RedK Relative Strength Ribbon: RS Ribbon and RS ChartsRedK Relative Strength Ribbon (RedK RS_Ribbon) is TA tool that plots the Relative Strength of the current chart symbol against another symbol, or an index of choice. It enables us to see when a stock is gaining strength (or weakness) relative to (an index that represents) the market, and when it hits new highs or lows of that relative strength, which may lead to better trading decisions.
I searched TV for existing RS indicators but didn't find what I really wanted, so I put this together and added some additional features for my own use. It started as a simple RS line with new x-weeks Hi/Lo markers, then evolved into what you see here in v1.0 with the ability to plot a full RS chart in regular or HA candle types. Hope this will be useful to some other growth traders here on TV.
What is Relative Strength (RS)
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(RS is a comprehensive concept in TA, below is a quick summary - please research further if it's not already a familiar topic)
Relative Strength (RS) is a technical concept / indicator used mainly by growth / swing / momentum traders to compare the performance of one security or asset against another. RS measures the price performance of a specific security relative to a benchmark, such as an index or another asset. It's not to be confused with the famous Relative Strength Index (RSI) technical indicator
For example, In the context of comparing a stock's relative strength to the SPY (S&P 500) index, the relative strength calculation involves dividing the stock's price or price-related value (e.g., close price) by the corresponding value of the SPY index. The resulting ratio (and its trend over time) indicates the relative performance of the stock compared to the index.
Traders and investors use relative strength analysis to identify securities that have been showing relative strength or weakness compared to a benchmark, which can help in making investment decisions or identifying the "market leaders" and potential trading opportunities.
There are so many books and documentation about the RS concept and its importance to identify market leaders, especially when recovering from a bear market - if you're interested in the concept, please search more about it and review some of that literature. There's also a more detailed definition of Relative Strength in this article on Invstopedia
RedK RS_Ribbon features and options
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The indicator settings provide many options and features - see the settings box below
- Change / choose base symbol
The default is to use SPY as the base symbol - so we're comparing the chart's symbol to a proxy of the S&P 500 - Some traders may prefer to use the QQQ - or other index or ETF that acts as a proxy for the industry / sector / market they are trading
- RS Calculation / RS line
we use the simple form of the RS calculation,
RS = closing price of current chart symbol / closing price of the base symbol (default is SPY) * 100
some RS documentation will use the Rate of Change (RoC) - but that's not what we're using here.
- The RS_Ribbon
* Once the RS line is plotted, it made sense to add couple of moving averages to it, to make it easier to observe the trend of the RS and the changes in that trend as you can see in the sample chart on top.
* The RS_Ribbon is made up of a fast and slow moving averages and will change color (green / red) based on detected trend RS direction - the 2 MA types and lengths can be changed until you get the setup that provides the best view for you of the RS trend over time. My preferred settings are used as defaults here.
- Identifying New (x)Week Hi/Lo RS Values
* Most traders would be interested when the calculated RS hits a new 52-week high or low value.
* There are cases where we may want to see when a new RS Hi/Lo has been hit for a different period - for example, a quarter (13 weeks)
* the number of weeks can be changed as well as adjusting the numbers of trading days per week (if needed for certain symbols/exchanges)
- Working with Different Timeframes
* Now these "markers" will only be available in the daily and weekly timeframes and there is a good reason for that, it's not the fact that i'm lazy :) and that enabling this in timeframes lower than 1D would have been some heavy lifting, but the reality is that with RS, we're really interested if a "day's close" hits a new RS high or low value against the moving window of x weeks (and the weeks close also) - if you think of this more, at lower TF, RS can hit a lower value that never end up registering on the daily closing and that causes a lot of visual confusion. So i took the "cleaner way out" of that issue.
* note that you can choose a different timeframe for the RS_Ribbon than the chart - if you do, please make sure the chart is at a lower timeframe than the indicator's - (and in that case remember to hide the candles because they won't make much sense)
i wanted to leverage TV's built-in multi-Timeframe (MTF) support with the caveat that using the indicator at lower TF with a chart at a higher TF (example chart at 1Wk and indicator at 1D) will show inaccurate results. If this sounds confusing, keep the indicator TF same as the chart.
the example here shows a 2-Hr chart against 1D RS_Ribbon
- Using RS Charts and RS Candles
* Beside the ability to plot the RS "closing" value with the RS line, the indicator provides the ability to show a "full" RS Chart with candles that represent the relative values of open, high, low. and close against the base symbol.
* the RS Charts can be used for regular chart analysis, for example, we can identify common chart patterns like Cup & Handle, VCP, Head & Shoulder..etc using these charts .. which can provide some edge over the price charts
* for the Heikin Ashi fans, I added the ability to choose classic or HA candles for the chart. note you have to enable the option to show the RS candles first before you choose the option to switch to HA.
The chart below shows a side-by-side comparison on the 2 RS chart types
Closing remarks
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* RS is a good way to identify market/sector leaders (who will usually recover from a bear market before others) - and enable us to see the strength that comes from the broader makrket versus the one that comes from the stock's own performance and identify good trading opportunities
* I'll continue to update this work and alerts will come in next version - but wanted to check initial reaction and value
* as usual, if you decide to use this in your chart analysis, it's necessary to combine with other momentum, trend, ...etc indicators and do not make trading decision only based on the signales from a single indicator
Redk
Directional Volume EStimate from Price Action (RedK D_VESPA)The "Directional Volume EStimate from Price Action (RedK D_VESPA)" is another weapon for the VPA (Volume Price Analysis) enthusiasts and traders who like to include volume-based insights & signals to their trading. The basic concept is to estimate the sell and buy split of the traded volume by extrapolating the price action represented by the shape of the associated price bar. We then create and plot an average of these "estimated buy & sell volumes" - the estimated average Net Volume is the balance between these 2 averages.
D_VESPA uses clear visualizations to represent the outcomes in a less distracting and more actionable way.
How does D_VESPA work?
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The key assumption is that when price moves up, this is caused by "buy" volume (or increasing demand), and when the price moves down, this is due to "selling" volume (or increasing supply). Important to note that we are making our Buy/sell volume estimates here based on the shape of the price bar, and not looking into lower time frame volume data - This is a different approach and is still aligned to the key concepts of VPA.
Originally this work started as an improvement to my Supply/Demand Volume Viewer (V.Viewer) , I ended up re-writing the whole thing after some more research and work on VPA, to improve the estimation, visualization and usability / tradability.
Think of D_VESPA as the "Pro" version of V.Viewer -- and please go back and review the details of V.Viewer as the root concepts are the same so I won't repeat them here (as it comes to exploring Balance Zone and finding Price Convergence/Divergence)
Main Features of D_VESPA
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- Update Supply/Demand calculation to include 2-bar gaps (improved algo)
- Add multiple options for the moving average (MA type) for the calculation - my preference is to use WMA
- Add option to show Net Volume as 3-color bars
- Visual simplification and improvements to be less distracting & more actionable
- added options to display/hide main visuals while maintaining the status line consistency (Avg Supply, Avg Demand, Avg Net)
- add alerts for NetVol moving into Buy (crosses 0 up) or Sell (crosses 0 down) modes - or swing from one mode to the other
(there are actually 2 sets of alerts, one set for the main NetVol plot, and the other for the secondary TF NetVol - give user more options on how to utilize D_VESPA)
Quick techie piece, how does the estimated buy/sell volume algo work ?
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* per our assumption, buy volume is associated with price up-moves, sell volume is associated with price down-moves
* so each of the bulls and bears will get the equivalent of the top & bottom wicks,
* for up bars, bulls get the value of the "body", else the bears get the "body"
* open gaps are allocated to bulls or bears depending on the gap direction
The below sketch explains how D_VESPA estimates the Buy/Sell Volume split based on the bar shape (including gap) - the example shows a bullish bar with an opening gap up - but the concept is the same for a down-bar or a down-gap.
I kept both the "Volume Weighted" and "2-bar Gap Impact" as options in the indicator settings - these 2 options should be always kept selected. They are there for those who would like to experiment with the difference these changes have on the buy/sell estimation. The indicator will handle cases where there is no volume data for the selected symbol, and in that case, it will simply reflect Average Estimated Bull/Bear ratio of the price bar
The Secondary TF Est Average Net Volume:
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I added the ability to plot the Estimate Average Net Volume for a secondary timeframe - options 1W, 1D, 1H, or Same as Chart.
