Trade Signals

Trade Signals make BlackBird a fully automated trading system: it enters, and optionally exits, trades from the signals of BloodHound or another indicator. What BlackBird then does with each trade is set in its order sets.

Entry and exit signals

Signal	What it does
Entry	Opens a position. An entry signal in the opposite direction also reverses one: a short entry while long closes the long, then places the short entry orders (see Opposite Signals Force Reversal Trade).
Exit	Closes the whole position and cancels its working orders. It never opens or reverses a trade, and does nothing when flat.

One position at a time

While a position is open, further entry signals in the same direction are ignored, so contracts don’t pile up by accident. For example, if a second long signal arrives four bars after the first while the long is still open, it is ignored. (To add contracts on purpose, use Scale In.)

A pending entry order counts as an open position, because it can fill at any moment. BlackBird is only flat, and ready for the next signal, once pending entries are filled or canceled; use the entry order’s Cancel option to cancel them after a while. The Info panel shows the position’s state, and the Order Monitor panel each order’s.

Exit signals

An exit signal can protect profit: if the market hasn’t reached the last profit target but your indicators suggest the move is ending, an exit closes the trade early instead of waiting for the stop-loss. They aren’t needed for reversing a trade; an opposite entry signal does that.

• BloodHound: exit signals come from the opposite direction. A short signal exits a long position, and a long signal exits a short.
• Other indicators: set the values that mean “exit long” and “exit short”; ask the indicator’s developer what they are.

This video demonstrates exit signals; for more, see the workshop videos.

Signal sources

Click Signal to add a source: a BloodHound signal or an indicator. You can add several, and they act as one: any source’s entry signal opens a trade, and any source’s exit signal can close it (a logical OR).

• The check box on the left turns the source on or off.
• The button on the right removes it. This can’t be undone.

BloodHound signal

Uses a BloodHound system’s signals for entries, and optionally exits. Always change the BloodHound file here, not with the blue BloodHound button at the top of the chart. Every Logic Template in the file is calculated, so keep them few: see Memory and CPU.

Setting	What it does
Name	A name for the signal, to tell several apart.
Template File	The BloodHound file. Click the field, then its [···] button, to choose it.
Entry Signal Template	When checked, the Logic Template whose signals open trades. See below.
Exit Signal Template	When checked, the Logic Template whose signals close trades: its Short output closes a long, and its Long output closes a short.
Show On Chart	Shows BloodHound on the chart. Choose which Logic Template it shows with the blue drop-down at the top of the chart; it doesn’t have to be the entry template.
Show Racing Stripes	As in BloodHound: see Show Racing Stripes.
Long Threshold / Short Threshold	As in BloodHound: when the Long output and the Short output count as signals. See signal thresholds.
Minimum Confidence Ratio	As BloodHound’s Compare L/S Confidence: a signal also needs its side’s confidence to be this many times the other side’s. At 1.5, a Long signal needs the Long output to be at least 1.5 times the Short output, and the other way around.

Entry Signal Template: Use chart Pull down

With <Use chart Pull down>, BlackBird trades whichever Logic Template is chosen in the blue drop-down at the top of the chart, so you can switch on the fly. This only works on real-time data and the Playback Connection.

For backtesting, choose a Logic Template: the drop-down isn’t available while the chart reloads and NinjaTrader calculates the results.

Indicator signal

Uses another indicator’s output for entries, and optionally exits.

Setting	What it does
Name	A name for the signal, to tell several apart.
Indicator	Click Configure to choose the indicator, set its parameters (usually to match the one on your chart), and choose the output that carries its signals.
Enable Entry Signal	Uses the indicator for entries.
Long Entry Signal / Short Entry Signal	The test that identifies a long or short signal: a comparison (top) and a value (below), which can be a decimal such as 0.9.
Enable Exit Signal	Uses the indicator to close positions.
Long Exit Signal / Short Exit Signal	The test that identifies an exit from a long or a short.

What values to use

Many indicators output +1 for a long signal, -1 for a short and 0 for none. Some use more values for different kinds of signal, such as +1, +2 and +3. Ask the indicator’s developer what its outputs mean, including its exit values.

The signal can be in a plot (often one you don’t see on the chart) or another public data series: a value of 1, 0 or -1, or sometimes a price.

The developer must expose the indicator’s values as NinjaTrader recommends for third-party indicators. If BlackBird gets no signals, check the Log tab of the Control Center for errors.

Workshop videos

A deep dive on BloodHound signals in BlackBird (2017).

An overview of trade signals from indicators and BloodHound (2016).