CAN such a thing be coded?... | Forex Factory

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CAN such a thing be coded?...

  • #1
  • First Post: Jan 14, 2009 7:24am Jan 14, 2009 7:24am
Hi all,

I'm new here on the forum but have lurked in the past reading the various trading strategy topics. Really new to coding but really want to learn it to automate things. I can't tell you how tired I am of drawing lines.

I would like to create a tool that would look at a specific number of bars (ie 300, 500, 700) back from the current and consider the highs and lows of each bar. From there I would like the program to sift through the info looking for the single horizontal line which would connect the greatest number of these highs and/or lows... then the second greatest number... then third.

Also, I would like to do this again, BUT with a line NOT horizontal.

I guess there are automated pivot point calculators and plotters (daily, weekly, monthly), but I don't know where to get them or how to code them.

Lastly, I hope to create code that will compare the intersections of these lines AND their coincidence with Fib retraces and extensions and print out the price levels (not necessarily plot the lines, unless it can just be a dash at the hard right) in varying colors in accordance with the particular type of line. Levels and specific points where these diagonal lines intersect the other types of lines I would like to have marked with some small arrow which would vary in color depending on the type of horizontal line it is intersecting (SAR or Fib OR a level where there are both).



I have some other ideas I would like code as well, but I think just this might be the end of me if I don't get some help!

Thanks for all of your posts. I feel like I'm starting to pick things up.

Kind Regards,
Jason
  • #2
  • Jan 14, 2009 7:37pm Jan 14, 2009 7:37pm
seoulo_dude,

That sounds like a rather complex code. I've thought about coding something similar. So far some sort of Highest/Lowest interpolation would work best, then cross reference with specificed levels. You could create any amount of object trendlines to represent what they interesct with.

It could be done, however its not a small task.
  • #3
  • Jan 15, 2009 2:47am Jan 15, 2009 2:47am
Quoting codobro
seoulo_dude,

That sounds like a rather complex code. I've thought about coding something similar. So far some sort of Highest/Lowest interpolation would work best, then cross reference with specificed levels. You could create any amount of object trendlines to represent what they interesct with.

It could be done, however its not a small task.

Hi, Codobro.

Thanks for your response. Can you give me an idea of which pre-defined variables (I guess they are also called reserved variables?) would be best to use to represent the areas/types of data I will be asking the computer to assess?

I thought it might be a bit involved, but I figure why not do it? If I don't, I will be limited to trading only 1 or maybe 2 pairs at a time because of my particular style of trading, and drawing in all of these lines by hand.

Gets really tedious.

  • #4
  • Jan 16, 2009 8:29pm Jan 16, 2009 8:29pm
You may want to look into using iHighest, iLowest, iFractal, comparisons with trendline values, and you'd have to input the Fibo sequences you'd want to use.

You can learn more about each from the metatrader help.

Also, if you do plan to do this, it will probably hog a lot of resources when running.
  • #5
  • Jan 17, 2009 3:22am Jan 17, 2009 3:22am
Quoting codobro
You may want to look into using iHighest, iLowest, iFractal, comparisons with trendline values, and you'd have to input the Fibo sequences you'd want to use.

You can learn more about each from the metatrader help.
Thanks for the info... I'll look-up those terms.

Quoting codobro
Also, if you do plan to do this, it will probably hog a lot of resources when running.
Really?.... I thought running a script would consume relatively few resources.
  • #6
  • Jan 17, 2009 7:07am Jan 17, 2009 7:07am
Here's why seoulo_dude.

The Script/EA/Indicator needs to process multiple things at once.

Let's say for argument's sake that within 700 bars, the range in price is 3000 pips.

Each price needs to be processed, and each bar needs to be processed, so there are 2.1 Million individual cells which need to be coded. A tick lasts anywhere from 0.5 seconds to 5 minutes. Let's say a tick is 1 second.

It would require 0.000476 miliseconds to calculate 1 cell and still be within the tick limitations. To give you an idea of how fast that is, pop a balloon, and multiply the speed 10fold.

