Chart Layouts

There are two main suggested AlgoBox™ chart layouts for a single instrument: 1) The Five Chart Layout 2) The Three Chart Layout

Five Chart Layout

The Five Chart Layout is the standard default AlgoBox™ workspace designed for a standard 27" monitor at 1920x1080p resolution.

In accordance with the AlgoBox™ Order of Operations process, the charts are read from left to right in a filtering process, similar to the popular "top down analysis" concept.

Order Of Operations

In the AlgoBox™ system, we follow a structured Order of Operations — a top-down approach to reading the markets for precision:

1. We begin with the Tide, our largest chart of range bars, to understand overall direction.

2. Then we move to the Wave for trend confirmation;

3. followed by MACV to assess momentum and bias in real time.

4. From there, we drop down to Ripple B for refined pattern setups, and

5. finally to Ripple A, our fastest and smallest chart, where we can execute trades with the most precision.

This flow ensures every trade is aligned with the bigger picture and backed by higher-probability signals.

Full Screen Setup:

Vinny E. Mini typically trades and monitors four instruments simultaneously, (YM, ES, RTY & NQ) using the Five Chart Layout for each instrument, totaling twenty charts on one 55" 4K resolution TV as the main monitor display. A 55" 4K resolution TV is the exact same number of pixels of four 27" monitors at 1920x1080p resolution.

3 Chart Layout

Also known as "The Flag" layout, the 3 Chart Layout is a simplified screen-efficient version of the 5 Chart Layout for times when monitor real estate is less than ideal. The concept remains the same: start filtering trade direction bias using the MACV chart and then look for more accurate setups on the Ripple charts that coincide with the MACV chart direction.

When using the AlgoBox™ Three Chart Layout with limited screen space, utilizing NinjaTrader chart tabs may enhance your trading experience:

Chart Explanations

Tide Chart

The Tide chart is the highest time frame chart in AlgoBox™. It's an 89-tick range bar chart, meaning each bar forms after a price movement of 89 ticks.

Wave Chart

The Wave chart is the second largest sized chart, using range bars. The range bar size setting for each instrument changes every week, using robotic optimizations of historical data intended to adapt with changing market patterns in accordance to the B.O.W.M. concept, taught by Vinny E. Mini:

B acktest O ptimize W alk Forward M onte Carlo

Each week, the new optimized ranges are posted in our Discord on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings. Historical optimized ranges are available to Premium Members to assist in practicing in Market Replay (NinjaTrader 8 Playback mode).

Simply click on the Wave chart you want to update, type the new number with the letter"R" and press Enter.

Example: Changing Optimized Ranges on the Wave Chart

NQ Wave chart would require you to type "34r" and press Enter.

MACV Chart

The AlgoBox™ MACV chart is used for filtering trade direction. Trades can be taken on this chart at your own risk, but is not recommended since stop loss size/distance will be much larger, thereby increasing risk, and targets will also be farther away, making them less likely to be reached and/or take longer to play out.

Ripple B Chart

The AlgoBox™ Ripple B chart is one of the final charts you look at to find strategy setups. This is the higher "time frame" of the Ripple charts, usually being a 3-8 AlgoBar. Trades may be executed on this chart, particularly if the Ripple A chart is moving at a speed faster than you can manage. This is part of the AlgoBox™ "gear shifting" method.

These are the default AlgoBar settings for their respective Ripple B charts:

• YM: AlgoBars 6

• ES: AlgoBars 4

• RTY: AlgoBars 4

• NQ: AlgoBars 5

Ripple A Chart

The AlgoBox™ Ripple A chart is the final and smallest "time frame" / sized chart to find strategy setups to enter a trade, as price will be perceived to move the fastest on this chart. This is the lowest (fastest) time frame Ripple chart, usually being a 1-3 AlgoBar, depending on the instrument and market speed. The idea is to use the smallest risk possible at the most accurate location while trading in the direction of the higher time frames to gain larger targets/rewards.

These are the default AlgoBar settings for their respective Ripple A charts:

• YM: AlgoBars 2

• ES: AlgoBars 2

• RTY: AlgoBars 2

• NQ: AlgoBars 2

MaxTo Window Management

Vinny E. Mini prefers using MaxTo for efficient NinjaTrader chart window management. MaxTo lets you customize chart window dimensions, positions, and sizes, making it easy to snap chart windows into predefined regions when organizing your NinjaTrader workspace.

Chart Properties

The Chart Properties in NinjaTrader allow you to customize key aspects of your chart, including axis scaling, grid lines, background color, price markers, trading hours, and execution plotting for a personalized trading experience.