- this feature provides traders the confidence to trade the lower timeframes in the same direction as the prevailing "market mode"
- this also adds more MTF support beyond the existing TradingView's built-in MTF support capability - experiment with various settings between exposing the indicator's secondary TF plot, and changing the TF option in the indicator settings.
Note on the secondary TF NetVol plot:
- the secondary TF needs to be set to same as or higher TF than the chart's TF - if not, a warning sign would show and the plot will not be enabled. for example, a day trader may set the secondary TF to 1Hr or 1Day, while looking at 5min or 15min chart. A swing/trend trader who frequently uses the daily chart may set the secondary TF to weekly, and so on..
- the secondary TF NetVol plot is hidden by default and needs to be exposed thru the indicator settings.
the below chart shows D_VESPA on a the same (daily) chart, but with secondary TF plot for the weekly TF enabled
Final Thoughts
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* RedK D_VESPA is a volume indicator, that estimates buy/sell and net volume averages based on the price action reflected by the shape of the price bars - this can provide more insight on volume compared to the classic volume/VolAverage indicator and assist traders in exploring the market mode (buyers/sellers - bullish/bearish) and align trades to it.
* Because D_VESPA is a volume indicator, it can't be used alone to generate a trading signal - and needs to be combined with other indicators that analysis price value (range), momentum and trend. I recommend to at least combine D_VESPA with a variant of MACD and RSI to get a full view of the price action relative to the prevailing market and the broader trend.
* I found it very useful to take note and "read" how the Est Buy vs Est Sell lines move .. they sort of "tell a story" - experiment with this on your various chart and note the levels of estimate avg demand vs estimate avg supply that this indicator exposes for some very valuable insight about how the chart action is progressing. Please feel free to share feedback below.
RedK DIY ZLMA: Customizable Zero-Lag MA (Educational / Utility)This script is more of an educational / utility piece rather than a fully-fledged indicator - It provides an easy way to customize and produce a zero-lag Moving average that can then be used in various scenarios
What is DIY_ZLMA?
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The DIY ZLMA is for fans and enthusiasts of researching Moving Averages (like me) - the script enables the user to play around with one of the common approaches used to reduce lag in moving averages - which was explained in this old post below
Suggested uses of the DIY_ZLMA
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* The Zero-lag approach here applies 3 moving average passes to a source data series - I'll refer to these 3 passes as Base MA Pass , De-lagging Pass, and Smoothing Pass - these "passes" can be customized from the indicator settings in terms of MA Length and type. The first pass allows the choice of a "source", and the second pass allows additional fine tuning by playing around with the magnification factor. The 3rd pass (smoothing) is optional and can be skipped altogether when needed. (as noted in the script, HMA and TEMA, which are very common low-lag MA's use slightly different approach in the calculation than the one used here .. so we can't get an equivalent of either of these MA's with the customization of DIY_ZLMA parameters)
* After the user experiments with the various settings for the 3 passes, and finds a "preferred combination", the script not only plots the resulting My_ZLMA - it also produces the "1-line Pine script formula" that the user can then use in any other script, maybe to smoothen some data series, or to combine with other types of moving averages to create multi-MA cross-over trading signals... and so on.
* The DIY_ZLMA can also be added to another indicator as a signal line using the Indicator-on-Indicator feature of TradingView (review this post for step-by-step -->
)
* the script also showcases couple of recent (and very neat) Pine features: the use of User-defined Types (UDT) and User-defined Methods - which are awesome and a lot of fun to work with :)
Since this is more of a utility piece, I added as many comments as possible to the script to explain the way it works - so it's more valuable if someone finds it by searching the "Add Indicator" feature in TradingView charts
Please feel free to play around with this new toy :) and share comments and feedback below if you find this useful. I truly hope you do.
RedK EVEREX - Effort Versus Results ExplorerRedK EVEREX is an experimental indicator that explores "Volume Price Analysis" basic concepts and Wyckoff law "Effort versus Result" - by inspecting the relative volume (effort) and the associated (relative) price action (result) for each bar - showing the analysis as an easy to read "stacked bands" visual. From that analysis, we calculate a "Relative Rate of Flow" - an easy to use +100/-100 oscilator that can be used to trigger a signal when a bullish or bearish mode is detected for a certain user-selected length of bars.
Basic Concepts of VPA
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(The topics of VPA & Wyckoff Effort vs Results law are too comprehensive to cover here - So here's just a very basic summary - please review these topics in detail in various sources available here in TradingView or on the web)
* Volume Price Analysis (VPA) is the examination of the number of shares or contracts of a security that have been traded in a given period, and the associated price movement. By analyzing trends in volume in conjunction with price movements, traders can determine the significance of changes in price and what may unfold in the near future.
* Oftentimes, high volumes of trading can infer a lot about investors’ outlook on a market or security. A significant price increase along with a significant volume increase, for example, could be a credible sign of a continued bullish trend or a bullish reversal. Adversely, a significant price decrease with a significant volume increase can point to a continued bearish trend or a bearish trend reversal.
* Incorporating volume into a trading decision can help an investor to have a more balanced view of all the broad market factors that could be influencing a security’s price, which helps an investor to make a more informed decision.
* Wyckoff's law "Effort versus results" dictates that large effort is expected to be accompanied with big results - which means that we should expect to see a big price move (result) associated with a large relative volume (effort) for a certain trading period (bar).
* The way traders use this concept in chart analysis is to mainly look for imbalances or invalidation. for example, when we observe a large relative volume that is associated with very limited price change - that should trigger an early flag/warning sign that the current price trend is facing challenges and may be an early sign of "reversal" - this applies in both bearish and bullish conditions. on the other hand, when price starts to trend in a certain direction and that's associated with increasing volume, that can act as kind of validation, or a confirmation that the market supports that move.
How does EVEREX work
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* EVEREX inspects each bar and calculates a relative value for volume (effort) and "strength of price movement" (result) compared to a specified lookback period. The results are then visualized as stacked bands - the lower band represents the relative volume, the upper band represents the relative price strength - with clear color coding for easier analysis.
* The scale of the band is initially set to 100 (each band can occupy up to 50) - and that can be changed in the settings to 200 or 400 - mainly to allow a "zoom in" on the bands.
* Reading the resulting stacked bands makes it easier to see "balanced" volume/price action (where both bands are either equally strong, or equally weak), or when there's imbalance between volume and price (for example, a compression bar will show with high volume band and very small/tiny price action band) - another favorite pattern in VPA is the "Ease of Move", which will show as a relatively small volume band associated with a large "price action band" (either bullish or bearish) .. and so on.
* a bit of a techie piece: why the use of a custom "Normalize()" function to calculate "relative" values in EVEREX?
When we evaluate a certain value against an average (for example, volume) we need a mechanism to deal with "super high" values that largely exceed that average - I also needed a mechanism that mimics how a trader looks at a volume bar and decides that this volume value is super low, low, average, above average, high or super high -- the issue with using a stoch() function, which is the usual technique for comparing a data point against a lookback average, is that this function will produce a "zero" for low values, and cause a large distortion of the next few "ratios" when super large values occur in the data series - i researched multiple techniques here and decided to use the custom Normalize() function - and what i found is, as long as we're applying the same formula consistently to the data series, since it's all relative to itself, we can confidently use the result. Please feel free to play around with this part further if you like - the code is commented for those who would like to research this further.
* Overall, the hope is to make the bar-by-bar analysis easier and faster for traders who apply VPA concepts in their trading
What is RROF?
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* Once we have the values of relative volume and relative price strength, it's easy from there to combine these values into a moving index that can be used to track overall strength and detect reversals in market direction - if you think about it this a very similar concept to a volume-weighted RSI. I call that index the "Relative Rate of Flow" - or RROF (cause we're not using the direct volume and price values in the calculation, but rather relative values that we calculated with the proprietary "Normalize" function in the script.