I've been working on this particular problem for 4 months now. The hardest part I'm having is creating a dynamic array for this. If anyone here is an expert with arrays and can help out with this project I would be most appreciative.
  • #7
  • Jan 17, 2009 12:31pm Jan 17, 2009 12:31pm
Quoting Ronald Raygun
Here's why seoulo_dude.

The Script/EA/Indicator needs to process multiple things at once.

Let's say for argument's sake that within 700 bars, the range in price is 3000 pips.

Each price needs to be processed, and each bar needs to be processed, so there are 2.1 Million individual cells which need to be coded. A tick lasts anywhere from 0.5 seconds to 5 minutes. Let's say a tick is 1 second.

It would require 0.000476 miliseconds to calculate 1 cell and still be within the tick limitations. To give you an idea of how fast that is, pop...
Thanks, RR.

That IS alot of work after all. Maybe you can tell me more about this (as it's still quite new to me), but I don't think it will have too adverse of an impact on my trading. This is my SUPPOSITION as I will only need to run this program every so often to update the SAR levels and TL's.... but maybe having meta hold so much info will slow it down alot (???). Is that what would happen?

@ the most excellent participants on this string: I've been studying the dictionary of meta editor and I'm unclear on the definitions of some very basic terms (you're gonna laugh!)... module, stack size, identifier, and series array identifier. Can you all help me nail those down so I can build on them? I'd going to try to write my first program tonight... I'd LOVE to have it actually compile with 0 errors and function right before I go to sleep tonight.
I'm going to try to code it to locate just the SAR levels on the chart. Wish me luck!

Jay
  • #8
  • Jan 18, 2009 11:15am Jan 18, 2009 11:15am
Ronald,

Also a note on the metatrader platform, it has some resource issues itself regarding how it loads chart and indicator data. It would be a lot to load on any platform but MT4 tends to do things slower to begin with. That's why this is one of those ideas programmers think about but don't really do.

There are a few solutions to make things lighter but they don't really resolve the issue.
  • #9
  • Jan 18, 2009 11:28am Jan 18, 2009 11:28am
Interesting. I coded something similar to this a while back but only for the first "level" of resistance prices. You should be able to extrapolate what you need from this code. The function will accept and X number of periods and tell you the most common high price among them. From there, you could consult the array and get the second-most common, third-most, etc.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=127372

I'll keep an eye on this thread and help where I can, it's interesting.
  • #10
  • Jan 18, 2009 11:29am Jan 18, 2009 11:29am
Quoting Ronald Raygun
I've been working on this particular problem for 4 months now. The hardest part I'm having is creating a dynamic array for this. If anyone here is an expert with arrays and can help out with this project I would be most appreciative.
Send me a PM, I know a thing or two on arrays.
  • #11
  • Jan 18, 2009 11:35am Jan 18, 2009 11:35am
Funny you bring this up, Ron. An array was my first thought for a solution, too....

The answer is an Abstract Data Type Circular Queue implemented with an array....

So if you are concerned only with 3000 bars, you place 3000 slots in the array and fill them with bar prices..... 0 - 2999 indexes.... where 2999 is the head, or latest entry, and 0 is the 3000th bar back.

The next entry would go to 0, and it would become the new head. Then 1 is now the tail.

Make sense?

Quoting Ronald Raygun
Here's why seoulo_dude.

The Script/EA/Indicator needs to process multiple things at once.

Let's say for argument's sake that within 700 bars, the range in price is 3000 pips.

Each price needs to be processed, and each bar needs to be processed, so there are 2.1 Million individual cells which need to be coded. A tick lasts anywhere from 0.5 seconds to 5 minutes. Let's say a tick is 1 second.

