GOOD STARTING ADVICE. Taken From Post #72 of traderpards:
1. Think small. Begin with a few basic requirements. This is most important. You can easily add to it later, especially if the person writing it does a decent job. You may not even ask the programmer to enter a trade. Maybe you just want him/her to draw an arrow where a trade might occur. Probably the worst thing you can do is slam someone with a bunch of things because you risk sounding incoherent.
2. Ask for market orders, not limit orders. Theyre simpler.
3. Dont use acronyms or abbreviations. If youre abbreviating an indicator because perhaps thats how its referred to on a thread that may be popular, that doesnt mean everyone knows your indicator is referred to that way. Also, if you want your strategy to be based on an indicator, be sure to include that indicator in your request and make sure that indicator has the code exposed and is not some proprietary DLL that doesnt expose needed methods. (Dont worry about including indicators that come stock with Ninjatrader.)
4. Try to mock up a chart that clearly tells where you want your entries and exits. If all you need is a profit target and a stop loss then marking the exits may not be that important but you should still try to mock up the entries and list the exact conditions for entry.
5. Trailing stops. Aside from the debate on the real effectiveness of trailing stops, know that a trailing stop is a real stop loss that the framework moves to actually follow the position. The amount a trailing stop moves is based solely on how far the position has moved. A trailing stop is not an indicator, such as an EMA crossover that creates the condition for an exit. Ninjatrader provides a method for coding a trailing stop that works and that Ive used before. You can read about that here: SetTrailStop()
6. Exit strategies. By all means, if you think you have a decent exit strategy, such as an EMA crossover that you want coded, then it is fine to ask for that. Just remember to be as detailed about the exit as you are about the entry, including the mock-up. Theres one thing though. Im struggling with exit strategies right now, particularly when my entry includes the possibility of the framework exiting a position and entering in the opposite direction. Whats happening sometimes is when Im going in the opposite direction at the same time my exit strategy triggers, I end up with too many trades going in the opposite direction. The framework reverses me like its supposed to, but then my exit strategy tries to get me out of the trade that Im already out of but really adds to the position in the opposite direction, and exceeding EntriesPerDirection, which seems like a bug to me. Im told by the good people at NinjaTrader that I cant have entries and exits on the same bar so Im trying to deal with it that way. So you might have to have a little patience while I figure that out but I think what Im currently trying will work, if Ninjas recommendation is correct, and it sounds to me like it is. However, stop losses and profit targets work like they are supposed to.
7. Lastly, examine your idea closely to see how well it might survive consolidating market conditions. Most strategies get beaten up mercilessly in a choppy period. Is it really fair to ask someone to spend a lot of time coding your strategy if its only going to get chopped up to the point of being useless?