* You can show RROF as a single or double-period - and you can customize it in terms of smoothing, and signal line - and also utilize the basic alerts to get notified when a change in strength from one side to the other (bullish vs bearish) is detected
* In the chart above, you can see how the RROF was able to detect change in market condition from Bearsh to Bullish - then from Bullish to Bearish for TSLA with good accuracy.
Other Usage Options in EVEREX
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* I wrote EVEREX with a lot of flexibility and utilization in mind, while focusing on a clean and easy to use visual - EVEREX should work with any time frame and any instrument - in instruments with no volume data, only price data will be used.
* You can completely hide the "EVEREX bands" and use EVEREX as a single or dual period strength indicator (by exposing the Bias/Sentiment plot which is hidden by default) -
here's how this setup would look like - in this mode, you will basically be using EVEREX the same way you're using a volume-weighted RSI
* or you can hide the bias/sentiment, and expose the Bulls & Bears plots (using the indicator's "Style" tab), and trade it like a Bull/Bear Pressure Index like this
* you can choose Moving Average type for most plot elements in EVEREX, including how to deal with the Lookback averaging
* you can set EVEREX to a different time frame than the chart
* did i mention basic alerts in this v1.0 ?? There's room to add more VPA-specific alerts in future version (for example, when Ease-of-Move or Compression bars are detected...etc) - let me know if the comments what you want to see
Final Thoughts
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* EVEREX can be used for bar-by-bar VPA analysis - There are so much literature out there about VPA and it's highly recommended that traders read more about what VPA is and how it works - as it adds an interesting (and critical) dimension to technical analysis and will improve decision making
* RROF is a "strength indicator" - it does not track price values (levels) or momentum - as you will see when you use it, the price can be moving up, while the RROF signal line starts moving down, reflecting decreasing strength (or otherwise, increasing bear strength) - So if you incorporate EVEREX in your trading you will need to use it alongside other momentum and price value indicators (like MACD, MA's, Trend Channels, Support & Resistance Lines, Fib / Donchian..etc) - to use for trade confirmation
RedK TrendBeads: 3 x MA Crossover Signal with Preset TemplatesRedK TrendBeads is a super simple 3 x Moving Average Crossover Signal (Long/Short/Break) script that provides a simple and effective way for traders to identify potential trading opportunities. By combining three moving averages and only exposing a simple signal, the script helps filter out noise and focus on the trend and the trade execution.
Background
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A 3 x Moving Average Crossover strategy is a popular trading method in technical analysis . It uses the relationship between a fast, medium, and slow moving averages to generate buy or sell signals.
The approach usually utilizes three moving averages to track the average price of a financial instrument over different time periods. By comparing the fast, medium, and slow moving averages, we can generates a signal to trade long or short
If the fast moving average crosses above the medium moving average and the medium moving average is above the slow moving average, we have a probability of an up-trend forming, and we generate a signal to go long. Conversely, if the fast moving average crosses below the medium moving average and the medium moving average is below the slow moving average, we have a probability of a down-trend forming, and we generate a signal to go short. When the moving averages are not in the right order (above or below each other), we have a trend break, usually on consolidation or base forming.
in TrendBeads, the fastest MA is called "Price Proxy MA" and will be used with a relatively short length to represent the price itself - then there are the Fast MA, Slow MA and a Filter MA (usually with the longest/slowest length) which is the main line that will be used to plot the TrendBeads - So the TrendBeads will represent the state of the other 3 Moving Average lines (Proxy, Fast and Slow) and how they are aligned - and it will also be common to use the Filter / Beads line itself as a main filter, i.e., take long positions *only* when the price action is above the Filter MA, and short positions *only* when the price is below the Filter MA.
So what is different with TrendBeads:
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Simplicity, No Clutter: I put this together to provide a super simple mechanism to track trend on the price chart without so much noise as i also wanted to have other top-chart indicators (like LadderTrader) - so TrendBeads only shows the "beads" on the chart - they act like "traffic lights" with little distracting information - Simplicity here was deliberately part if the idea
Presets, What others are Watching: The other feature I needed was the ability to track price action against "different sets" of Moving Averages quickly - for example, when executing short-term trades, I needed to use Moving Averages with shorter length and want to utilize my RSS_WMA MA type - but when assessing big breakout opportunities, I need to analyze price action against a different set of MA's with (usually) longer length and mainly SMA's (hint, The Minervini template) - This is where the built-in Preset Templates become very useful.
Having these preset templates quickly available (thru the dropdown in indicator settings) provides time saving, convenience and the confidence that we're looking at what other traders are using in their analysis - so not missing out on key-level breakouts or reversals
TrendBeads v1.0 includes the following 5 preset MA templates
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Preset 1 : RedK_1: 8RSS / 15RSS / 21RSS / 30SMA
Preset 2 : RedK_2: 5WMA / 10SMA / 20SMA / 40SMA
Preset 3 : SWNG_1: 7EMA / 21EMA / 30EMA / 50SMA
Preset 4 : SWNG_2: 10EMA / 21EMA / 50SMA / 100SMA
Preset 5 : SWNG_3: 10EMA / 21EMA / 100SMA / 200SMA
The above presets represent some of the most common sets of MA's traders use in various scenarios (Short-term/day trading, Swing, Long term / growth). Well, except for the first one since it utilizes my own RSS_WMA :) which I use in many charts
I may add some more presets in future.
below chart shows an example of different presets against AAPL for the same time range / window
There's also the ability to manually set different MA source price, MA type and length for each of the 4 MA lines. Supported MA types are SMA , EMA , WMA , HMA and my RSS_WMA
TrendBeads Usage Tips:
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*If you have used any MA crossover (2 lines or 3 lines) on your chart, your should find TradeBeads very easy to use. TrendBeads works the same way except that the signal will show as colored beads on the Filter MA line instead of showing multiple crossing lines .. and that is by design.
* Feel free to expose any or all of the individual MA lines - for example, i find that exposing the Proxy Line helps in quickly finding famous chart patterns ( cup & handle , H&S ..etc)
* Experiment with the different presets depending on the type of trade you're working on (swing, long term growth candidates, day trades..etc)
* Note that in a long trend up (Aqua Beads), usually the first gray + orange sequence will usually act as a "reversal sign" - and are usually not actionable - always look for the "second" color sequence to action/trade .. Same thing for a long trend down -- get used to how the beads change color against the trend changes and play with various timeframes.
* As usual - we should have other indicators that track strength, volume , etc and ensure proper confirmation before trade execution - A good signal is only a small part of a trade - risk management and good trade execution are key to winning.
Hope some fellow traders will find this useful - feel free to leave me any comments or feedback - Good luck!
RedK K-MACD : a MACD with some more musclesMoving Averages are probably the most commonly used analysis tools, and MACD is possibly the first charting indicator a trader gets to learn about.
MACD Basic concept
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Without repeating all the tons of documentation about what MACD does, let's quickly re-visit the MACD concept from a 10-mile altitude (note we're keen on simplifying here rather than being technically accurate - so please forgive the use of any "common lingos")
- MACD goal is to represent the distance between 2 Moving Averages (MAs) - one fast and one slow, relatively - as an unrestricted zero-based oscillator.
- The value of the main MACD line is the distance, or the displacement between the 2 MA's
- usually a signal line is used (which is another MA of that distance value) to enable better visualization of the change (and rate of change, since this is all depicted on a time axis) of that displacement - this represents price momentum (price movement in the recent period versus movements for a relatively longer period).
- the difference between the main MACD line and its signal is then represented as a histogram above and below the zero line. in this case, that histogram is really redundant, since it shows a value that is already represented visually by the main line and its signal line.
How K-MACD is different
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K-MACD takes that simple concept of the classic MACD and expands around it - the idea is to use the same simple approach to representing price momentum while bringing in more insight to price moves in the short, medium and long terms, ability to represent more than 2 MA's and to enable better identification of tradeable patterns (like Volatility Contraction and others) - while still keeping things simple and visually clean.
