Automated strategy · NinjaTrader 8 · 6 min read
Sunzone Power
Trades the sunrise zones one of three ways: the breakout, a failed break back to the EQ midpoint, or a break that comes back to retest the edge.
- NinjaTrader 8 name
- ToredaSunriseStrategy
- Built on
- Sunrise Zones
- Modes
- Breakout · EQ Reversion · Break & Retest
What it does
Sunzone Power trades the zones from the Sunrise Zones indicator — each city's range at local sunrise — in one of three modes. Zones older than Max Zone Age are ignored.
| Mode | The idea | Exit |
|---|---|---|
| Breakout | Trades the first decisive move out of a zone, in the direction of the break. | Stop and target from the Risk settings. |
| EQ Reversion | Fades a failed break: when price pokes out of a zone and comes back in, it trades back toward the zone's midpoint. | Target at the EQ midpoint. Stop from the Risk settings. |
| Break & Retest | Waits for a break, then for price to come back to the broken edge and hold it before entering. | Stop beyond the zone. Target from the Risk settings. |
Inputs
| Input | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | Breakout | Breakout / EqReversion / BreakRetest — see the table above. |
| Cities | NYC, LON, TYO, DXB, AKL | Comma-separated city abbreviations to trade. This sets the indicator's roster outright, so any of the 18 cities can be traded; blank = every city the indicator has enabled. |
| Max Zone Age (days) | 3 | Zones older than this (calendar days since the sunrise bar) are ignored. Range 1–20. |
| Max Bars To Retest | 30 | Break & Retest only: bars allowed between the break and the retest confirmation before the zone is retired. |
| Direction | Both | Long / Short / Both. In Break & Retest a zone's direction is fixed at the break, so an excluded direction retires it. |
Zones vs. the sunrise filter
The Sunrise filter in the shared inputs is independent of this strategy's zone engine. The filter asks "is price near any live zone?"; Sunzone Power asks "what is this zone's break/retest state?". Both can be on at once — the filter then narrows what the strategy is allowed to take.
Shared inputs
Brackets, session guards, confluence filters and one-position-at-a-time handling come from the base every Sun Engine strategy is built on. These are the inputs that matter most.
| Risk input | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts | 1 | Order quantity for every entry. |
| Stop Unit / Stop Ticks | Ticks / 40 | Protective stop distance. Switch Stop Unit to ATR to use Stop ATR Mult (1.5) × ATR(14) instead. |
| Target Unit / Target Ticks | Ticks / 80 | Profit target distance. ATR mode uses Target ATR Mult (3.0). |
| Use Breakeven | Off | Moves the stop to entry once the trade is Breakeven Trigger Ticks (40) in profit. |
| Use Trail | Off | Tick trail at Trail Ticks (40). Breakeven and trail only ever tighten the stop, never loosen it. |
| Session input | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Use Time Window | Off | When on, entries are allowed only between Window Start (09:30) and Window End (15:30). |
| Use Flatten Time | On | Flattens any open position and stops trading at 15:55. |
| Max Trades Per Day | 0 | 0 = unlimited. |
| (built in) | — | NT8's own exit-on-session-close is also enabled, 30 seconds before the close, as a backstop. |
All session times are in Session Tz, America/New_York by default. Filters are all off out of the box; when one is on, an entry is skipped unless every enabled filter passes.
| Filter | Rule |
|---|---|
| Quarter | Allow-list of AM/PM Q1–Q4 on the 06:00–18:00 session grid. Anything outside that grid is blocked even with all eight flags on, by design. |
| Sunrise | Price must be within Sunrise Zone Tolerance Ticks (0) of a live sunrise zone from Sunrise Cities (NYC, LON, TYO, DXB, AKL) no older than Sunrise Max Age Days (12). Any of the 18 cities can be listed, whatever the indicator's chart defaults are. |
| SMT | Requires a same-direction SMT divergence within SMT Lookback Bars (20) against SMT Symbol A, and optionally SMT Symbol B. |
SMT filter: set Symbol A to a real contract
The ES ##-## default is only a placeholder. Enter the actual contract you want to compare against, e.g. ES 12-26, or the filter has no reference series to work with.
How to run it
- Chart. Open your instrument on any bar period — the indicator detects sunrise on its own 1-minute series — but entries are evaluated on the chart's bars, so a 1–5 minute chart keeps breakouts and retests tight. Calculate is On Bar Close; leave it.
- Attach. Right-click the chart → Strategies… → add ToredaSunriseStrategy, set the inputs, and tick Enabled. Bars Required To Trade is 30, so nothing fires until 30 bars have loaded.
- Backtest. Control Center → Strategy Analyzer → pick the strategy, instrument and period. Optimizations run quickly; Mode, Max Zone Age, Max Bars To Retest, Stop Ticks and Target Ticks are the natural knobs.
- Visual check. The strategy draws nothing. Add the ToredaSunriseZones indicator to the same chart to see the zones, their EQ lines, day counters and the stats table.
Don't trade the defaults
The defaults are a starting point, not a tested configuration — in the backtests they lost money on most instrument and timeframe combinations. Start from the settings on the instrument pages below, and in simulation.
Behavior to expect
- One trade at a time. A signal that arrives while in a position, or while an entry is waiting to fill, is ignored rather than queued.
- Entries are market orders on bar close; the stop and target are attached the instant the entry fills.
- Order signal names are
SunBrk(Breakout),SunEq(EQ Reversion) andSunBRT(Break & Retest), with stop/target suffixes added by the base. - The first few sessions after enabling produce no trades: zones only exist once a sunrise has been detected on the 1-minute series, and the indicator needs that history loaded.
- The EQ target and opposite-edge stop apply to the trade they were set for and never carry into a later one.
- An entry that never fills is released after a timeout, with a message in the Output window. Flattening a position by hand also clears the strategy's state so it can trade again.
- Watch the NinjaScript Output window (Control Center → New → NinjaScript Output): every declined or timed-out entry and every filter problem is printed there.
Results by instrument
Sunzone Power was backtested on six micro futures, August 2024 to September 2026, and every recommended setting was confirmed in NinjaTrader's own Strategy Analyzer with commission. Pick an instrument for its results, the exact settings, and whether we'd use it there.
SIL
Micro Silver
- Net
- +$4,800
- PF
- 2.59
- Max DD
- $695
In the combined account
MGC
Micro Gold
- Net
- +$790
- PF
- 2.61
- Max DD
- $161
MNQ
Micro Nasdaq-100
- Net
- +$8,330
- PF
- 1.26
- Max DD
- $1,787
MYM
Micro Dow
- Net
- +$297
- PF
- 1.05
- Max DD
- $622
MCL
Micro Crude Oil
- Net
- +$72
- PF
- 1.01
- Max DD
- $665
MES
Micro E-mini S&P 500
- Net
- −$1,352
- PF
- 0.96
- Max DD
- $3,617
Backtest results are hypothetical. They were produced with the benefit of hindsight on historical data, do not represent actual trading, and cannot fully account for slippage, liquidity or the emotional pressure of live trading. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. See our risk disclosure for details.