NinjaTrader Development Frequently Asked Questions







Can you give me a precise quote/offer for my strategy/indicator/addon development in terms of budget and delivery?

I certainly can if you have a clear set of requirements documentation that I can analyze and come back to you with the most appropriate offer.

I don’t have any requirements documentation but I can explain how the strategy works, how can I estimate the costs for its development?

Feel free to schedule a session where we can talk this through and I will be happy to give you a price and timeline fork for your design.

What is requirements documentation?

Requirements documentation is a document we come up with in order to fix our agreement on what exactly will be coded. Documentation consists of detailed explanations of how the strategy is operated and its business logic is described in great detail. Development is always carried out in accordance to the documentation so it is absolutely vital both sides understand it in the same way. Think of it as a project before the house gets built.

What happens after I find the estimated price fork and timeline applicable to my project? How do we start?

If the price and timeline estimation is suitable for you, I will be happy to start the requirements engineering process to confirm a more precise cost. At this point a small non refundable deposit is required.

What if the price calculated after the requirements engineering process is too high or we can’t agree on the timeline?

If that turns out to be the case, although in 95% of the cases we would stay in the estimated fork, then you are free to use the requirements documentation to place an offer request on the open market. Any NinjaTrader developer will be able to read it and skip this stage that we have been through already.

Can you fix my strategy if I find a bug in 1 year?

I am happy to fix any bugs or logic misreadings if you come back with them within 2 weeks after initial strategy submission. It is physically not possible to stay in touch with your code forever. I will be happy to review any bugs after this period under a time and materials contract.

What if I want to add an extra feature to my design?

You can certainly propose that after we have finished the agreed part of the development process and I will be happy to review your request and come back to you with the most appropriate offer. Please note that it is not possible to terminate the agreed implementation once the code of the iteration has started.

I have 5000 lines of badly written code, it works but I want to add one very simple feature how much would it cost?

Even if the code is very clean I will still require time to get accustomed to it. I strongly advise you to address the initial developer for such cases. In 90% of the cases if the code is badly written I will have to refactor the whole strategy which means we will have to go through all stages of strategy design from the start with implementing requirements documentation and confirming them on both sides which won’t be the case if you stay with your initial developer. These types of tasks are usually handled under a time and materials contract on my side, please consider this before contacting.

How are the payments made?

Paypal or Payoneer via sent link to my business accounts. In case of a fixed price contract there is always a 50% pre - payment. The post-payment has to be made within 5 working days after submission if there are no bug reports from client side. Please review the question on bug reports.

What are bug reports?

It is very hard to fix anything you find if it is not possible to understand what happened and reproduce the same scenario therefore there are a few practically proven ways to work this out. If it is a minor fix that is quite clear it is not a problem to describe it using text, screenshots or videos, however due to the nature of strategy design it is best to send over a video with the bug occuring in market replay where it is clear what strategy settings you are using on what symbol and timeframe and finally on what date and time.

What is market replay?

NinjaTrader has 2 modes tick replay and market replay. All bug reports are done in market replay mode only to avoid NinjTrader unstable bugs in tick replay mode.

What is NinjaTrader?

Please take your time to study basic functionality of NinjaTrader software before designing any strategies.

Is my strategy going to make a lot of money?

Please make sure you are aware about the risks and hypothetical results of any backtests and simulations.

I have your offer from last year, is it still valid?

All offers and estimates are valid for 2 weeks.