Perfect placing of arrows on the chart

#1
First Post: Nov 12, 2013 6:03am Nov 12, 2013 6:03am

Gumrai
Joined Oct 2012 | Status: Trader | 1,959 Posts

Hi all,
I know that it is not just me that has this problem as I see many indis and EAs that place arrows (buffers or objects) often result in the arrow obliterating part of the bar.
When I look at the Bill Williams fractal indi, the arrows are always placed perfectly on the chart, so I look to the source code for the fractal indi on the MQL4 website.
Problem is that the code is obviously not the same as the standard supplied fractal indi. Arrow code is wrong and shows as a square and right on the high or low of the bar.
Yes, you can use a price offset if placing an object, but this can result in the arrow disappearing above/below the chart price range in lower time-frames or still obliterating part of the bar in the higher tf.
Does anyone know how to achieve that perfect placement as seen in the fractal indi?

Please Do Not PM Me With Coding Enquiries

#2
Nov 12, 2013 6:32am Nov 12, 2013 6:32am

FerruFx
Joined May 2007 | Status: MT4/MT5 EAs/Indicators/Alerts coder | 6,542 Posts

Quoting Gumrai

Disliked

Hi all, I know that it is not just me that has this problem as I see many indis and EAs that place arrows (buffers or objects) often result in the arrow obliterating part of the bar. When I look at the Bill Williams fractal indi, the arrows are always placed perfectly on the chart, so I look to the source code for the fractal indi on the MQL4 website. Problem is that the code is obviously not the same as the standard supplied fractal indi. Arrow code is wrong and shows as a square and right on the high or low of the bar. Yes, you can use a price...

Ignored

To place the arrow above/below with the same "ratio" regardless the timeframe, you can shift the arrow by X time the ATR

Example: iATR(NULL,0,14,i)*0.3

No very academic ... but that works !

MT4/MT5 EAs/Indicators/Alerts coder

#3
Nov 12, 2013 6:35am Nov 12, 2013 6:35am

Gumrai
Joined Oct 2012 | Status: Trader | 1,959 Posts

Thank you FerruFX,
I will try that.

Please Do Not PM Me With Coding Enquiries

#4
Nov 12, 2013 7:32am Nov 12, 2013 7:32am

Kiads
| Membership Revoked | Joined May 2012 | 1,218 Posts

Quoting Gumrai

Disliked

Hi all, I know that it is not just me that has this problem as I see many indis and EAs that place arrows (buffers or objects) often result in the arrow obliterating part of the bar. When I look at the Bill Williams fractal indi, the arrows are always placed perfectly on the chart, so I look to the source code for the fractal indi on the MQL4 website. Problem is that the code is obviously not the same as the standard supplied fractal indi. Arrow code is wrong and shows as a square and right on the high or low of the bar. Yes, you can use a price...

Ignored

I use noob way to automatically adjust arrow position depend on TF, and put switch in init area like this;

Inserted Code

//==== ARROW SHIFT ADJUSTMENT ========begin
int      SetDigit   =MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_DIGITS);
int      MyPoint    =MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_POINT);

//----
    if      (SetDigit==2 || SetDigit==4)
            {
            switch(Period())
               {
               case 1: nShift = 1 *MyPoint;   break;    
               case 5: nShift = 2 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 15: nShift = 2 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 30: nShift = 2 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 60: nShift = 2 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 240: nShift = 5 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 1440: nShift = 5 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 10080: nShift = 10 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 43200: nShift = 20 *MyPoint;   break;               
               }
            }
    else if (SetDigit==3 || SetDigit==5)
            {
            switch(Period())
               {
               case 1: nShift = 10 *MyPoint;   break;    
               case 5: nShift = 20 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 15: nShift = 20 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 30: nShift = 20 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 60: nShift = 20 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 240: nShift = 50 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 1440: nShift = 50 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 10080: nShift = 100 *MyPoint;   break; 
               case 43200: nShift = 200  *MyPoint;   break;               
               }
            }
//==== ARROW SHIFT ADJUSTMENT ========end

hope it help and best regard

#5
Nov 12, 2013 7:44am Nov 12, 2013 7:44am

Gumrai
Joined Oct 2012 | Status: Trader | 1,959 Posts

Quoting Kiads

Disliked

{quote} I use noob way to automatically adjust arrow position depend on TF, and put switch in init area like this; //==== ARROW SHIFT ADJUSTMENT ========begin int SetDigit =MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_DIGITS); int MyPoint =MarketInfo(Symbol(),MODE_POINT); //---- if (SetDigit==2 || SetDigit==4) { switch(Period()) { case 1: nShift = 1 *MyPoint; break; case 5: nShift = 2 *MyPoint; break; case 15: nShift = 2 *MyPoint; break; case 30: nShift = 2 *MyPoint; break; case 60: nShift = 2 *MyPoint; break; case 240: nShift = 5 *MyPoint; break; case 1440: nShift...