K-MACD is an indicator that allows us to view how price moves against 3 moving averages: a fast / slow pair, and a "market" Filter or Baseline (very long) that will be used as a flag for Bear/Bull market mode. Many traders and trading literature use the 200 day (40 week) SMA as that key filter
so in total, there are 4 MA lines in K-MACD (excluding the "orange" signal line):
* Price Proxy: Which is a very fast moving average that will represent the price itself - let's use a WMA(3) or something close to that here - there will be a signal line to enable better visualization of this similar to a classic MACD - that's the orange line
* Fast & Slow MA's : Use whatever represents the "medium term" momentum for your trading - Some traders use 20 and 50, others use 10 and 20 .. if on your price chart, you keep using a pair of MA's for this, use the same settings in K-MACD - these will be represented by the 3-color Momentum Bars that fluctuate above and below the baseline
* Filter/Baseline MA: Should be your long (Bullish/Bearish Mode) MA. so 100 or 200 or any other value you consider your market to be bearish below and bullish above. on K-MACD this is actually the blue zero line - everything else is "relative" to it
Review the sample chart which explains various elements and the "price chart" setup that K-MACD represents. With K-MACD you can clean up your chart from those various Moving Averages - or use a different set than the ones you already have K-MACD represent - or other indicators (like ATR channels..etc)
Other "muscles" in the K-MACD
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- Relative vs Classic Calculation Mode
A key issue with the classic MACD is that the displacement between the 2 moving averages is represented as "absolute or direct" values - as the price of the underlying increases with time, you can't really use these values to make useful comparison between the past and now (see below example) - also you can't use them to compare 2 different instruments.
- The "Relative" calculation option in K-MACD addresses that issue by relating all "distances" to the Baseline MA as percentage (above or below) - you can see this clear when you look at the above chart the far left versus the far right and compare K-MACD with the classic MACD - the Classic option is still available
- More MA "type" options for all MA lines: choose between SMA, EMA, WMA, and RSS_WMA (which i use a lot in my trading and is my default for the Price Proxy)
- More Alerts: a total or 9 alerts (in 3 groups) are available with K-MACD (Momentum above or below baseline, Price Proxy crossing signal line, and Price Proxy crossing baseline)
- New 52 week High / Low markers: These will show as Green/red circles on the zero line in K-MACD. this will only work for 1D timeframe and above, i'm just using a simple approach and would like to keep it that way.
- i know i added some more features not covered above :) -- if you have questions about any of the settings, feel free to ask below
Closing thoughts
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K-MACD is a combination of couple of indicators i published in the past (xMACD and Mo_Bars) - so you can go back and read about them if needed - I then added improvements to accommodate ideas from swing trading literature and common practices that i plan to focus on in future. So K-MACD is really part of my own trading setup.
I assume here that most traders are familiar with what a MACD is - so kept this post short - if you thing we should expand more about the concepts covered here let me know in the comments - i can make some separate posts with examples and more details.
I hope many fellow traders find this work useful - and feel free let me know in comments below if you do.
RedK Chop & Breakout Scout (C&B_Scout)The RedK Chop & Breakout Scout (C&BS or just CBS) is a centered oscillator that helps traders identify when the price is in a chop zone, where it's recommended to avoid trading or exit existing trades - and helps identify (good & tradeable) price breakouts.
i receive many questions asking for simple ways to identify chops .. Here's one way we can do that.
(This is work in progress - i was exploring with the idea, and wasn't sure how interesting other may find it. )
Quick Intro:
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Quick techno piece: This concept is similar to a Stochastic Oscillator - with the main difference being that we're utilizing units of ATR (instead of a channel width) to calculate the main indicator line - which will then lead to a non-restricted oscillator (rather than a +/- 100%) - given that ATR changes with the underlying and the timeframe, among other variables.
to make this easy, and avoid a lot of technical speak in the next part, :) i created (on the top price panel) the same setup that the C&B Scout represents as a lower-panel indicator.
So as you read below, please look back and compare what C&BS is doing in its lower panel, with how the price is behaving on the price chart.
how this works
========================
- To identify chops and breakouts, we need to first agree on a definition that we will use for these terms.
- for the sake of this exercise, let's agree that the price is in a chop zone, as long as the price is moving within a certain distance from a "price baseline" of choice ( which we can adjust based on the underlying, the volatility, the timeframe, the trading style..etc)
- when the price moves out of that chop zone, we consider this a breakout
- Now not all breakouts are "good" = they need to at least happen in the direction of the longer term trend. In this case, we can apply a long Moving Average to act as a filter - and consider breakouts to be "good" if they are in the same direction as the filter line
- With the above background in mind, we establish a price baseline (as you see on the top panel, this is based on the midline of a Donchian Channel - but we can use other slow moving averages in future versions)
- we will decide how far above/below that baseline is considered to be "chop zone" - we do this in terms of units of Average True Range (ATR) - using ATR here is valuable for so many reasons, most of all, how it adjusts to timeframe and volatility of underlying.
- The C&B Scout line simply calculates how far the price is above/below the baseline in terms of "ATR units". and shows how that value compares to our own definition of a "chop zone"
- so as long as the price is within the chop zone, the CBS line will be inside the shaded area - and when the price "breaks out" of the chop zone, the CBS line will also breakout (or down) from the chop zone.
- C&B Scout will give a visual clue to help take trades in the direction of the prevailing trend - the chop zone is green when the price is in "long mode", as in, the price is above the filter line - and will be red when we are in "short mode" - so the price is below the filter line. in green mode, we should only consider breakouts to the upside, and ignore breakouts to the downside (or breakdowns) - in red mode, we should only consider breakouts to the downside., and ignore the ones to the upside.
- i added some examples of "key actions" on the chart to help explain the approach here further.
Usage & settings Notes:
========================
- even though for many traders this will be a basic concept/setup, i still highly suggest you spend time getting used to how it works/reacts and adjusting the settings to suit your own trading style, timeframe, tolerance, what you trade....etc
- for example, if i am a conservative trader, i may consider any price movement within 1 x ATR above and below the baseline to be in "chop" (ATR Channel width = 2 x ATR) - and i want to only take trades when the price moves outside of that range *and* in the direction of the prevailing trend
- An aggressive trader may use a smaller ATR-based value, say 0.5 x ATR above/below the baseline, as their chop zone.
- A swing trader may use a shorter filter line and focus on the CBS line crossing the 0 line.
- .... and so on.
- Also note that the "tradeable" signal is when the CBS line "exits" the chop zone (upward on green background, or downward on red background) - however, an aggressive trader may take the crossing of the CBS line with the 0 line as the signal to open a trade.
- As usual please do not use this indicator "in isolation" and ensure you have other confirming signals from your setups before trading.
conclusion
===========
As i mentioned, this is really a simple concept - and i'm a big fan of those :) -- and there's so much that could be done to expand around it (add more visuals/colors, add alerts, add options for ATR calculation, Filter line calculations, baseline..etc) - but with this v1.0, i wanted to share this initially and see how much interest and how valuable fellow traders find it, before playing any further with it. so please be generous with your comments.
RedK Dual VADER with Energy Bars (VADER-DEB)VADER-DEB is not really a new indicator - This is a "visually enhanced" version of the Volume-Accelerated Directional Energy Ratio (VADER) I recently published - here's the direct link to read more about how RedK VADER works and how to use it (click the chart below to visit the link)
The visual improvements I added in VADER-DEB helps bring more insight about the market action by
1) exposing the dual/long VADER plot by default (which we use as a proxy for sentiment) - and it shows now as an area (instead of a histogram) - You can still hide the sentiment plot in indicator settings
and
2) by using directional "energy bars" (instead of energy lines in v3.0). Optional Red/Green DER Lines are available in study settings and are hidden by default.
So this is Dual VADER w/ Energy Bars -- or VADER-DEB for short.
These changes may be considered by some as small, but in my view, I found them to be more visually appealing and better for "driving action" - This works better for me as a visual person - so i thought to share with others who may be like me .. This is why i decided to publish this as a separate version and not as an update to the existing indicator - so you can make the choice which one you prefer to use.
There's no change in the core calculation within the code. As shown by the chart above where we compare both VADER versions side-by-side.
If you're happy with VADER v3.0, please feel free to continue to use it.
good luck !
RedK Momentum Bars (RedK Mo_Bars)Momentum Bars (Mo_Bars) offers a different way to visualize (relative) momentum - and uses some simple TA concepts to provide a different perspective into how we read momentum changes and incorporate that in our trading.
The idea here (and the script itself) is really super simple, and is (very loosely) inspired by Elder's Impulse System (EIS) - then evolved to leverage some other concepts, and to become less cluttering and "easier to read".
