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FAQ’s

General

What happens after I place my order?

Once your order is received Portara will email your ‘data needs questionnaire’ where you can request specific custom requirements (if you need them or you can choose the default).

Portara will create your data based upon your order and the questionnaire and then send you a link for your data usually within 24hours.

The questionnaire will ask:

  • About what Roll Settings you require. Portara will roll the data to legacy roll settings (such as HMUZ for British Pound, as an example) unless you want to provide customised roll settings. You may for instance wish to skip over contracts or trade every other contract such as with Gold or Crude Oil

  • About when to roll. Portara will roll the data ‘x’ number of days before expiry of each contract within your data series. You may provide Portara with that value if you wish.

  • About how many contracts forward you wish to have as your nearest future. An advanced feature if you are trading STIR contracts such as Eurodollar so many months/years forward.

  • Decimal point placement.

  • Session Markers.

Is this genuine CQG data?

Yes.

What happens if I have questions about the data?

Use the customer live contact in the lower right hand corner. If we are available at that time we will answer your questions in real time, if however we are not currently available with live support we will receive an email of your query. You can always email if you prefer at info@portaraninja.org

What about sales taxes on data purchases?

There are NO taxes

What is the absolute minimum order?

1 Full Commodity

Do you offer an historical update service?

Yes, However we only offer an update service from Portara’s main site: www.portaracqg.com

MINIMUM Symbols 20

Do you offer a real-time update service?

No, not at the present time.

Technical

Is the data compatible with all versions of NinjaTrader?

Yes. Including upcoming versions.

Can I request the .ntd files I'm purchasing have another name other than the default?

Yes.

The ‘data needs questionnaire’ has an area you can customise the symbol name if you wish to do so. The ‘data needs questionnaire’ is sent to you after you place your order. Later on, if you change your mind you can always manipulate the data in NinjaTrader using the Historical Data Manager and simple symbol renaming, see the current NinjaTrader help-files.

Do we receive the daily data as well as the 1 minute data with our purchases?

Yes. If you are ordering .ntd format this is done automatically however, if you are ordering semicolon delimited data, there is a box that must be checked on the importer in order for NinjaTrader to automatically do this.

 

Say if I wish to have my data specific to certain session times can you do this?

For example if you chose BPA British Pound (All sessions) and wanted specifically data between 0720-1400 we can include this service.

Could you send a list of the dates that all the rolls took place?

OK no problem. Why don’t we send you a list of all the mathematical roll factors that went in to creating your data as well? That way you know how the data stream exactly got built. Just let us know on the data questionnaire we send to you after you purchase your data.

Say if we want other compressions such as 5 min or 60 Minute?

You can do this with a simple click already in NinjaTrader. The 1 minute data i s all you need to purchase for all the compressions you may need.

Say for some reason, I want the decimal point displaying data with larger or smaller magnitudes?

We can accommodate this on the data questionnaire we send out when you place your order.

What about Portara data with no current NinjaTrader Symbol associated with it?

You can easily set up your own symbols within NinjaTrader to match Portara using the Instrument Manager. See the NinjaTrader help-files.

How do I see the continuous backadjusted data series when I receive the data?

Look on the homepage at the two menu items —NinjaTrader Data Managers. Choose either NinjaTrader 7 or NinjaTrader 8. You will not even need to use the importing service, it is all done for you! Also see the installation video on the homepage.

What about Short Term Interest Rates (STIRS) and similar products?

Trading the STIRS means that you may need data many contracts forward of the nearest future. You can decide on this when completing the data questionnaire after submitting your order.

How do I get my realtime data feed to match with the historic data from Portara?

It depends on what you want to do.

Usually traders keep their continuous back adjusted data separate for testing purposes, from their trading data. In NinjaTrader for example, one strategy may be to keep the continuous back-adjusted data supplied from Portara as 6B ##-##, in the case of the British Pound. They may have their real-time trading data as 6B 12-13. However, you can merge and blend and create your own data streams based upon your own thoughts and perceptions when strategy testing.

You could have Portara set to 6B 12-13 and include the whole continuous back-adjusted data in this symbol. This way you could attach subsequent data from your real-time vendor in future months and years.

Each real-time vendor will have its own rules for callback. you will have to follow their instructions. Usually it will automatically knit into your current locally stored data. So if the data you just installed from Portara if setup as 6B 12-13 as an example the data requests from the real-time vendor may write onto that data (if thats what you want), but would skip data setup as 6B ##-## (unless real-time vendors append to continuous contracts). It is up to you to find out and do your own research.

Remember Portara Data is continuous back-adjusted data made to your specific requirements. It is up to you how you knit in any subsequent real time supplier data to this.

NinjaTrader settings to check and other things to think about...

Think about settings carefully. As an example…

The Eurodollar when converging towards its expiry begins to trade in quarter ticks. Portara accounts for this fully by having 4 digits after the decimal point (not 3 as with some vendors) Ninjatrader default setting tick size is to 0.005 which needs to be adjusted to 0.0025 to be accurate. Most traders trade Eurodollar many contracts forward (into the volatile and liquid [well extreme liquid] part of the contract) where quarter ticks are not seen until years later towards expiry.

What about if I require complete customisation of the continuous data?

Please email your enquiry for tailored servces.

In cases where it is available, it is the TRADE VOLUME. This is what traders need to access rather than the other possibility, if they use that methodology. In cases where is is not available NinjaTrader wants the field to always report “1”.

What is the data after the open, high, low and close exactly?

In cases where it is available, it is the TRADE VOLUME and not the tick count. This is what traders need to access rather than the other possibility, if they use that methodology. In cases where is is not available NinjaTrader wants the field to always report “1”.

What are the special formatting considerations for importing tick level 1 data into NinjaTrader?

The algorithm for bids and asks needs to be as follows otherwise the data will NOT import in:

  • Bid price must remain below or equal to trade price
  • Ask price must remain above or equal to trade price.
  • Portara deals with this algorithm so your data will read into the NT platform.

Legal

The data is for your personal use ONLY within NinjaTrader

The data is provided strictly for the NinjaTrader licence holder with 1 purchase of data for 1 licence and shall not be shared between licences or copys of NinjaTrader

You must not copy the data or distribute it in ANY way whatsoever

This is STRICTLY forbidden and breaches the Terms & Conditions of this Agreement

You cannot pass data via .ntd, text or other file formats via forums, email or any other transfer method(s)

This is STRICTLY forbidden. Forums are monitored by Portara and NinjaTrader for any breaches of this Agreement.