Ignored

I wouldn't call that a noob way
I'm a noob and i have not been able to get my head around case and switch

Please Do Not PM Me With Coding Enquiries

#6
Edited 11:32am Jan 27, 2020 9:38am | Edited 11:32am

tdbarnard
| Joined Dec 2009 | Status: Trader | 4 Posts

I thought I'd share my approach to aligning arrows a consistent # of pixels from a bar's high/low. The technique involves using OnChartEvent(). There is a slight lag (approximately quarter of a second on my laptop) between manually changing the chart's scale and the arrow position updates which is a function of the rate at which MT4 is calling the OnChartEvent function, but this approach works well for me.

OnChartEvent function:

Inserted Code

void OnChartEvent(const int id, const long &lparm, const double &dparm, const string &sparm)
{
    if(id == CHARTEVENT_CHART_CHANGE)
    {
        if(ChartGetInteger(0, CHART_SCALE) == PrevChartScale) return;
        PrevChartScale = (int)ChartGetInteger(0, CHART_SCALE);
        for(int i = WindowFirstVisibleBar(); i >= 0; i--)
        {
            if(BuyBuffer[i] > 0.0) AdjustArrow(+1, Time[i], BuyBuffer[i]);
            if(SellBuffer[i] > 0.0) AdjustArrow(-1, Time[i], SellBuffer[i]);
        }
    }
}

Note1: The above code assumes the arrow buffers have been set up with SetIndexEmptyValue to 0.0
Note2: +1/-1 informs the AdjustArrow function as to the direction of the pixel adjustment.

Function to adjust arrow position:

Inserted Code

void AdjustArrow(const int dir, const datetime time, const double bar_price)
{
    int bar_x, bar_y, win;
    double price;
    datetime dt;
 
    ChartTimePriceToXY(0, 0, time, bar_price, bar_x, bar_y);
    if(dir == +1) ChartXYToTimePrice(0, bar_x, bar_y+12, win, dt, price);
    if(dir == -1) ChartXYToTimePrice(0, bar_x, bar_y-14, win, dt, price);
}

Note: The pixel offsets (12, 14) set the number of pixels away from the low/high to place the arrow(s).

Finally, wherever you set your arrow buffer values, include a call to AdjustArrow when the buffer is first set.

Example:

Inserted Code

    .
    .
    .
    SellBuffer[shift] = high[shift];
    if(shift <= WindowFirstVisibleBar()) AdjustArrow(-1, time[shift], SellBuffer[shift]);
    .
    .
    .

#7
Last Post: Jan 28, 2020 5:45pm Jan 28, 2020 5:45pm

tdbarnard
| Joined Dec 2009 | Status: Trader | 4 Posts

A follow-up to my prior post. The above code doesn't adjust arrow placement if you disable auto-scroll and then scroll back/forth through the data. In order to do that add

EventSetMillisecondTimer(100);

somewhere within the indicator's OnInit() function, prior to the "return(INI_SUCCEEDED);" call.

Then add the following two functions to the indicator's source file (I typically place them right after the OnInit() function).
Note: If you already have an OnDeinit() function in your source file simply add the "EventKillTimer();" at the end of it (and prior to any other "return" calls that may be defined within that function).

Inserted Code

void OnDeinit(const int reason)
{
    EventKillTimer();
}
 
void OnTimer()
{
    static int Prev1stVisibleBar = 0;
    if(WindowFirstVisibleBar() == Prev1stVisibleBar) return;
    Prev1stVisibleBar = WindowFirstVisibleBar();
    for(int i = WindowFirstVisibleBar(); i >= 0; i--)
    {
        if(BuyBuffer[i] > 0.0)  PlaceArrow(+1, Time[i], BuyBuffer[i]);
        if(SellBuffer[i] > 0.0) PlaceArrow(-1, Time[i], SellBuffer[i]);
    }
}

and the arrow positions will be updated as you scroll through the data.

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Perfect placing of arrows on the chart
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Perfect placing of arrows on the chart