Recent SR indicator

NOTE (Jan 31, 2014): Any indicators or EAs that I've contributed to this thread will probably no longer work in the latest MT4 build that is (if I understand correctly) due to be rolled out on Feb 3. If you want to ensure that these indicators/EAs continue to work correctly, do NOT upgrade your MT4 beyond the current build (509). I don't know how to re-code them to make them run correctly in the new look MT4, and I've no desire to re-educate myself to learn the new programming language that MetaQuotes is forcing upon everybody. Personally I think that their short-sighted development policy totally stinks, but there's nothing I can do about it. So if you decide to upgrade, you're on your own. Please note the Terms and Conditions below.
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TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Please note that all code in this thread is supplied FREE of charge. Therefore the following conditions apply:

1. You agree that, if you download and use the code, it is ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. I accept NO LIABILITY for any financial losses or computer related damage, caused by either the correct or incorrect use of the code.

2. Feel welcome to share the code freely, and modify any MQ4 source. However, you may NOT sell, or otherwise distribute, any part of the code commercially, without my prior written consent.

3. The code may not run correctly on Windows 7, Windows 8 or Vista, probably for the reasons given here.

4. I'm sorry, but due to my current work commitments, I am no longer modifying code to suit people’s personal requirements, nor posting replies to individual questions in this thread. (If you can’t get the code to work, you may find solutions already posted somewhere in the thread; otherwise, you’ll need to find another indicator).

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INSTRUCTIONS

Latest update: version 1.11, uploaded Sept 20, 2012
Latest changes to this post in red typeface

This is the most sophisticated support/resistance (S/R) indicator that I have created. It highlights some of the difficulties in translating what appears obvious to the technical analyst's naked eye, into a mathematical formula that can be coded. For better or worse, automating the S/R process introduces a level of objectivity: the indicator may pick up S/R zones that somehow escaped the analyst's view.

The indicator automatically plots horizontal S/R bands on your MT4 charts, according to the parameter settings that you enter. It does NOT plot any of diagonal trendlines, Fibo retracement levels, pivot levels or round numbers. Nonetheless, the indicator is highly configurable, necessitating a learning curve. Timeframe, bandwidth, frequency levels, visibility level & clearance can all be customized, resulting in very different S/R plots. Experiment with different parameter settings until you find the generated S/R bands approximating those that feel 'right' for you. For examples of how to set the parameters to plot 'salient', 'recent' and 'confluent' types of S/R, please see post #10.

Each S/R band plotted is actually an MT4 object (you can choose between rectangles or horizontal lines). You can have the indicator automatically maintain these on a going-forward basis, or simply have them plotted once, after which you can move or delete them, and/or add your own S/R. When you delete the indicator from the chart, all of the automatically generated bands are deleted also (if you set DeleteLinesOnDeinit to TRUE).

It is possible to have the bands generated according to candle data in one timeframe (TF), and then have these plotted on a different TF. Thus you could have H4 S/R levels being plotted, and 'locked in place', while you switch to different TFs (e.g. M5, M15, M30, etc). You can also specify which timeframe charts you wish to have the lines/boxes displayed, using the ShowOnTimeFrames parameter.

The bands may be plotted 'behind' the price candles in the 'body' of the chart, and/or as a frequency 'histogram' (showing how many times price reached each S/R band) in the empty space at the right of the chart. You can also optionally have the indicator plot a 'Market Profile' type histogram, showing how many times (candles) price traversed through each level. It can also be used to plot 'fractals' (local higher highs and lower lows). You can use different colors (or shades of a color) to highlight different frequencies.

If you want to have different 'types' of S/R represented on the same chart, then simply attach multiple instances of the indicator. For example, you could have high visibility, wider bandwidth, longer TF S/R plot in shades of one color, and lower visibility, narrow bandwidth, short TF S/R plot in shades of another. Or you could have (for example) monthly, weekly, daily and H4 S/R all plotted in different colors on the same chart, by attaching 4 different instances of the indicator.

You can see what the S/R would have looked like, at a prior point in time, by using the HistoricalShift parameter.

You can control the horizontal length of the lines/boxes using the LineOrBandLength parameter.

The indicator 're-paints' in the sense that as new S/R points are encountered, these (depending on your parameter settings) may not be created until all of your stipulated criteria have been met. Thus a currently displayed band that appears to have originated in the past might not have been displayed at that historical point. Since this indicator is unlikely to be used for generating entry signals, this should not be an issue.