Chart Properties Settings

Chart Properties settings is accessible by right-clicking on the chart and selecting "Chart Properties" from the pop-up menu.

1. General

Allow The Selection Or Drag/Drop Of Chart Series: Enables or disables the selection of Data Series and indicators for drag and drop.

Equidistant Bar Spacing: Enables or disables plotting bars an equal distance from each other.

Font: Customize the font display properties for the chart.

Right Side Margin: Sets the pixel spacing between the Y-axis panel and the current bar.

Chart Trader: Sets the chart trader display mode.

Show Date Range: Enables or disables showing the date range label to the top left of chart. The date range reported are the dates that are currently visible on the chart.

Show Scrollbar: Enables or disables showing the horizontal chart scroll bar.

Tab Name: Sets the name displayed in the tab. By default the instrument name is displayed.

Chart Background Image: Enables or disables the option to use an image as the chart background.

2. Colors

Chart Background: Change the chart background color.

Crosshair Label: Change the color for the crosshair label.

Inactive Price Markers: Price markers display the current price of bars and indicators on the Y-axis. When looking at the current bar, the price markers will take the color of the data series. When scrolling back through historical bar data, the markers are inactive (not real-time) and will be displayed by the color set in this field.

Text: Customize the font display properties for the chart.

3. Lines

Axis: Customize the properties for the vertical and horizontal chart axis.

Crosshair: Customize the drawing properties of the crosshair.

Grid Line Horizontal: Customize the drawing properties of the horizontal grid lines.

Grid Line Vertical: Customize the drawing properties of the vertical grid lines.

Panel Splitter: Customize the splitter drawn between chart panels.

4. Window

Always on top: Toggle this setting ON to always keep the window visible on top, even when other windows are active.

Show Tabs: Display or hide chart tabs at the bottom of the chart window.

Data Series Settings

Data Series settings is accessible by right-clicking on the chart and selecting "Data Series" from the pop-up menu.

1. Data Series

Price Based On: Select from Last, Ask, or Bid prices.

Type: Defines the candle style to be displayed on the chart. By default, it is set to AlgoBars.

AlgoBar Size: Defines the size of AlgoBars, starting from 1 as the smallest and customizable to your preferred size/number.

2. Time Frame

Load Data Based On: Select from bars, days or a custom range to determine how you want the data to be loaded.

Days to Load: Specify the number of days in the past for which you would like the data to be loaded.

End Date: Defines the final day in the historical data range that will be loaded.

Trading Hours: Specifies the trading hours to be applied to the data series.

Break At EOD: Enable or disable bar breaks at the end of the day. Enabling ensures that each bar starts at a known point at the start of the day.

3. Chart Style

Chart Style: This refers to the chart style utilized for plotting the data series.

Name: Customize the name of your chart style.

Bar Width: Adjusts the width size of the bars plotted.

Candle Body Outline: Customize the outline of the AlgoBars.

Candle Wicks: Customize the color, style, and width of the candle wicks.

Color For Down Bars: Customize the colors for the down bars.

Color For Up Bars: Customize the colors for the up bars.

4. Visual

Auto Scale: The Auto Scale function continuously monitors the price action and adjusts the vertical scale of the chart in real-time.

Center Price On Scale: Toggle this option On or Off to center the price on the price axis.

Display In Data Box: Toggle On or Off for the Data Series to be displayed in the Data Box or Mini Data Box.

Label: The Data Series label displayed in the upper left corner of a chart panel.

Panel: This is the panel number where the Data Series will be plotted.

Price Marker: Customize the visual tag that highlights the current price on the Y-axis.

Scale Justification: Sets the scale that the Data Series will be plotted on, right, left or overlay.

Show Global Draw Objects: Toggle On to enable globally drawn objects to be shown on this chart.

Trading Hours Break Line: Customize the look of the Trading Hours Break Line that marks session boundaries on the chart.

5. Trades

Color For Executions Buy: Customize the color for the buy executions displayed on the chart.

Color For Executions Sell: Customize the color for the sell executions displayed on the chart.

NinjaScript Strategy Profitable Trade Line: Customize the appearance of profitable trade marker lines.

NinjaScript Strategy Unprofitable Trade Line: Customize the appearance of unprofitable trade marker lines.

Plot Execution: You can select from three options: Do Not Plot, Markers Only, or Text Markers to show how past trade executions are marked on the chart.

Chart Panel

The chart panel properties in NinjaTrader allow you to customize various aspects of the chart, including panel size, background color, axis display, and grid lines.

