IMPORTANT:
Renko settings will likely change quite a bit as volatility changes. These settings are as of early 2021, and WILL CHANGE. Make sure you use the latest values as shown in the trading rooms.
NinjaTrader UniRenko Settings Overview
In general, Gary uses 2, 5, 10 as the default settings in UniRenko, representing 2 ticks with trend, 5 ticks offset, and 10 ticks for the reversal value. This shows as T2 R10 O5 as the setting displayed on his charts. These settings are typically used unless otherwise specified.
As of the writing of this note, Gary has been using “Big Bars” for both GC and ES futures, which effectively double those numbers to get T4 R20 O10.
TradeStation Custom Renko Settings Overview
For TradeStation, we generally use the Custom Renko bar type to utilize chart settings that are similar to Gary’s UniRenko settings. TradeStation does not use ticks in specifying the custom renko settings. To translate the settings from UniRenko ticks, identify the minimum move for the selected market and consider that as one tick. One tick in CL Futures would be 0.01, and 2 ticks would be 0.02. (For more information on this, search the BCT Knowledge Base for another article entitled, “How do I convert “ticks” in NinjaTrader Renko Charts to TradeStation’s Brick Size and Offset?”)
Note also that TradeStation does not offer a “Reversal” tick option in its Custom Renko setting. As long as the reversal value is 2 times the bar size, it should work out similarly without specifying it explicitly. This is because TradeStation uses 2 times the Brick Size for the reversal amount.
Though TradeStation can be set to the equivalent of 2 ticks and 5 ticks for each of the markets, feel free to adjust it up/down by a few ticks if you’re trying to make it look more similar to what’s shown in NinjaTrader’s UniRenko charts. But remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful, and being close enough is often sufficient.
For equities, use the Renko Accelerator course’s last section to help identify settings not listed here. The course goes into detail about how to determine the best renko settings using a visual trial-and-error method.
As always, PAPER TRADE any strategy before trading it with real money.
Possible TradeStation Custom Renko Settings
| Market | Brick Size | Brick Offset | Notes |
| CL | 0.05 | 0.02 | |
| EC | 0.0003 | 0.0001 | |
| ES | 1.25 | 0.5 | Double these to get big bars |
| GC | 1 | 0.4 | Big Bars |
| NQ | 2 | 0.5 | |
| YM | 9 | 3 |
Possible NinjaTrader UniRenko Settings
| Market | Trend | Offset | Reversal | Notes |
| General | 2 | 5 | 10 | Used for most markets |
| GC | 4 | 10 | 20 | When using “Big Bars” |
| ES | 4 | 10 | 20 | When using “Big Bars” |
| NQ | 3 | 7 | 14 | |
| RB | 3 | 7 | 14 | |
| RTY | 3 | 7 | 14 |
IMPORTANT: Again, the above numbers WILL CHANGE, so make sure you are using the latest updates per what’s being used in the Trading Rooms.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!