Parameter settings may be entered either through MT4's dialog window, when you attach or edit the indicator, or via parameter file(s). You can create as many different parameter files as you wish, to maintain settings for different instances/uses of the indicator. Then when you attach the indicator, you need to enter only the ParameterFile name, and all other parameters are loaded from the file.

An output file may also optionally be generated, detailing the frequency of qualifying points at each S/R level. This file could then be used by an EA or imported to an application like Excel for further analysis.

I will possibly add an 'alerts' facility (when price reaches or approaches an S/R band) in a subsequent release.


INSTALLATION & USE

To install, download the Recent SR.ex4 file into your ..../experts/indicators folder, and (if you want to use the parameter file facilities) the Presets---Recent SR.txt file into your ..../experts/files folder. Then exit and restart MT4.

For operational instructions, please read the attached Word document.

Source code (.mq4 file) is now available. However, for it to compile correctly, you need to download the two .mqh files here into your .....(MT4)/experts/include folder.


CHANGE HISTORY

v 1.00: Initial release.

v 1.01: added new parameters: IncludeNextBandAbove, PlotProximityPips, HistoricalShift. See attached Word doc for detailed info.

v 1.02: VisibilityLevel parameter now also applies to candle closes.

v 1.03: added new parameter: DescriptionMask. See attached Word doc for detailed info.

v 1.04: added new parameters: ShowOnTimeFrames, VisCompletionRequired, which addresses the requests in posts #115 and #116. See attached Word doc for detailed info.

v 1.05: added new parameter: Plot Boxes. This now allows the plotting of the qualifying bands as either boxes (MT4 rectangle objects) or lines.

v 1.06:
1. Fixed bug where TimeFrame = MN (see post #131)
2. FilledBoxes now also determines line truncation (if PlotBoxes = false). See instruction document for details.

v 1.07:
1. Parameters PlotBoxes and FilledBoxes have now been replaced with new parameters LineWidth and Background. See the instructions document for more info. This also means that you may need to re-save any relevant MT4 templates.
2. New parameter UniqueID. See the instructions document for more info.

v 1.08:
1. New parameter LineOrBandLength. See the instructions document for more info.
2. Fixed bug: LineWidth parameter now works correctly if it is being set using a parameter file.

v 1.09:
1. New parameter DeleteLinesOnDeinit. See the instructions document for more info.

v 1.10:
1. Enhanced LineOrBoxLength parameter. See here for details.

v 1.11:
1. Output file now includes date/time of leftmost and rightmost QPs.

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MT4 Indicators/EAs by Hanover:

Recent Strength — display line-based plot of weighted average of currency (as opposed to pair) strength
Recent Prices — display line-based plots of any combo of pairs/timeframes on your current chart, to compare their relative strength
Recent Candles — display candles of any combo of pairs/timeframes on your current chart
Recent SR — auto-plot horizontal support/resistance lines based on a wide variety of settings
Recent News — display upcoming and/or historical news announcements from FF calendar; countdown/alert upcoming announcements
Daily Lines/Boxes — auto-plot horizontal or vertical lines, boxes, symbols on user-defined times, days of the week, etc
Display Info all pairs — display spread, daily range, dollars/pip, swap rates etc for all pairs
Spaced Lines — auto-plot horizontal lines on your charts
Stealth Master EA — hide your SL and TP from unscrupulous br0kers!
Do-it-yourself alerts builder kit — code template that you can copy/paste that will add pop-up and/or e-mail alerts to most 'standard' indicators

Let me be the first to

Would love to integrate it to the THV EA after finding out how to get the trading logic for it.

Thanks for the PM David.

Thank you, David! You continue to amaze and delight.

Looking forward to taking this for a spin when I get home tonight.

Works fantastic David, well done.

I think it can be of great value for our THV EA after fine tuning the settings.

I sincerely hope so. The OutputFile option exports the levels, and the frequency of S/R at each level, to a file that can be read and used by an EA.

However, I should point out that the indicator is really just a time-saving tool that plots lines on a chart, according to a formula that you specify. It doesn't attempt to intelligently assess the 'quality' of the S/R, e.g. recentness; number of intervening candles that have 'busted' a level; number of times a level has been respected; time lapse between such times; visibility across multiple timeframes; whether the levels are homogeneous or 'flipover'; confluence with other factors; etc.

