HeatMap Pro

HeatMap Pro shows, at a glance, how much each market has moved since yesterday’s close, which way it’s trending, and whether the markets agree.

Each tile shows one instrument’s percent change from the prior session’s close (the current price minus that close, as a percentage). Trend Bars show its short-term direction, and the bottom panel says whether the markets are moving the same way (correlated) or mixed.

Prerequisites

• A real-time data feed for the instruments you want to show.
• A data feed that sends the prior session’s closing price. See Data feed connections.

Opening a HeatMap

HeatMap Pro isn’t an indicator: it’s a NinjaTrader add-on with its own window. You open one much like a new chart.

1. In the NinjaTrader Control Center, click New.
2. Go to SharkIndicators at the bottom.
3. Click HeatMap.

Tile components

Each instrument you add gets a tile.

1. The instrument.
2. The prior session’s closing price, from your data feed (see Data feed connections).
3. The percent change from the prior close to the last price.
4. The last price.
5. The Trend Bars, from 1-minute bars: green when the last three bars were all up, red when all down, gray when mixed.
6. The direction of the Trend Bars.

Instruments menu

Double-click a category at the bottom of the menu to add all its instruments, or expand it with the triangle and double-click single instruments.

The categories come from NinjaTrader’s Instrument Lists (in the Control Center). If an instrument isn’t there, add it to an Instrument List first.

Buttons and settings

Button	What it does
Load	Opens a HeatMap file saved with Save, restoring its instruments and settings.
Save	Saves the current instruments and settings to a file.
Clear	Removes all the tiles.
Settings	Opens the settings below.
Search / Previous / Next	Type a few characters of an instrument to find it quickly.

Setting	What it does
Neutral Threshold	The percent change at which a tile turns from gray to green or red. With 0.10%, a tile turns green at +0.10% or more and red at -0.10% or less; closer to zero, it stays gray.
Max Threshold	The percent change at which tiles reach their darkest green or red. Between the two thresholds the color darkens gradually; beyond this one it doesn’t get any darker.
Correlation Percent	What share of the instruments must be up (or down) for the Correlation panel to say Correlated. For example, 75%. The minimum is 51%, so up and down can’t both qualify.
Tile Size	Makes the tiles and text bigger or smaller.

Rollover of futures instruments

NinjaTrader’s Database Management » Rollover futures instruments doesn’t apply to third-party add-ons like the HeatMap. After a rollover, add the new contracts to the HeatMap yourself.

Data feed connections

Prior session close

Your data feed must provide each instrument’s prior session close, which NinjaTrader calls MarketData.LastClose. Neither HeatMap nor NinjaTrader calculates it: it comes from the exchange, through your data provider. If your feed doesn’t provide it, tiles show “No data” or “loading”.

NinjaTrader’s Data by Provider page shows which providers do: the Settlement adjusted Close Price For Daily Bars column must say Yes.

Indexes and other instruments you can’t trade (such as ^DJIA, ^SP500 and ^VIX) have no MarketData.LastClose, according to NinjaTrader support.

Playback Connection

The Playback Connection works out the prior session close when an instrument’s regular trading hours session ends. So playback must start before the prior day’s close; once the overnight session opens (about 6:00 PM Eastern Time), the HeatMap has the close and starts working. Then you can fast-forward to the next day’s open.