The construction of the Mo_Bars
---------------------------------------------
The base concept utilizes 3 moving average lines :
the first line is a relatively fast MA with a short length - acts as the main price tracking line
the second line is slightly slower than the main line - 2 to 3 bars longer length - and will by default use the open value as source - this works better to identify when the closing price starts to move faster than the open (as in, bars more frequently close higher than they open) - this line acts as the signal line - there's an added setting for an additional delay that utilizes regular WMA smoothing - the delay acts to magnify the relative displacement between the 2 MAs
for both these MA's, i choose to use the RSS MA (Lazy Line) - other MA types can be used, but the reason i used that MA type specifically is that it moves "gracefully" - and 2 Lazy Lines moving together minimizes whipsaws from small price swings - i tested with other MA types and found that the RSS has an advantage there.
the third line is a much slower MA (length 5 to 6 x the fast line) - and acts as a filter or a baseline. When we're above that line, we should favor long positions - we're in bull territory. When we're below that line we favor short positions, and we're in bear territory. Adjust this line as it suits your trading style and time frame.
(I choose to use WMA as the MA type for the filter line .. and there's a good reason for that - which i'll skip for now - but in future versions, we can add other selectable MA types. )
Using Mo_Bars
----------------------------
at a very broad level, we can use Mo_Bars similar to how we use a MACD - both are centered and unrestricted oscillators - note the difference that Mo_Bars is based on 3 MA's rather than 2.
the Mo_Bar bar length reflects the distance between the main MA and the signal MA - plotted relative to the baseline (filter line) - that means that the length of the bar represents the relative momentum between the 2 MA's - The Mo_Bars are then colored in a way that reflects increase or decrease in the value of that momentum (the visual here may have been inspired by another indicator recently published by one of our esteemed wizards - it worked perfectly - so due credits here :)
-- in simple terms, if the main MA is below the signal MA, the bar is red - and when the main MA is above the signal MA, the bar is green - a white bar usually shows up when there's a detected change of relative momentum direction (note that this is not the same as the trend direction - and that's what helps show and exploit convergence and divergence - similar to a MACD)
* in the chart above, i noted few examples of how visualizing relative momentum in this way exposes areas of chop (Mo_Bars above zero but are in red or moving down, or when Mo_Bars are below zero and green or moving up) - convergence / divergence with price - and how this can act to expose the possibility of potential changes in price action or trend.
* there's so much more to play around with this setup - and maybe if there's enough interest there can be future dedicated posts on how utilize or even to evolve it further - there's a lot of potential here, to add more filters (maybe volume based), alerts, signals...etc - so let's see the interest :)
Here's the detailed (top chart) setup that Mo_Bars is based on -- The settings for the MA's on the price charts have been matched / sync'ed with the Mo_Bars settings on the lower panel to demonstrate how the script works and how it translate the MA action on the price chart to what we see below.
As always, please play around with the indicator to get used to how it works - use it in tandem with other indicators to get proper confirmations and adjust settings to suit your own trading style, time frame, and instruments
Feedback and thoughts are always welcome --- good luck!
RedK Volume-Accelerated Directional Energy Ratio (RedK VADER)The Volume-Accelerated Directional Energy Ratio (VADER) makes use of price moves (displacement) and the associated volume (effort) to estimate the positive (buying) and negative (selling) "energy" behind the scenes, enabling traders to "read the market action" in more details and adjust their trading decisions accordingly.
How does VADER work?
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I have always been a fan of technical analysis concepts that are simple, and that integrate both price action and volume together - The concept behind VADER is really a simple one.
Let's walk though it as we avoid getting too technical:
Large price moves that are associated with large volume means buyers (if the move is up) or sellers (when the move is down) are serious and are "in control" of the action
On the other hand, when the price moves are small but with large volume, it means there's a fight, or more of a balance of energy, between buying and selling.
Also when large price moves are associated with relatively limited volume, there's a lack of "energy" from either buyers or sellers - and moves likes these are usually short-lived.
The analogy with VADER, is that we look at price moves (change of close between 2 bars) as the displacement (or action result) and the associated volume as the "effort" behind this action -- Combining these 2 values together, the displacement and the effort, gives us a representation or a proxy of the underlying energy (in a specific direction).
when both values (displacement and effort) are high, then the resulting energy is high - and if one of these values are low, the resulting energy is low.
we then take an average of that relative energy in each direction (positive = buying and negative = selling) and calculate the net energy.
note that we're approaching the analogy here from a trading perspective and not from physics perspective :) -- we can be forgiven if the energy calculation in physics is different ..
VADER Plots
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the blue line with crosses represents the positive energy - or the buying strength
the orange line with circles represents the negative energy - or the selling strength
the thick Green / Red main line plot represents the net energy - and generally the main signal to be looking out for is when that line crosses 0 up or down - but i find it also very valuable to keep an eye on the individual energy lines as they sometimes "tell a story" like we see in the chart above,
Volume Calculation:
----------------------------
- VADER by default is a volume-weighted indicator - it uses the volume associated with change in bar close value (Full mode) as an accelerator in the calculation of the directional energy
- VADER introduces another method of integrating volume, by considering "relative" or "differential" volume (Relative mode) - in this mode, we consider the ratio of volume above the minimum volume observed within a "lookback" length - so practically, ignoring the minimum volume. in other words, if a price move is associated with very low volume, it gets very low "volume accelerator" (close to 0) and if the move is associated with very large volume, it gets the maximum volume accelerator (1 or close to 1) - The relative mode of volume calculation magnifies volume effect and ignores the low volume values that may just act as noise. test both modes and find which one works better for you.
- VADER also has the ability to work without volume (volume calculation = None) - and will revert to that mode when used with instruments that have no volume data. In that mode, VADER will behave similar to an RSI (but not exactly like it given the underlying calculation is different)
- We can also setup VADER at a specific resolution / timeframe that is different than the chart.
Using VADER & Other Thoughts
----------------------------------------
The main signal to look out for, is when VADER's Green / Red line crosses the zero line.
Green (above zero) represents that the net energy is with the buyers and we should favor long positions
Red (below zero) reflects that the sellers have control and we should favor short positions (or consider to close longs)
*** However, VADER should be used as a *secondary indicator* - given the big influence of volume on the calculation - VADER doesn't directly track price trend or momentum - VADER needs to be used in the context of other indicators that show trend and momentum - i would suggest you combine VADER with Moving Averages or other trend tracking indicators on the price chart, MACD, RSI and / or other trend and momentum indicators you're already familiar with.
Suggested setup:
There's more to add to VADER in future versions - alerts, control level, maybe improve visuals... etc - please share your feedback as you start experimenting with VADER.. good luck! (and of course, May the Force be with you :) )
RedK Smooth And Lazy Moving Average (SALMA)Here's a quick and simple script that produces yet another Smooth and Lazy Moving Average - SALMA - that helps hide noise caused by extreme price fluctuations to enable better trend visualization and tracking
Concept:
===========
SALMA is based on a simple concept - we calculate a standard deviation channel of a user-selected width - then correct the price value so that it is restricted within the boundaries of the SD channel - effectively adjusting against high-volatility, sudden price moves - which acts as a pre-smoothing of the price values - then we calculate our moving average and apply extra smoothing as needed.