After a lot of thought, I decided to devise an indicator to plot lines in open-ended fashion, and leave the 'quality' to the discretion of the trader. Since different traders assess and use S/R differently, I figured this was the best approach.

Nonetheless, of all the tools that I've developed, this one is a personal favorite:

-- It saves me hours of work in drawing the lines. Because I look to trade several pairs (depending on relative strength/weakness), the time saving is very significant.

-- I also like the way it draws 'hidden' levels that I might otherwise have missed. It's surprising how frequently these levels impact price movement.

-- I like the ability to draw D1 S/R lines, and then lock these in place while I look for rejection of these levels on lower TFs, allowing earlier entries. That forms a big part of one of my favorite trading setups.

I'm a Support & Resistance junky and I will definitely test this, thanks Hanover...

Thanks for the great work - appreciated

Hi Hanover,

Many thanks on providing your take on SR. I'm wondering if you could code an external variable to show the number of QP's above a certain number only please?

For example, lets say I use the AllCandlePointsValid setting as true and set the ShowHistogramOnly as true alongside a positive number for HistogramSize. Obviously I will get a significant amount of numbers on the right of the chart showing me all QP's at the different price levels. I would like to only show QP's above 30 and below 10 (just figures I pulled out of the air), with all other figures not being displayed. Is this possible to externalise this as a variable?

I use market profile to assist with my trading but the indicators I have leave a lot to be desired and its possible your indicator may just fill the gap until I get a decent platform.

Not an urgent or necessary request, but if you get some time free between your trading and leisure time and you think its a good idea, then I would be grateful if you could look into this.

Many thanks.

You might be able to achieve this via the FrequencyLevels and FrequencyColors settings.

Using your example, if you set:

FrequencyLevels = 10,30
FrequencyColors = Yellow,Black

then:

1. If number of QPs < 10, no histogram bar will display at that level (i.e. this sets 10 as the minimum eligibility level).
2. If 10 <= QPs < 30, then a Yellow histogram bar will display.
3. If QPs >= 30, then a Black histogram bar will display (against a black background, this will appear invisible. By setting HistogramFontColor = Black, this would make any histogram text invisible also. It never occurred to me that anybody would want an upper eligibility level).

Not a perfect solution, but it sounds like you're looking for something temporary ("its possible your indicator may just fill the gap until I get a decent platform").

Not sure why the externalization is necessary? As a possible workaround, the OutputFile option exports levels, and frequencies at each level, to a file that could be read by another indicator or EA.

Just trying to save myself some extra programming work, LOL.

I'm still working on perfecting the settings.

The screenshot is an example of last night's AUDUSD (M30).

The bands were all drawn by the Recent SR indicator. The dashed lines are pivot levels (PP=green, S1=blue, R1=red, etc), and the gray dotted lines are round numbers.

All of the SR bands were on the chart before price bounced at the white arrowed points (i.e. no 're-painting'). And the parameters (see below) were set before the day began (i.e. no curve fitting). Would have been easier to make the trades in hindsight though, LOL.

Here are the key parameter settings:

RED BANDS are salient D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 2.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = R85, R125, R155, R175 (shades of red)
VisibilityLevel = 2,1 ("salience" filter)
ClearancePips = 0

BLUE BANDS are recent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 10 (lower number = "recentness" filter)
BandwidthPips = 1.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = B105, B145, B175, B195 (shades of blue)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

GREEN BANDS are confluent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 5.0 (wider bandwidth needed to pick up confluence)
FrequencyLevels = 2,3,4,5 (frequency >=2 is confluence filter)
FrequencyColors = G85, G125, G155, G175 (shades of green)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

Magenta/purple bands = red + blue overlap
Yellow/brown bands = red + green overlap
Cyan/turquoise bands = blue + green overlap

Thought it might help to provide some ideas as a starting point. It's still very much a tool though, there's no Holy Grail, LOL. And I am still very much learning and experimenting.

I'm also starting to look at confluence across correlated pairs, e.g. to what extent (if any) does probability of bounce increase if (say) AUDUSD and NZDUSD hit a key SR level simultaneously?

Thank you for such a great indicator.

Its the most sophisticated and accurate s/r indicator that I have downloaded.

A thought would be to add a feature like, seperate settings for unbroken highs and lows, "Unbroken Hi/Low".

Because unbroken highs and lows are often a single QP within 20 BandwidthPips, however they offer disproportionally strong resistance and support compared to the broken highs and lows.

