The Loop

Install & updating

Read this
once.

The Loop ships as one protected NinjaTrader package, so installing it is one import and updating it is one removal and one import. The only way to make it complicated is to skip the removal, so that step, and the mess it causes, are both spelled out below.

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First install

Four steps, once.

The package is one zip, named by version, like TheLoop_v0.9.9.8.zip. Get the current one from the Discord. It's compiled and protected: there's nothing to build yourself.

  1. Import the package

    In NinjaTrader: Tools → Import → NinjaScript Add-On, and pick the zip. Let it finish.

  2. Restart NinjaTrader

    Fully closed and reopened, not just the chart. The package isn't properly loaded until you have.

  3. Add the tools to a chart

    Right-click the chart → Indicators → add Trade Commander, and Caddie if you're using it. The panels build themselves.

  4. Paste your license key

    Caddie → Properties → Your Loop license key. Once is enough: every Caddie on the PC shares it. It switches on the coach and The Flow's WHOOP connection; everything else works without it. Never paste your key into a chat, an email or a screenshot.

First run

The part everyone misses

Two things trip up almost every new install. Read these before you go looking for a settings button that isn't there.

Settings

Right-click the chart, not the panel

The panel is a floating window with no menu of its own. To change anything, right-click the chart → Indicators → the tool → its settings on the right.

Account

Your account is Chart Trader's account

Trade Commander trades whatever account Chart Trader is set to, so a trade can never land on the wrong one. Set it to a Sim account before you touch a button.

Saving

Settings save with the workspace

NinjaTrader saves your workspace on close by default. Your live numbers, today's P&L and lockouts, reload fresh each session.

Scorecard

Nothing extra to install

Caddie installs the Scorecard the first time it loads. Open it from Caddie's panel or Trade Commander's Scorecard chip.

Updating

Remove the old one first. Always.

A protected package can't be overwritten in place. Importing a new version on top of an old one doesn't work; the old one has to come out first.

  1. Take the tools off your charts

    Every chart, every workspace.

  2. Remove the old package

    Tools → Remove NinjaScript Assembly, and remove the old TheLoop. Early testers: remove any PST_Payout_System assembly too.

  3. Restart NinjaTrader

    Fully. This is the step people skip, and skipping it produces the error below.

  4. Import the new zip, then restart once more

    Same import as a first install. Restart after it, and you're on the new build.

Tester builds expire

Each beta package carries a date. Past it, Trade Commander stops taking new entries and says so in a banner across the top of the panel. Managing and exiting an open position is unaffected, and Caddie is unaffected. If the banner appears, grab the current package from the Discord: nothing is broken.

When it goes wrong

“Duplicate method names”

The one failure everybody hits, and it has one cause: an old source file still sitting in your Custom folder, already compiled into NinjaTrader's own assembly. The import sees the same thing defined twice and stops.

  1. Delete every old source file

    In Documents\NinjaTrader 8\bin\Custom\Indicators\, delete every old PST, Trade Commander or Caddie .cs file, and check every subfolder. One buried file is enough to fail the whole import.

  2. Remove the assembly

    Tools → Remove NinjaScript Assembly, and remove it.

  3. Compile, and confirm it's clean

    Open the NinjaScript Editor and press F5. It must compile with no errors before you move on.

  4. Restart, import, restart

    Restart NinjaTrader, import the package, restart again.

Still stuck? Nine times out of ten it's a file in a subfolder nobody thought to look in. If it isn't, email support@pstlab.net with the error text and your NinjaTrader version (what to send).

When it goes wrong

Update fails: old DLL locked or in use

A compiled package NinjaTrader still has open can't be overwritten. The error names the folder it's stuck in.

  1. Find the folder

    Open the NinjaScript Editor, press F5, and note the folder path in the error.

  2. Put the old DLL back

    Open the previous package zip and copy TheLoop.dll from inside it into that folder.

  3. Compile clean

    Press F5 again. It should compile with no errors. Then restart NinjaTrader.

  4. Now update the normal way

    Tools off every chart, Tools → Remove NinjaScript Assembly, restart, import the new zip, restart.

The manual

One Owner's Manual for all of it

Start here, Trade Commander, Caddie, the Scorecard, Fan-Out, The Flow and a reference section, in one book. It's pinned in the Discord.

Videos

One question, one short video

Placing a trade, sizing, the plan, Caddie's rules, the Scorecard. Each is one to three minutes, on the videos page. Installing has no video: this page is it.

Help

People who've hit it before

The install channel has the current package, the changelog, and several people who have hit every version of this already.

Get the current package.

The build, the changelog and install help all live in one place in the Discord.

Join the Discord soon