Hi all,
Since this is my first post let me take a moment and congratulate you folks on such a fine board. While the mods here are to be applauded on the "cleanliness" of the place, ultimately, the true wealth of a board comes from it's members and the amount of knowledge assembled here is amazing. Kudos.
Now, irregardless of my various script writing adventures, I don't classify as a programmer. And to be perfectly honest, with as many irons as I already have in the fire, I'd rather spend what spare time I have learning to be a better trader than to learn how to write MQL4. I'm happy to leave that to you computer gurus that dream in binary. LOL...
So, I'll throw out here what I would love to see in an indicator and maybe someone here can tell me how big a deal it would be to write one that would do this.
And to go ahead and answer the inevitable question of why, it's to test some theories I have about measuring the strength of divergence. Ronald Raygun alluded something close to it on one of the MA threads, but where he was thinking "number of crosses vs. time", I'm looking at it more from a "how much divergence since the cross". I want to put a calculatable number on it. I've been doing this manually, but if an indicator could be written this way it would make it much easier to test the theories and/or play with the different numbers and time frames to see how well it works. If it works as well as I think it will, an EA based on it should be pretty good at scalping a given set of pips in some of the smaller time frames.
Course, there may be one already out here that does that, but if so, I haven't seen it. Now, I'm thinking that what I'm wanting might could be added to some of the MA indicators already out there, but I don't know which is why I'm asking for input. Basically, it would be a MA indicator that will show 3 different MA's. For testing purposes, it would just about have to come with user option as to MA speed. This might can be done with two, but currently I'm using three so...
Ok, here's what I'm looking at. Using the chart shift so there is pleny of free space in the upper right hand quadrant of the chart that is the grid to see.
Row1: Label 1 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row2: Label 2 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row3: Label 3 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row4: Labe 4 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Now here's what goes there.
Row 1:
Label 1 = (Slowest) MA
Data5 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of current period
Row 2:
Label 1 = (Middle speed) MA
Data5 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of current period
Row 3:
Data5 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of current period
Now, here is where I'd love to hear some input. I've been thinking percentages, instead of pips, but has anyone got any other ideas? What I want is a quantifiable number that is calculated with the current data.
Row 4:
Data5 = Percentage of Row3/Data 5 value compared to Row1/Data5 value.
Data4 = Percentage of Row3/Data 4 value compared to Row1/Data4 value.
Data3 = Percentage of Row3/Data 3 value compared to Row1/Data3 value.
Data2 = Percentage of Row3/Data 2 value compared to Row1/Data2 value.
Data1 = Percentage of Row3/Data 1 value compared to Row1/Data1 value.
So, at the close of the candle, all the current numbers would post in the column farthest to the right, all the other numbers would shift one column left. The whole point is that you could watch the divergence (in hard numbers), and see just how far it's diverging within the given time frame. Obviously, the biggest advantage to having this worked out in usable numbers (ma speeds, tf's, etc) would be for scalping in the smaller time frames. But, if the numbers could be worked out by using an indicator like this, then it would seem like an EA could be written to use with it that not only would place a trade based on the divergence numbers falling within your parameters, but would also close out that trade by the same method ( row4data1 < x%, or some such).
Anyway, right now the indicator is all I need to test this for a while and see if it works. And if this is really too major an undertaking, then this could be done with 2 MA's.
Tell me it's a great concept or tell me I'm crazy, either way, all questions, opinions, raves or rants appreciated!
Since this is my first post let me take a moment and congratulate you folks on such a fine board. While the mods here are to be applauded on the "cleanliness" of the place, ultimately, the true wealth of a board comes from it's members and the amount of knowledge assembled here is amazing. Kudos.
Now, irregardless of my various script writing adventures, I don't classify as a programmer. And to be perfectly honest, with as many irons as I already have in the fire, I'd rather spend what spare time I have learning to be a better trader than to learn how to write MQL4. I'm happy to leave that to you computer gurus that dream in binary. LOL...
So, I'll throw out here what I would love to see in an indicator and maybe someone here can tell me how big a deal it would be to write one that would do this.
And to go ahead and answer the inevitable question of why, it's to test some theories I have about measuring the strength of divergence. Ronald Raygun alluded something close to it on one of the MA threads, but where he was thinking "number of crosses vs. time", I'm looking at it more from a "how much divergence since the cross". I want to put a calculatable number on it. I've been doing this manually, but if an indicator could be written this way it would make it much easier to test the theories and/or play with the different numbers and time frames to see how well it works. If it works as well as I think it will, an EA based on it should be pretty good at scalping a given set of pips in some of the smaller time frames.
Course, there may be one already out here that does that, but if so, I haven't seen it. Now, I'm thinking that what I'm wanting might could be added to some of the MA indicators already out there, but I don't know which is why I'm asking for input. Basically, it would be a MA indicator that will show 3 different MA's. For testing purposes, it would just about have to come with user option as to MA speed. This might can be done with two, but currently I'm using three so...
Ok, here's what I'm looking at. Using the chart shift so there is pleny of free space in the upper right hand quadrant of the chart that is the grid to see.
Row1: Label 1 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row2: Label 2 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row3: Label 3 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Row4: Labe 4 | Data5 | Data4 | Data3 | Data 2 | Data1
Now here's what goes there.
Row 1:
Label 1 = (Slowest) MA
Data5 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Slowest) MA price as of close of current period
Row 2:
Label 1 = (Middle speed) MA
Data5 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Middle speed) MA price as of close of current period
Row 3:
Data5 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 4th period previous to current
Data4 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 3rd period previous to current
Data3 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, 2nd period previous to current
Data2 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of period, period previous to current
Data1 = (Fastest) MA price as of close of current period
Now, here is where I'd love to hear some input. I've been thinking percentages, instead of pips, but has anyone got any other ideas? What I want is a quantifiable number that is calculated with the current data.
Row 4:
Data5 = Percentage of Row3/Data 5 value compared to Row1/Data5 value.
Data4 = Percentage of Row3/Data 4 value compared to Row1/Data4 value.
Data3 = Percentage of Row3/Data 3 value compared to Row1/Data3 value.
Data2 = Percentage of Row3/Data 2 value compared to Row1/Data2 value.
Data1 = Percentage of Row3/Data 1 value compared to Row1/Data1 value.
So, at the close of the candle, all the current numbers would post in the column farthest to the right, all the other numbers would shift one column left. The whole point is that you could watch the divergence (in hard numbers), and see just how far it's diverging within the given time frame. Obviously, the biggest advantage to having this worked out in usable numbers (ma speeds, tf's, etc) would be for scalping in the smaller time frames. But, if the numbers could be worked out by using an indicator like this, then it would seem like an EA could be written to use with it that not only would place a trade based on the divergence numbers falling within your parameters, but would also close out that trade by the same method ( row4data1 < x%, or some such).
Anyway, right now the indicator is all I need to test this for a while and see if it works. And if this is really too major an undertaking, then this could be done with 2 MA's.
Tell me it's a great concept or tell me I'm crazy, either way, all questions, opinions, raves or rants appreciated!