However, you would need to have seperate settings, as using the first picture in your "Instructions - Recent SR Indicator", every single candle would be support if you just had an unbroken setting.

Sorry about the last post... ...it pays to read ALL that you wrote, rather than being the typical "don't read the instructions" male who would rather experiment, and then ask questions to find out not long after that the questions had already been answered.

To answer my previous post, just use indicator twice with different settings.

However this is truly a fantastic indicator, and a big thank you for being so generous with your programming skills...

That would be fantastic-.-



Just to show what can be achieved with this indicator. Awesome....


To achieve the unbroken highs and lows (red lines) have:

1. the look back candles and the second number in the VisibilityLevel section set to the same high value.
2. The more prominent you want your highs or lows to be, the higher first number in the VisibilityLevel setting.
3. FrequencyLevels just the one value of 1.
4. BandwidthPips set to a value where you are happy you can see it. Mine was 20 on the AUDJPY in the pic below.

To achieve lines of confluence on the AUDJPY I had:

1. Low VisibilitiyLevel settings of 2,3
2. Two FrequencyLevels 3,4
3. BandwidthPips set at 35.

On a side note for users of this indicator...

A high value for ClearancePips will pick up spikes really well, however, it will eliminate Pipe Bottoms or Pipe Tops (adjacent double bottom or double top) which is really a spike over two timeframes. So if you want to pick up both types of spikes in data, you will need to use the indicator twice with different settings.

Many thanks for the feedback, and especially the solution as to how to highlight the 'unbroken' levels.

I decided not to have the indicator attempt to intelligently assess the quality of the S/R. There are so many angles that can be potentially considered: recentness; number of intervening candles that have broken a level; number of times a level has already been respected; time lapse between such occurrences; visibility across multiple timeframes; whether the levels are homogeneous or 'flipover'; confluence with other factors; etc. Judging from what I've read in S/R threads, everybody seems to rate these factors differently.

Attaching the indicator multiple times, to highlight different 'types' of S/R, likewise works well for me. I color-code these (until I run out of colors). Another possible approach is to use 'lenient' parameter settings, so that too many bands are plotted, and then manually delete the 'lower probability' bands. However, you'd need to set RefreshEveryXMins to –1, so that the indicator doesn't re-plot itself, and also avoid switching timeframes, since this also causes MT4 to refresh all of the indicators on the chart.

no probs, appreciate your efforts.

I trade 10 different pairs on 5 min charts, so I had 2 instances of Recent S/R for daily, 4 hourly and hourly and a 5 min Recent S/R. And funny enough I found 7 instances of the indi on each of 10 charts chewed up the memory.

HOWEVER, because Recent S/R does such a good job of accurately plotting levels, I only need the chart to update when I view it, so now I view the pairs through different profiles.

Short cut keys to scroll through profiles are "Ctrl F5" and "Shift F5" for anyone else who wants to use 70 instances of Recent S/R.

Even though I have posted one or two basic indi's I actually do NOT understand programming and its requirements, I just have the logic head to read code that others have written and then re-assemble. So forgive me for the next question if it is really remedial.

I realise limiting the look back bars to get the S/R levels will determine the memory use, but would putting an optional "proximity limit of S/R's nearness to present quote action" on the indicator reduce the memory use as well?

That is if I were to type "6" into the proximity limit, only the 6 nearest S/R lines to the present quotes would be determined and plotted.

Just a thought.
Or

A different proximity limit

If I were to type 500 into the proximity limit only levels within 500 pips of the quotes would be determined.

I would suppose that this would mean:
1) instead of having a LookBackCandles variable (a time distance variable along the x-axis of the chart), you would have a "QuoteRange" (a price variable along the y-axis of the chart).

2) instead of having RefreshEveryXmins variable to limit memory use, RefreshEveryXPipMovement.

This I think would result in a reduction in QP / S/R levels that are not applicable to immediate trading, while allowing for a possible increase in the accuracy (tighter BandwidthPips or higher VisibillityLevel settings)) of s/r levels plotted as a greater number of highs/lows etc... are available for analysis within the given "QuoteRange".


However, I wouldn't have a clue how difficult this is, or whether it is at all possible?

Just a second thought

[quote=hanover;3200983]I'm still working on perfecting the settings.

The screenshot is an example of last night's AUDUSD (M30).