It would require 0.000476 miliseconds to calculate 1 cell and still be within the tick limitations. To give you an idea of how fast that is, pop a...
  • #12
  • Jan 18, 2009 11:52am Jan 18, 2009 11:52am
tdion,

Are you saying each array includes the entire previous total, or would you slowly encroach within the arrays? In your example of using 0-2999, would you then use 1-2999 or 1-2998? I would have thought the latter, in attempts to get a more concentrated price.
  • #13
  • Jan 18, 2009 12:04pm Jan 18, 2009 12:04pm
Quoting LongToBeFree
Interesting. I coded something similar to this a while back but only for the first "level" of resistance prices. You should be able to extrapolate what you need from this code. The function will accept and X number of periods and tell you the most common high price among them. From there, you could consult the array and get the second-most common, third-most, etc.

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=127372

I'll keep an eye on this thread and help where I can, it's interesting.
Hi, LongToBeFree.

Thanks for your post and the info. My code did not succeed lastnight. :-(

...but retrying tonight! :-)

I am grateful for the link. I will take a look at it and try to learn from the code.

@ Codobro--- Is there a way to "rephrase" the language or use of functions to reduce the load on metatrader? You made mention of "lightening the load", so was this what you were referring to?

Jay
  • #14
  • Jan 18, 2009 12:09pm Jan 18, 2009 12:09pm
Quoting tdion
Funny you bring this up, Ron. An array was my first thought for a solution, too....

The answer is an Abstract Data Type Circular Queue implemented with an array....

So if you are concerned only with 3000 bars, you place 3000 slots in the array and fill them with bar prices..... 0 - 2999 indexes.... where 2999 is the head, or latest entry, and 0 is the 3000th bar back.

The next entry would go to 0, and it would become the new head. Then 1 is now the tail.

Make sense?
tdion,

That sounds like it makes sense with what I've read from the manual already. I was also thinking about freeing up resources by trying to use a fcn I read about yesterday (RefreshRate(), I believe). What do you think about doing that? Would it help, hinder, or just be a waste of time?

Jay
  • #15
  • Jan 18, 2009 12:12pm Jan 18, 2009 12:12pm
In any language you can code something several ways and still have the same result. One way may simply run more effeciently than another.
  • #16
  • Jan 18, 2009 1:01pm Jan 18, 2009 1:01pm
Let's hit the center of the bullseye.

The problem is recomputation. You don't want your EA wasting CPU cycles by having to go back 3000 bars repeatedly. How efficient is MT4 with finding iClose[3000]? I don't know what is going on under the hood.

What I do know is this: If we load the array with 3000 bars, we never have to reload them. As a new bar appears, it enters in the same place where the oldest bar used to be.

Two ways to find out if this is worth your time or not: visit the MQL forums and look at how they handle similar problems, or write code without an array (use loops on iOpen, iLow, iHigh, iClose instead) and see if it becomes a show stopper.
  • #17
  • Jan 18, 2009 5:18pm Jan 18, 2009 5:18pm
Quoting tdion
Let's hit the center of the bullseye.

The problem is recomputation. You don't want your EA wasting CPU cycles by having to go back 3000 bars repeatedly. How efficient is MT4 with finding iClose[3000]? I don't know what is going on under the hood.

What I do know is this: If we load the array with 3000 bars, we never have to reload them. As a new bar appears, it enters in the same place where the oldest bar used to be.
It goes further than that. Look at the code I posted earlier.

When developing the code, I realized that I dont care when the price happened, I just need to know how many times it happened. So thats when the next array came into play. I kept an array that counted each price and then just found the highest "count" in the array - that's your resistance (support) point. And then thats really all you need, this array become your data set
  • #18
  • Last Post: Jan 19, 2009 2:10am Jan 19, 2009 2:10am
Quoting LongToBeFree
It goes further than that. Look at the code I posted earlier.

When developing the code, I realized that I dont care when the price happened, I just need to know how many times it happened. So thats when the next array came into play. I kept an array that counted each price and then just found the highest "count" in the array - that's your resistance (support) point. And then thats really all you need, this array become your data set
Right on! Thanks!
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