backtesting and DateTime.Now

[andrewbee]

Hi,

In a strategy that uses DateTime.Now to get the current time, is this simulated in a backtest to be the correct time for the current bar?

Thanks

[NinjaTrader_Ray]

No since DateTime.Now is a .NET property, NT has no wrapper logic around that. If you want relative time you need to access Time[0] which gives you bar time.

[shodson]

Is the reverse also true? If I use Time[0] in my strategy will it not work, and I should use DateTime.Now instead? For example, if I don't want to allow trading after 11:30am, should I check that ToTime(Time[0]) <= 113000 or ToTime(DateTime.Now) <= 113000 in my strategy when trading it live? If so, then we have to do something like


if (Historical)
allowTrading = ToTime(Time[0]) >= 60000 && ToTime(Time[0]) <= 113000;
else
allowTrading = ToTime(DateTime.Now) >= 60000 && ToTime(DateTime.Now) <= 113000;
????

[NinjaTrader_RyanM]

Hello Shodson,

They refer to different things and how you use will depend on what you want to express.

Time[0] refers to the time stamp of a bar. It is the time that the bar has ended or is projected to end.

DateTime.Now will capture your system clock at the moment of time the code is processed.