Historical data import question

[iplaygames]

Hello! I've been trying to import some GBPJPY historical data. however everytime I tried, I got a message saying that "the instrument is not supported by the repository"! could anybody please shed some light on this?

[whitmark]

Try naming the import file $GBPJPY.txt.

Originally Posted by whitmark

Try naming the import file $GBPJPY.txt.

Thanks for lending a hand Whitmark!

[iplaygames]

Thank you, whitmark! that indeed is the problem. now I got a different error message telling me that there was sth wrong with the format of the data. but I'm sure I can solve that without crying out for further help

[iplaygames]

I've done my best converting the historical data to the appropriate form in accordance with the Import section of the online help guide. therefore I'm quite mystified by the persistent error message - Illegal timestamp in line 1. could somebody please tell me what's wrong the following historcal data?

20051003 050000 ; 199.86 ; 199.86 ; 199.82 ; 199.86 ; 9
20051003 050500 ; 199.93 ; 199.93 ; 199.93 ; 199.93 ; 1
20051003 051000 ; 199.94 ; 199.95 ; 199.93 ; 199.94 ; 5
20051003 051500 ; 199.95 ; 199.95 ; 199.8 ; 199.82 ; 18
20051003 052000 ; 199.82 ; 199.92 ; 199.82 ; 199.86 ; 17
20051003 052500 ; 199.82 ; 199.88 ; 199.82 ; 199.86 ; 9
20051003 053000 ; 199.84 ; 199.95 ; 199.84 ; 199.91 ; 16
20051003 053500 ; 199.92 ; 199.92 ; 199.78 ; 199.82 ; 19
20051003 054000 ; 199.79 ; 199.89 ; 199.79 ; 199.83 ; 17
20051003 054500 ; 199.82 ; 199.86 ; 199.8 ; 199.86 ; 9
20051003 055000 ; 199.89 ; 199.89 ; 199.85 ; 199.87 ; 7

best regards

[NinjaTrader_Josh]

The whitespaces may be a problem. Change

20051003 050000 ; 199.86 ; 199.86 ; 199.82 ; 199.86 ; 9

To this

20051003 050000;199.86;199.86;199.82;199.86;9

[NinjaTrader_Dierk]

You likely have some garbage data in the first line of your import file. Some header line?

[iplaygames]

thank you Josh! thank you Ninjatrader Dierk! after more than a dozen times of converting, fixing errors and re-converting, I was finally able to import the historical data. this is a lot more hassles than I had been prepared to deal with. a task that I thought should only take a couple of minutes turned out to be colossal. Ninjatrader is so unforgiving that it only accepts one form of past data, I had great 'fun' figuring out how to use excel and word to shape the data into acceptable form by Ninjatrader. and it stops at every single error, no matter how minuscule it is. all in all, this import feature is a huge disappointment for such a sophisticated software. I hope it won't always be like this.

thank you guys again for helping me.
best regards