Adjusting MQ ValueBars for NinjaTrader and ThinkorSwim

For example, here’s a 2-minute CL future candlestick chart with MQ ValueBars added on top in NinjaTrader. As you can see, the MQ ValueBars plots are plotted on top of the candlesticks, making both difficult to see.  (For ThinkorSwim, scroll down to the ThinkorSwim section of this article).

When we add MQ ValueBars to a chart, it’s intended to replace the bars. So the easiest way to resolve this is to make the data series Transparent. To do this, you’ll want to make the “Color for down bars” and “Color for up bars” both Transparent. You’ll also want to make the Candle body outline and the Candle wick Transparent so they disappear as well. There are other ways to do this, but this is one way to do it. Here’s what those updated data series settings look like:

And here’s the result. Now we see just the OHLC bars that MQ ValueBars provide.

And while we’re talking about settings for MQ ValueBars – make sure that you set the Analysis Period input of MQ ValueBars to be 5 rather than 14! That has nothing to do with the color or viability of the bar, but it’s always good to remind everyone that 5 is the value to be used.

Similar issue and solution in Thinkorswim

As mentioned above, the same is true in ThinkorSwim.  The ValueBars are plotted as OHLC bars, so plotting a candlestick chart and ValueBars together makes it difficult to see either, as shown here:

Change thinkorswim's Chart Type to Bars, and it should appear more like what you see on TradeStation as used in the Trading rooms.  Here's the same chart above, with chart type set to Bars rather than Candlesticks:

Since we almost always set the numbars input to 5, you can make that the default so the next time you add it to a chart, it will default to 5.  To do this, open the indicator's properties, set the inputs as you'd like them to appear from now on by default, and select the Save as default option as circled here: