info).
• Balance Display Font Size: Specifically sets the font size for the main balance value display.
• Button Font Bold: Makes button text bold.
• Button Font Size: Sets the font size for text on all buttons.
• Button Font Family: Choose from a selection of common font families for button text.
• Button Height: Sets a fixed height for all buttons.
• Button Border Thickness: Controls the thickness of the border around buttons.
• Button Corner Radius: Adjusts the roundness of button corners (0 for sharp, higher for more rounded).
• Button Border Color: Sets the color of the button borders.
• Pro Account Border Color: The border color for the account selector when a Professional account is active.
• Eval Account Border Color: The border color for the account selector when an Evaluation account is active.
• Selected Account Highlight: The background color for the currently selected account in the P&L dashboard list.
• Text Outline Color, Blur Radius, Opacity: These settings apply an outline/shadow effect to button text for better readability against various backgrounds.

A: (Under 02. General Feature Toggles & Visibility and 11. Hotkeys)

• Enable Hotkeys: This master switch globally enables or disables all hotkey functionality for the indicator.
• Hotkey Cooldown (ms): Prevents a hotkey from being triggered multiple times in very quick succession. If set to, say, 500ms, pressing the same hotkey again within half a second will be ignored. Set to 0 to disable the cooldown.

A: You can customize all hotkeys under the 11. Hotkeys group in the indicator settings. The default assignments are:

• Buy Hotkey: Up Arrow
• Sell Hotkey: Down Arrow
• Close Hotkey: Space Bar
• Next Account Hotkey: Right Arrow
• Previous Account Hotkey: Left Arrow
• TP1 Hotkey: NumPad1 (21 Ticks)
• TP2 Hotkey: NumPad4 (41 Ticks)
• TP3 Hotkey: NumPad3 (6 Ticks)
• TP4 Hotkey: NumPad2 (13 Ticks)
• Switch Instrument Hotkey: NumPad0
• Add to Skip List Hotkey: Add (NumPad +)