Since only "persistent" price moves will have an effect on the direction of this MA, it will be suitable to use as an additional trend guide with other indicators, and to consider only long positions when the price is above the SALMA, and short positions only when the price is below
Notes:
========
- for the time being, i'm using Weighted Moving Average (WMA) for the calculation of the base price MA and the SD channel - we can add other MA types as options in a future versions based on feedback
- will add alerts in a future update
- SALMA can be used with any timeframe. can also be set to a higher timeframe against a lower timeframe chart
i have also added couple of standard moving average lines (choose between SMA, EMA and WMA) of selectable lengths - to enable utilizing this in a Moving Average cross-over setup - or to simply monitor other common MA's that other traders are using.
here's how the settings look like when you add SALMA to your chart
Please feel free to play around with SALMA and share feedback :)
RedK Auto-Stepping Ladder TraderThe RedK Auto-Stepping Ladder Trader is an experimental tool to help identify trade entry and exits for various types of trades (Trend / Momentum / Breakout and Swing trades)
The underlying concept here is loosely similar to the SMAC script - in case you'd like to read some of the "script-specific" write-up . I even borrowed some of the SMAC code, but upgraded the script to Pine v5 while working. So i won't repeat write-up here on how the script works - and we'll get right into how to use in trading
How to use / trade the Ladder Trader:
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The idea is to set the auto-stepping ladder to a higher timeframe, the "ladder view" helps simplify the price action to show a clear direction, then use the lower timeframe to find best entries (close or at the ladder line) and exits (on the ATR as TP target)
- Entries should be as close to the ladder line as possible - a trader may decide to have a small margin above or below the ladder line where they set entry limit order
- note that when stepping is enabled, the auto-stepping algo will choose the step value based on the underlying price range and the selected timeframe to move with common trader "mental values" where traders will usually gravitate
- exits can be set using the optional ATR or Pct channels - by default, there's an ATR channel (golden color) for that purpose
Possible usage scenarios of the Ladder Trader:
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- Trend / long(er) term: enter position once the ladder line switches to the color corresponding to my desired direction (example: blue for long), and hold all the way until the color changes
- Swing: Take only trades in the direction of the ladder (long with blue, short with orange) - enter at the ladder line value, set TP at the desired ATR, repeat as long as the direction holds
- Feel free to experiment and share back other uses you find. There are so many settings and tweaks provided for flexibility - the downside is this adds a certain level of complexity - however, i hope this will be a valuable tool to add to your trading.
Few Notes:
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- The Auto-stepping algo is a bit improved to be more FOREX and Crypto-friendly - i do not trade these instruments myself, but will continue to improve the auto-stepping technique in upcoming updates
- the signal line (hidden by default, and is what causes the ladder to change color) is based on my Compound Ratio Moving Average - since it's the moving average i found to provide best combination of speed and smoothness. It is used as a proxy to the price, to signal when the price is above or below the ladder level - while removing some of the whipsaws if we use the price value directly.
- Broader analysis of price action should still be made using other indicators - and possibly other chart setups - we shouldn't rely on the Ladder Trader signal only - Check for overall momentum, volume movement and market sentiment before using the Ladder Trader
- Also test your settings in PaperMoney - i noticed that different instruments may need different settings (for Ladder Type, Length, Rounding Technique, ATR multiplier..etc) for optimal setup that shows best signals.. Get very familiar with the Ladder Trader and it should hopefully become more helpful to you as a tradiing tool.
Comments and Feedback are welcome. Good luck.
[RedK] Stepped Moving Average Channel (SMAC)The Stepping Moving Average Channel (SMAC) is not an indicator - It is more of a trading tool that was put together to enable a trader to take advantage of relatively fast price moves with quick incremental gain - maybe by exploiting opportunities to trade basic options (Calls, Puts) or to help with in/out-type swing trades. This is more a price-level visualization tool so please use it with this in mind, and not as a trading tool by itself.
While it looks very similar to a Donchian channel, SMAC plots a stepping channel of the moving average of the high & low prices (channel borders) - with an envelope that is at a user-specified % distance from the channel borders.
This setup, when combined with other Moving Averages and lower indicators, may make it easier for a trader to prepare for a trade with clear entry and exit price levels being planned upfront.
For example, a trader wants to capture 2% of the next move, will set the envelope to 2% and have clearer view of entry/exit price levels for such a scenario. once the trader receives confirmation (from other indicators or charts) that the price is heading in the way expected, the SMAC may make it simpler and quicker to estimate (and visualize) the entry/exit price levels and track the movement.
* The stepping feature helps remove price noise and the auto-stepping feature is designed to "snap to" those mental price levels that trader gravitate towards.
* The moving average type I used here is the Compound Ratio MA (CoRA_Wave) .
* This MA type was selected because it has a very high responsiveness and good smoothness, and tracks the price values very closely.
* The MA type can be replaced within the code with any other MA as preferred.
The auto-stepping feature:
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User can override the auto-stepping by entering a manual step value
when the auto-stepping is active, it will attempt to pick the best step size based on the underlying price range and the timeframe selected.
The step selection may not be ideal in some combination of value / TF - i will continue to improve these combinations
Stepping can also be completely disabled - this bring SMAC back to a regular (though highly responsive) Hi/Lo MA channel with envelope
The Excel table snippet in the chart above shows the various step value / TF combinations.
Also the stepping values can be further customized by changing the appropriate part in the script.
Other features:
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* Rounding Options: The stepping calculations uses one of 2 selectable methods:
1 -- regular rounding (uses the round() function): which rounds the price up & down depending on where it is compared to the half-step value
example: a value of 17 with a step of 10 will be rounded to 20. a value of 13 in that case will be rounded to 10
2 -- Whole Step (uses the int() function): this will only consider whole/fully completed steps - if the average (hi or low) does not explicitly exceed the next step level, we will not get that next value.
example: both values of 17 and 13 with a step of 10 will be rounded to 10.
* The "Quick Table":
The Quick Table shows on the top-left - and can be disabled in the script settings - It shows the currently selected stepping mode and value - since the auto-step changes dynamically with the selected chart timeframe, this makes it easier for the trader to view the active "configuration"
overall, i hope some traders find this quick utility useful - if not to use, maybe to inspire other ideas
- please feel free to use or customize in any way you need. Feel free to share feedback and observations.
RedK Magic RibbonRedK Magic Ribbon is simple script that combines a fast and a slow moving averages to create a 2-Moving Average Cross-over / trend visualization tool.
We utilize the Compound Ratio Weighted Average (CoRa Wave) as the fast MA line and the RedK Slow Smooth Weighted Moving Average (RSS_WMA) aka LazyLine as the slow MA line.
i put this script together when i found that i started using these 2 moving average lines in my trading charts most of the time. thought others may find it useful.
The simple idea is that when the 2 lines "agree" on direction, then this is possibly a confirmed trend in that direction.
Visually, when the 2 lines agree on a trend direction, Magic Ribbon gives either a green (up) or red (down) fill, when they disagree, it gives a gray fill - Gray areas are considered "no trade" or "get ready" zones depending on the situation.
This ribbon can be used to support trend-following trades, swing trading, or as a visual trend tracking tool
Suggested Usage Tips:
----------------------------
* Position entry should be made as close to the RSS_WMA/LazyLine as possible to maximize gain.
* The RSS_WMA can act as a guide for Stop Loss
* An aggressive (or swing) trader may consider entries as soon as the CoRa Wave line changes color, but in context of the prevailing trend.
* if you intend to use this tool for trading, please test it using the PaperTrading or Rewind features of TV to get used to how it behaves and adjust accordingly.
* The Magic Ribbon should work on any timeframe.
* The basic settings are available - they enable adjusting the length and smoothness of the CoRa Wave and the Smoothness of the RSS_WMA - as well as the source price for each. Style settings enable to adjust color, line width, or hide/show various elements as needed.
* The most important tip for using the Magic Ribbon: when you first add it to your chart, is to fine-tune the length settings to your preference. start by adjusting the LazyLine (RSS_WMA) Smoothness value, so it tracks and barely touches the highs / lows of price bars - with the least amount of lag possible - then adjust the CoRa Wave length to make it as responsive as you need. Keep smoothness to the lowest you can use (i like 3 or 4 max) - the default settings are generic usable values based on my testing.
* as usual, please use this tool only as a guide - make your own detailed chart analysis and support your trading decision with signals and confirmations from other indicators .
*** This script does not repaint.
RedK Bar Strength Inspector / Bar Strength Index (BSI)Summary
=========
The Bar Strength Inspector / Bar Strength Index (BSI) is an indicator that evaluates each price bar against a user-selectable set of "strength categories" - BSI then calculates a combined score from these categories and provides an index - plotted as a centered oscillator - roughly similar to the way Relative Strength Index (RSI) works, which can be used to evaluate the strength of price move and the possibilities of trend continuation or reversal.
Background
=============
BSI is like a Swiss-army knife with many components - so apologies upfront if this guide gets long - and i know i will still miss few pieces that needs explaining. please alert me if something is not clear.