Chart Panel Settings

Chart Panel Properties settings is accessible by right-clicking on the chart panel and selecting "Properties" from the pop-up menu.

1. Right Scale

Range: You can set the range to "Automatic" or "Fixed." A fixed range allows the manual setting of the upper and lower boundary of the chart. The range can also be manually defined via mouse cursor on the chart by clicking and dragging the Y-axis.

Based On: You can set the value indicating how the "Automatic" scale range is calculated. When set to “Entire Date Range Series Only” Data Series and Indicator values for the entire date range of the chart (draw objects are ignored) are used to calculate the vertical scale range. When set to “Screen Date Range” all visible objects on screen are used.

Horizontal Grid Lines: Sets the Horizontal grid lines displayed on the chart's price scale to "Automatic" or "Fixed."

Margin Type: Sets the calculation mode for determining the upper and lower panel margins by "Price" or "Percent."

Margin Lower: Customize the lower margin value.

Margin Upper: Customize the upper margin value.

Type: This sets the scaling type to "Linear" or "Logarithmic."

2. Overlay Scale

Range: You can set the range to "Automatic" or "Fixed." A fixed range allows the manual setting of the upper and lower boundary of the chart. The range can also be manually defined via the mouse.

Based On: You can set the value indicating how the "Automatic" scale range is calculated. When set to “Entire Date Range Series Only”, Data Series and Indicator values for the entire date range of the chart (draw objects are ignored) are used to calculate the vertical scale range. When set to “Screen Date Range” all visible objects on the screen are used.

Margin Type: Sets the calculation mode for determining the upper and lower panel margins by "Price" or "Percent."

Margin Lower: Allows customization of the lower margin value.

Margin Upper: Allows customization of the upper margin value.

Type: This sets the scaling type to "Linear" or "Logarithmic."

Chart Trader

The Chart Trader properties in NinjaTrader provide customization options for trading directly from charts, including enabling/disabling order display, adjusting button visibility, modifying order placement preferences, and configuring trade-related visuals.

Chart Trader Settings

Chart Trader Properties settings is accessible by right-clicking on the chart trader and selecting "Properties" from the pop-up menu.

1. General

ATM Strategy Selection Mode: Sets the behavior of the ATM Strategy drop-down menu.

Auto Scale: Enables or disables the inclusion of orders and positions in the chart's auto scaling.

Order Display Bar Length (% of chart): Sets the horizontal length of an order bar displayed on the chart as a percentage.

P&L Display Unit: Set the display unit for profit/loss in currency, percent, ticks, pips, or points.

Predefined Stop Limit Offset: Enables or disables the predefined stop limit offset (the limit price away from the stop price for entry/exit stop-limit orders).

Quantity Modification For Stocks: Set whether new orders submitted to price levels where an order already exists will increase the original orders size or be submitted as a separate order (only applies to stocks).

Scale Quantity: Sets the scale order quantity amount.

Show Realized P&L When Flat: Displays realized profit and loss for the selected account in the P&L field when flat.

Simulated Order Volume Trigger: Sets the value for a simulated order volume trigger (for entry and exit orders, not Stop Loss orders).

2. Colors

Customize the colors for the Action button, Buy button and Sell button.

3. Lines

Sets the color, dash style, and width of lines used to represent specific order types like Limit orders , MIT orders, Position entry price, Profit target, Stop limit orders, Stop loss and Stop market orders.

Video Tutorial: Chart Layout

You may create your own layout/workspace or use other customized chart layouts, which can be found in our Discord server (free access). Feel free to share your own custom created workspaces with other members.

Video Tutorial: MaxTo Setup

Video Tutorial: Wave Chart Range Bar Optimizations

Video Tutorial: Sundays Begin The Week

To ensure that your charts display correctly and that all AlgoBox™ tools and indicators function as intended, it's essential to configure NinjaTrader to load a sufficient number of days of historical data. This setting can be found in the chart's Data Series configuration panel.

This is especially critical on Mondays, as the weekend introduces a gap in market activity. To compensate, you’ll need to load at least one extra day of historical data to fill that gap—and an additional day if there was a holiday or long weekend. Without this, the Ripple charts and other tools that depend on continuous flow from the prior sessions may not calculate correctly.

Indicators often rely on a specific volume of past data to optimize their internal calculations and visual signals. Without enough back filled data, signal processing and algorithmic conditions may not trigger, leading to confusion or false impressions of missing functionality. This is especially critical when using tools that depend on cumulative patterns or multi-session behavior.

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