Andrews Pitchfork (Median Line)

1. It's generally the 3 extremes, the one's that stand out the most
2. It's validated and can be used separately to normal fork. It's often used when the normal fork is very steep.

thanks for ur quick reply...but it seems that there are no alternative simple ways to detect those three pivots except trying to find them with the eyes and i think i shud improve my eyes by practising on the charts...

regards...

audusd20 video

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selym_co,

Median lines can be used on any three alternating pivots. While using major pivots will give you a framework, using the minor swings can give you targets, entry points, and timing within the bigger structure.

The best way to acquaint yourself with the tool and how it works is by drawing them on your charts....not hundreds, but thousands, which will give you the insight and trust needed to use them.

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Thanks for ur explanation...the question i asked above is reaaaaallllly a great task for me.ı practise myself all the time about drawing them ...not thousands but i really draw lots...

i am still trying to find the best zigzagg setting to identify the cycles so that i can draw pitchforks easily and without trying to recognize the wave structure of the market. And i know that Tim Morge told in this forum that we shud understand the market structure (still dont know clearly wat "market structure" is...i shud learn about it too) ... But i am just looking for a simple way (if it exists)....

Sometimes i think that volume indicator is the best for my purpose which will show me the important bottoms and the peaks with its max volume.But later i checked my idea on the charts and the price sometimes is not "peak" or "bottom" when the volume is max...so its not a solution too..

i checked it with the stochastic indicator too...but my bad memories about this indicator made me hate it in a few minutes and remove it from the screen...

But honestly i dont think that there is a simple way as i have been asking above...The only way seems to be improving the eyes...

thanks for ur interest....regards...

HOURLY GOLD

us dollar index audusd nzdusd usdcad 4 x 1 hr forks

BEAUTIFUL

hi guys...i have been looking for the optimum zigzag settings for a while to draw pitchforks...and as a result i found two best zigzag settings : 34-5-13 and 13-5-8 ... and i ll attach two indicators with two different zigzag settings and they draw auto pitchforks on the chart...i know its not for those who want to improve their eyes.But i m sure tehre are some guys who will like it... (by the way i tested them only on H1 charts)

regards...

eur usd

DAILY AUD/NZD

Another energy point lies below.

Hi Selym_co,

Nice simple program. (A good start). Some observations/corrections/suggestions:

* I liked the random color method you used, and that you assigned the first 5 pitchfork colors. It's probably unusual to display more than 5, but I was thinking it might be better to see consistent colors for all PF's. You would get this if you eliminated "MathSrand(TimeLocal())". If not used, if assumes "MathSrand(1)" to initialize, hence the same "random" numbers would be generated the same way every time. (Or, if you end up not liking the colors that causes, pick another consistent "MathSrand(#)" (pick a #).

* Your loop "while(found<Number_of_Pitchforks+3)" creates an infinite loop if you run out of bars before finding the number of pitchforks. After "i++;", I think you need "if (i>=iBars(NULL,ZZ_TimeFrame) break;"

* The next "for" loop would then be changed from:
for(i=1; i<=Number_of_Pitchforks; i++)
to:
for(i=1; i<=found; i++)



* What you call a "Schiff" is a REVERSED understanding. Yours is a Modified Schiff, although I will tell you that a lot of people (and a lot of commercial software tools) have this fact all mixed up the same way. I am virtually certain that Tim Morge and Greg Fisher (now) agree with the following:
Given a Pitchfork with points labeled 1, 2, and 3, which are for High/Low/High, or Low/High/Low pivots, then a "Schiff" is at the same time as 1, at a price 50% between 1 and 2. A "Modified Schiff" has a pivot 1 such that the ML passes through a point that is at 50% of the time, and 50% of the price between pts 1 and 2.

* What you implemented as "Schiff" but what is really "Modified Schiff" is subject to a slight error in your calculation. If the bars between 1 & 2 are even count, yours is correct. If the bars between is odd, your calculation will be off by 1/2 a bar. It would be cleaner to calculate a price at the time of pt.1, and move the price of pt.1, yet leave the time the same time as pt.1

* What you implemented as "Modified Schiff" is not that, nor is it a "Schiff". It is what some here call a "Catalin", but what I would generically call a "PR3", meaning that pt1 is moved to the price-of-pt3, but keeps the same time as pt.1

* You can keep the "PR3" (or "Catalin") fork, but also add a true "Schiff". (50% of price from pt.1 to pt.2, at same time as pt.1)

* Warning: In your code, you have mixed double/integer math calculations. You may get burned with an unexpected value when you divide anything by "/2" instead of "/2.0". The former may throw away the fraction; the later will keep the fraction through the whole calculation. If in the end you have an integer variable = the.expression, the fraction might then be thrown away, BUT I've been burned by this nuance before. Use "/2.0".

