NewsGuard

Two NinjaTrader 8 strategies that get you out of the way before an economic release. NewsGuard is an exit manager for a position you already hold, whether you opened it by hand or another strategy did. NewsFlattenGuard closes the chart instrument in one step a set number of minutes before a qualifying release. NewsWindDownGuard brings the same position down in timed tranches instead, flattening at the final step. Both then confirm the position actually closed rather than assuming the order went through.

Two guards, one job

Flatten is the simpler of the pair. Pick a deadline in minutes — five by default — and the whole position is closed that far ahead of the release, then verified flat.

Wind Down works a ladder of minutes:percent rungs instead. The default 20:33,10:50,5:100 closes a third of the position twenty minutes out, half of what is left at ten minutes, and the remainder at five. Exposure comes down in stages, so part of the trade keeps working for longer while a flat book before the release is still guaranteed.

On a ten-contract position that default ladder closes three, then four, then the last three. A single contract is never partially reduced — it rides to the final rung and exits there, rather than being closed at the first rung as a rounding artefact.

Which releases count

• Impact — High impact by default, with Medium opt-in. Most traders only want the guard interrupting them for the big ones.
• Currency — a comma-separated allow-list such as USD,EUR. An empty list matches nothing, which disables the guard rather than opening it up.
• Red folder — an optional keyword filter on the event title, defaulting to FOMC,NFP,CPI,PCE,GDP, for prop-firm rules written around named releases.

Fail loud, never fail-flat

The governing rule is that no data problem may cause an order, and no failure may leave a position unguarded while the chart claims the guard is armed. A degraded calendar feed, a missing News Markers PRO, or a ladder that will not parse each disarm the guard and say so in red. None of them ever triggers a protective flatten, because closing a live position on a data glitch or a typo is the worse of the two failures.

An on-chart status line reports what the guard is doing at all times: the next qualifying event and its countdown while armed, what was cut and when, or UNPROTECTED in red when it has stood down.

What it does not do

It never opens a position and never re-enters after the release. It touches no instrument other than the chart’s, and no account other than the one it is enabled on. Simulate Only logs every action it would take without submitting anything, which is the recommended way to run a first session.

Realtime only — this cannot be backtested

The economic calendar arrives as a live stream with no historical replay, so during a Strategy Analyzer run the guard is inert and a clean backtest says nothing whatever about its behaviour around news. A simulation account is the only meaningful test.

What this sample includes

Full NinjaScript source for both strategies — four .cs files, extracted into your Strategies folder and compiled in the NinjaScript Editor rather than imported. The decision logic sits in a deliberately platform-free core, so the part that decides how much of a position to close can be read on its own.

Requires a licensed News Markers PRO loaded on a chart in the same session: the economic calendar is read through PRO’s strategy API. Without one the guard disarms and says so.