BSI is an advanced / re-built version of my Ultimate Trader Oscillator (UTO)
I continue to believe that one of the best trading tools that i can use, is a tool that can automate the visual inspection of the price chart - a tool that simulates (and quantifies in numbers/score) the way we visually look at a certain price bar, and make a judgement that "this is a strong bar, so I expect the trend down to possibly reverse" - BSI is a an attempt to achieve that. An attempt to answer a simple question (in a quantifiable manner):
how strong / weak is this price bar - how does it compare to previous bars ? what is the average of that strength (or weakness) for the last few bars ?(based on the trader's preferred timeframe)
How does BSI work
====================
* BSI will inspect and evaluate each bar against various (selectable) strength categories.
* BSI will give a -100/+100 score against each "strength category", then combine these scores into an index and create an average of that index
* the average index (also called BSI) will be calculated for both a short and long lengths
* the short length represents "local / short-term" strength - plotted as a blue/orange line (with an additional signal line to make easier to "read")
* the long-term reflects the broader bias (sentiment) - plotted as green/red area (or mountain)
How is BSI different from UTO
=============================
- I wrote BSI from the ground up to validate each scoring calculation and the resulting outcomes - so i would consider BSI to be more accurate than UTO
- i wrote BSI in a way to make it a lot more flexible. BSI allows me to choose which category to include in the "inspection"
- the strength categories are streamlined to reflect single bar strength, strength from bar-to-bar, and relative strength (range and volume) - they have also been chosen in a way that map to commonly used Technical Analysis concepts, to increase the value of BSI and the ability to compare with other common indicators (for example, BoP, Stochastic, Relative Volume and RSI)
- added the table view - which i use mainly to track the action within the current bar - and to learn more about how to evaluate strength vs weakness with various chart patterns
- UTO still represents the foundation of this work - but i will not update UTO any longer so all changes will be applied to the BSI- i have been using both UTO and BSI to guide my trading for the past few months.
- couple of other features in BSI:
- support for instruments with no volume data (even if the user chooses volume) - number of inspection categories will show as "7" in that case
- ability to plot the individual category scores, and the total weighted score (for the selected categories) - these plots are hidden by default
- ability to see the total score for all 8 (or 7 in case no volume data) categories regardless of how many are active - but only in the table view
- ability to be used as both a lower (independent) and a top indicator (on the price chart) -- see below examples.
Structure of the BSI Strength Categories
=====================================
The first 3 inspected strength categories focus on "single bar strength", they evaluate how the bar closes compared to the low, the Balance of Power (BoP) and the relative BoP
The next 3 categories focus on evaluating the bar-to-bar strength: how the bar closes compared to the low of the 2-bar range, how the bar closes compared to prior close - and the relative "shift"
The last 2 "strength" categories evaluate the relative range of bar compared to recent average range and the relative volume.
Understanding the bar inspection & scoring approach
==================================
During inspection for each category, a score is calculated with a value between 0 to 100, then it will be made "directional" - which means that +100 represents highest possible strength score and a value of -100 is the highest possible "weakness" score
Note that a 0 score doesn't mean "weak" - but rather "neutral" - this can be a bit confusing until we get used to the way BSI scoring works.
Example: in relative volume, a bar associated with the lowest volume observed during the lookback length, will have a 0 relative volume score -- while a bar associated with the highest volume observed will have either a +100 or a -100 score (depending on whether it's an up or down bar) - same thing for relative range.. and so on
Here are the 8 strength categories evaluated by the BSI
1 Bar closing score
2 Body : Spread (BoP) ratio
3 Relative BoP
4 2-bar Closing Score
5 2-bar Shift Ratio (Shift : 2R)
6 Relative Shift
7 Relative Range
8 Relative Volume
Specific meaning of keywords / concepts (within BSI context):
======================================================
Relative : compared to recently observed values (= within Lookback # bars)
Shift : the change in closing value vs prior bar
Bar Spread : high - low
Range : True Range ..... as in the tr() Pine function, so not to be confused with "spread"
More detailed notes about scoring and calculations for each strength category are included within the code
BSI Settings:
=============
Here is a chart showing the main sections in the BSI Settings box and how to configure it to your preference
Using the BSI:
================
- I use BSI for 2 main scenarios
(1) Guiding my Day-to-day trading: the usage here is roughly similar to a volume-weighted dual-period RSI .. with a lot more options - picking and choosing between the 8 strength categories in BSI allows for 255 variations of "strength evaluations" - a trader can choose to focus only on "single bar strength" score categories, so only picks the top 3 in the settings - another trader wants to track only the strength reflected by the relative range and relative volume, so picks the lower 2 categories. another trader wants to use BSI as a volume weighted Balance of Power.. and so on. Many combinations are possible.
i have added couple of charts that explain some of the "signals" we can expect from BSI (below chart) - note that i use the "Green/Red mountain plot" as the "prevailing sentiment" - as it confirms the longer term strength (or weakness). the BSI line plot reflects the short term strength and not necessarily tied directly to how the price is moving (see example in the chart - and also compare to how RSI works)
- 2 important points here if you plan to use BSI in trading: set BSI up on a 1-min or 5-min chart and watch how it works to learn how it evaluates each bar - and always use BSI in combination with other indicators that you are familiar with to validate and confirm any signals
(Important note: do not react to the values in the table as they change in real time - i found that to be very tempting - rather look at the broader context and the flow of the BSI / sentiment) - you can also test BSI with Paper Trading in TV - it's like a new car that you need some time to get used to :)
(2) Use BSI to help learn chart / pattern analysis - watch BSI print scores against the various categories in real time to hone your chart (pattern) reading skills and how to evaluate strength of various bar shapes - for example, a bar that closes at the high but does not reach the mid point of the prior bar - strong or weak ? how about a doji or a hammer ? ...etc
Chart showing main usage scenarios
Example BSI in real time:
======================
I hope this work helps few fellow traders hone their trading skills, or help inspire other ideas - please let me know if you have feedback or suggestions.
RedK Volume-Weighted Directional Efficiency Index (DXF)RedK Volume-Weighted Directional Efficiency Index (DXF) is a momentum indicator - that builds on Kaufman's Efficiency Ratio (ER) concept.
DXF utilizes a restricted +100/-100 oscillator to represent the "quality" of a trend, and does a good job in detecting the possibility of an upcoming trend change (in both direction and quality), improving our ability to make decisions on trade entries and exits.
Here's a quick background on Kaufman's Efficiency Ratio (ER)
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Developed by Perry Kaufman and introduced in his book “New Trading Systems and Methods”, the Efficiency Ratio reflects relative market speed to volatility. There are cases, when it is used as a filter, which helps a trader to avoid ”choppy” markets or trading ranges and to identify smoother trends.
ER is the result of dividing the net change in price movement during n-periods by the sum of all bar-to-bar price changes during the same n-periods. In case the market is trending smoother, then the ratio will be higher. In case the ratio shows readings in proximity to zero, this implies that market movement is inefficient and ”choppy”.
If the Efficiency Ratio shows a reading of +100, this means that the trading instrument is in a bull trend and trending with perfect efficiency.
If the Efficiency Ratio shows a reading of -100, this means that the trading instrument is in a bear trend and trending with perfect efficiency.
It is impossible for any instrument to have a perfect Efficiency ratio, because any movement against the major trend during the examined period of time would cause the ratio to drop.
If the Efficiency Ratio shows a reading above +30 (common setting for the "Significant Level"), this is indicative of a quality bull trend. If the ratio shows a reading below -30, this is indicative of a quality bear trend.
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Kaufman also used the ER as basis for his famous Kaufman Adaptive Moving Average (KAMA).
Read more on ER & Kama here
How is DXF different from other ER-based indicators?
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- Let's get the easy part out of the way: DXF has a "volume-weighting" option ✔
This option is OFF by default (to avoid errors with instruments with no volume data)
- once this option is applied, it provides the benefit of combining the volume effect into the calculation - those who appreciate the effect of volume on price action will hopefully find this option valuable
- The calculation of ER and how it can be "best utilized":
Let's examine the ER concept a bit closer: as a (math) concept, the (original) Efficiency Ratio (ER) takes the positive change of the price of an instrument during a certain period, and divide it by the sum of (absolute) price moves that were observed during that same period.