* Rather than save-and-edit multiple copies of the same .mq4 code, I suggest you give your zigzag external variables all defaults as "0". *IF* the user overrides the default, then use it, and if NOT, then... next you look for the 3 values the user can put in the indicator name, which you can retrieve using "WindowExpertName()". If the indicator name has no values, THEN you use your 3 favorite default values instead of the "0" values.

When you save the indicator name, use "_" to delimit between variable values, and use this "stringSplit" function to break up the parts into an array:


So if you save the program as "Name_val1_val2_val3_optionalVal4_optionalKeyword(s)", and then you split the name by "_", then you would do steps like this:

for-each-valArray-value
{
1st check for keywords like "MS" (for Modified Schiff), "SCH" for "Schiff", etc.
If found, you use the keyword, and then go to the next valArray-value.
You could have keywords like "D1" or "H4" or "H1", etc. which of course set the timeframe value.

If they are just numbers:
ZZ_ExtDepth = valArray[1]
ZZ_ExtDeviation = valArray[2]
ZZ_ExtBackstep = valArray[3]
ZZ_TimeFrame = valArray[4] (if the timeframe value was given in Minutes)

I've provided the framework of the idea, which is handy and clever to use but it's a bit of coding to work it all out. It's up to you of course.


* Given your use of the same object names regardless of ZZ values, you can't use more than one indicator-per-chart. If you append the ZZ values into the object names, you could do allow for multiple indicators, thus an ability to display BOTH the Andrews and a variation at the same time. (Yes the chart could get very cluttered in a hurry).

* The use of ZigZag is not great, but it's the only universal such tool; but it sucks. It repaints, it messes up and misses some pivots (so you could see consecutive highs, or consecutive lows). Furthermore, it won't give you a recent pivot close to Bar[0]. It has to wait far too long before it will report a pivot. Thus you won't see a great new Andrews fork formed by a new-high pivot that bounces and retests fairly soon. That's a good trade opportunity but you won't see it soon enough using ZigZag.

If you find a better ZigZag it might be better to use than this one. (I'm looking for one myself).


* A better zigzag could distinguish better between major pivots and the minor-ones in between the majors. Right now, you won't get the best Andrews forks for very long swings that have minor-pivots during the swing. You'll get a pt.1 that starts later than it should compared to what you would draw by hand. It's hard to explain, but when you play with your tool, you will readily see it does not always pick out the obvious bottom (or top) to start a long pitchfork from. Maybe the pt.2 and pt.3 are the way you want them, but the pt.1 is some minor swing between the *desired* pt.1 and what the program picked.

It's tricky, a bit subjective, but it could be improved with a better zigzag.


Thanks for sharing your code.

Kent (pips4life)

Hi pips4life...

first of all i shud point this out that I am not the author of that indicator.I mean I dont want to be in the position of a "stealer" ) i just downloaded it from a forum and changed some basic settings for easy access and I use it just a tool which gives me ideas..i still prefer my own pitchforks . But i have been trying it on a demo account for the last week , and i really got good / big results...(1358 version seems to be better)...

i shud also admit that i felt honoured to be the participant of a conversation with an experienced trader like you although it started just because of a misunderstanding.

About the zigzag....its really one of the great things which kills my brain all the time...i have been looking for the best one or the best settings ..but i finally gave up with those settings of normal zigzag indicatr . Once i tried another zigzag (as i remembere it was called "zigzag new nen 3" ) and it made my computer freeze whenever i put it on the chart..then i gave up...Later I tried using it with GannZigzag ..but still didnt get a good result...sometimes it missed even major pivots too despite my effort to find the best settings for it too....

As a result...i am not the author of that tool (I wish I were ! ) and you are totally right about the zigzag ... it drives me nuts but i cant find the zigzag which i have been dreaming about all the time.I hope I ll find it oneday.

Even now while writing this message i took lots of profits from the orders i made before going to bed with the 1358 version...i have used many other strategies or indicators..but none of them were as comfortable and as "rewarding" like this tool..So it is useful in case you dont leave the whole control to it you shud be the boss and correct it sometimes...

take care..regards...

this is my position in AudCad..and CHFJPY

and both of them failed....

are there anyone who thinks the same ?

I think you have to wait for price action to show the direction before you enter.

Thanks that u criticized me...its the best way of learning...but wat do you mean by price action? do you mean the candle formations like hammer,hanging man or enfulging bars ? or some patterns?

Try to find a couple bar patterns or candle patterns that you feel to be successful, combine those with your pitchfork.

My thinking is that you have to wait for price action to confirm your entry.