The bands were all drawn by the Recent SR indicator. The dashed lines are pivot levels (PP=green, S1=blue, R1=red, etc), and the gray dotted lines are round numbers.

All of the SR bands were on the chart before price bounced at the white arrowed points (i.e. no 're-painting'). And the parameters (see below) were set before the day began (i.e. no curve fitting). Would have been easier to make the trades in hindsight though, LOL.

Here are the key parameter settings:

RED BANDS are salient D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 2.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = R85, R125, R155, R175 (shades of red)
VisibilityLevel = 2,1 ("salience" filter)
ClearancePips = 0

BLUE BANDS are recent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 10 (lower number = "recentness" filter)
BandwidthPips = 1.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = B105, B145, B175, B195 (shades of blue)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

GREEN BANDS are confluent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 5.0 (wider bandwidth needed to pick up confluence)
FrequencyLevels = 2,3,4,5 (frequency >=2 is confluence filter)
FrequencyColors = G85, G125, G155, G175 (shades of green)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

Magenta/purple bands = red + blue overlap
Yellow/brown bands = red + green overlap
Cyan/turquoise bands = blue + green overlap

Thought it might help to provide some ideas as a starting point. It's still very much a tool though, there's no Holy Grail, LOL. And I am still very much learning and experimenting.

Hi,

I only trade with S&R. Your contribution here is really Geat help to those who trade with S&R.

I follow your setting above wanting to show D1 tf S&R, but some how I managed to get only green all over my chart. How to filter only the confluence S&R like the one you put up, very nice and neat.

Do the brightness of the color mean more significant and lighter color = less important ?

Once again, thankyou very much for your effort

[quote=hanover;3200983]I'm still working on perfecting the settings.

The screenshot is an example of last night's AUDUSD (M30).

The bands were all drawn by the Recent SR indicator. The dashed lines are pivot levels (PP=green, S1=blue, R1=red, etc), and the gray dotted lines are round numbers.

All of the SR bands were on the chart before price bounced at the white arrowed points (i.e. no 're-painting'). And the parameters (see below) were set before the day began (i.e. no curve fitting). Would have been easier to make the trades in hindsight though, LOL.

Here are the key parameter settings:

RED BANDS are salient D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 2.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = R85, R125, R155, R175 (shades of red)
VisibilityLevel = 2,1 ("salience" filter)
ClearancePips = 0

BLUE BANDS are recent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 10 (lower number = "recentness" filter)
BandwidthPips = 1.0
FrequencyLevels = 1,2,3,4
FrequencyColors = B105, B145, B175, B195 (shades of blue)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

GREEN BANDS are confluent D1 SR:

TimeFrame = D1
LookbackCandles = 50
BandwidthPips = 5.0 (wider bandwidth needed to pick up confluence)
FrequencyLevels = 2,3,4,5 (frequency >=2 is confluence filter)
FrequencyColors = G85, G125, G155, G175 (shades of green)
VisibilityLevel = 0
ClearancePips = 0

Magenta/purple bands = red + blue overlap
Yellow/brown bands = red + green overlap
Cyan/turquoise bands = blue + green overlap

Thought it might help to provide some ideas as a starting point. It's still very much a tool though, there's no Holy Grail, LOL. And I am still very much learning and experimenting.


Sorry, forget to attached chart in last post.

[quote=nico28;3247773] Again, attached chart

Hi,

I'm using the FxPro platform which charts to 5 decimal places. Does the calculation of the bandwidthpips in the indicator take that into account?


Thanks

Thanks for the ideas, any of them could potentially be implemented. I think I favor the proximity limit (i.e. only plot the nearest X bands above/below the currently quoted price, or only plot bands that are within X pips of the current price). To me that would be both user-friendly (understandable), and also easiest to code (I'm lazy, LOL).

I'll give it some thought.

[EDIT] Forgot to mention: you can use the RefreshEveryXMins parameter to determine how often the charts update:

-- if set to a negative value, e.g. -1, then there is no automatic refresh. You need to perform a manual refresh (e.g. switch back and forth between timeframes, or edit the indicator (press Ctrl-I) without changing the parameters) to have it update itself.

-- if set to 0, it will update itself every tick (WARNING: could slow computer performance)

-- if set to 1, 5, 15, 30, 60 or 240, it will update every time the first tick of a new candle forms on a M1, M5, M15, M30, H1 or H4 timeframe, regardless of the timeframe of the chart to which it's been attached.