So, in the trader's language, we will be saying "out of a total of $20 moves (up and down) that MSFT did in the past 10 days, MSFT only made a net change of $5 up during that period" - so the "10-day ER" for MSFT in that case is 5/20 = 25% -- then we continue to observe that ongoing "10-day ER" and if it increases, we can expect that MSFT is going to establish a strong move (trend) up --- right?
the magic word here is to "observe the ongoing ER" - many of the ER based indicators just use the ER as calculated by Kaufman's original method. IMHO, these are just "point-in-time readings" - if we hope to get real insights from the ER, we need to take an average of that reading - for our "time window" we're interested in - and only then we can identify trends and patterns in the ER value as it changes during that windowss- DXF does that - and that allows a trader to say "the (weighted) 5-day average of the 10-day ER for MSFT is increasing, and that why i expect an up-trend" -- makes sense ? both the "Lookback" used to calculate the ER, and the Length of observed "window" for the Average ER are adjustable in DXF settings
Other Uses and Settings :
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- As a momentum indicator, DXF can predict an upcoming change of trend - cause that will reflect on the average ER value. There are few examples in the chart where the price move and ER trend *do not agree* - The trader can see these signs and take decisions accordingly
- DXF can help reveal best entries and exits: assume we are long-term bullish on MSFT, and we want to "buy the dip" - DXF can help reveal the time where price is recovering from extreme weakness - and that would be the ideal buy opportunities for us - exampled marked on the chart
- the Stepping & Smoothing options enable better visualization of the DXF plot. the "raw" DXF is still shown as a silver line.
- The "Significant Levels" option is available and is set to -20/+20 by default .. also adjustable in indicator settings.
- Please use DXF in combination with other trend and volume indicators, and with thorough chart / price action analysis and not in isolation to ensure you get proper signal confirmation for trades. In the chart above, you can see DXF combined with a moving average that can act as a filter and to confirm the price moves.
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As usual, feedback & comments are welcome - if you find this work useful in your trading arsenal, please share a comment - i would be more than happy to learn about that. Good luck!
RedK Portfolio Tracker [Table Version]RedK Portfolio Tracker is a simple tool that enables a trader to monitor and track a portfolio of up to 10 holdings (+ free cash) in real time - directly on the chart
Now that we have tables in Pine, this is a table version of my previously published Portfolio Tracker
- The table works better in visualizing the various table elements (title row, column labels..etc), and is more flexible in allowing color coding of gain/loss. for many traders, myself included, these simple visual signals are valuable in helping timely trading decisions.
I'll come back and improve this script as i'm really enjoying the ability to track things this way - if you liked this and want to receive the updates, please flag / favorite it below and you'll get notified when i publish new versions.
Some new features for the table version:
- ability to change default color of various table elements (text, default background, title background, gain/loss color, border..etc)
- ability to change the text size to suit your monitor and visual preference
- ability to change table position
The "portfolio-specific" inputs are similar to the previous version - we get the ability to enter up to 10 positions, entry price and qty, then also add the free cash
- also a change from prior version, this table will plot by default on the price chart, but will have no scale - the portfolio ploy itself will also show (blue/orange stepping line) but the PnL plot will be hidden by default -- how we plot the portfolio & P/L is possibly one of the areas for improvements for next versions - also thinking of other adding valuable data i track in my own trading, like the quarterly dividends for the held positions .. we'll see - this is just a start
hope some will find this useful. feel free to comment.
RedK Slow_Smooth Average (RSS_WMA)RedK Slow Smooth Average (RSS_WMA) is based on simple, multi-WMA passes to generate a moving average that sacrifices low-lag and fast responsiveness for the sake of smoothness.
This smoothness enables an increased trader ability to visualize and track longer-term trends and removes the noise of smaller, relatively insignificant price fluctuations.
Notes:
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* RSS_WMA is deliberately built to be a "lazy line" - and it works in a different way to other common moving averages that attempt to achieve less lag and quicker responsiveness - the idea and the use scenario is to act as a "smooth base" when used against a faster moving average like the v_Wave of the Co_Ra Wave
* Note that the settings of this line is "Smoothness' and not "length" - the initial length used for the first WMA pass calculation is 1/3 of that smoothness value selected in the settings
* Increments in the combined smoothness value will be allocated first to 1st WMA pass, then 2nd WMA pass, then 3rd pass consecutively then back to 1st pass.
* because we utilize 3 WMA passes, a settings below 3 will have no effect on the line and it will just track the "source" price.
Suggested Use:
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- Use RSS_WMA when you're looking for a smooth moving average that can help you analyze you chart at a broader / macro level, visualize the broader price action patterns and filter out the noise from short-term moves. you can also use this line to help set your position exits since only major and persistent moves will cause this line, as lay as it is, to swing from one direction to the other.
How does RSS_WMA compare?
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here's a quick view of how the RSS_WMA compared to other commonly used Moving Averages, including my recently published CoRa_Wave
Code is commented - please feel free to use and customize further - please share a comment if you found this useful in your chart analysis or trading.
RedK Compound Ratio Moving Average (CoRa_Wave)
Compound Ratio Weighted Average (CoRa_Wave) is a moving average where the weights increase in a "logarithmically linear" way - from the furthest point in the data to the current point - the formula to calculate these weights work in a similar way to how "compound ratio" works - you start with an initial amount, then add a consistent "ratio of the cumulative prior sum" each period until you reach the end amount. The result is, the "step ratio" between the weights is consistent - This is not the case with linear-weights moving average (WMA), or EMA
- for example, if you consider a Weighted Moving Average (WMA) of length 5, the weights will be (from the furthest point towards the most current) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 -- we can see that the ratio between these weights are inconsistent. in fact, the ratio between the 2 furthest points is 2:1, but the ratio between the most recent points is 5:4 -- the ratio is inconsistent, and in fact, more recent points are not getting the best weights they should/can get to counter-act the lag effect. Using the Compound ratio approach addresses that point.
a key advantage here is that we can significantly reduce the "tail weight" - which is "relatively" large in other MAs and would be main cause for lag - giving more weights to the most recent data points - and in a way that is consistent, reliable and easy to "code"
- the outcome is, a moving average line that suffers very little lag regardless of the length, and that can be relied on to track the price movements and swings closely.
other features:
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- An accelerator, or multiplier, has been added to further increase the "aggressiveness" of the moving average line, giving even more weights to the more recent points - the multiplier will have more effect between 1 and 5, then will have a diminishing effect after that - note that a multiplier of 0 (which effectively causes a comp. ratio of 0 to be applied) will produce a Simple Moving Average line :)
- We also added the ability to use an "automatic smoothing" mechanism, that user can over-ride by manually choosing how much smoothing is used. This gives more flexibility to how we can leverage this Moving Average in our charting.
- User can also select the Resolution and Source price for the CoRa_Wave. by default, they will be set to "same as chart" and hlc3
here are the formulas for our Compound Ratio moving average:
Compound Weight ratio r = (A/P)^1/t - 1
Weight at time t A = P(1 + r)^t
= Start_val * (1 + r) ^ index
index in the above formula is 0 for the furthest point out
Here's how CoRa_Wave compares to other common moving averages all set to the same length (20)
Proposed Usage
- CoRa_Wave can be used for any scenarios where we need a moving average that closely tracks the price, trend, swings with high responsiveness and little lag
- MA Cross-over scenarios - against another CoRa_Wave or any other MA
- below is a quick example scenario for how to utilize 2 CoRa_Wave lines of same length (one for open and one for closing price) to track swings and trends
- get as creative as you need :)
Code is commented - please feel free to leverage or customize further as you need.
👉 if you are interested in other moving averages i posted before, please check out the FiMA and the v_Wave ...
RedK_Momentum-based Step MA (MoStep_MA)Summary
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This script plots a "momentum based" stepping Moving Average of various types - the idea is to visualize price moves in levels (or steps) to reduce "chart noise" - avoid getting caught in sideway moves - and enable better trade entry and exit decision.
How does the MoStep_MA Work:
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- we first choose a "base MA" of our preferred type: WMA, EMA, SMA and Hull MA are available - this base MA will be visible in light gray on the chart and can be completely hidden (although it is useful - see chart below)
- The steps are then created when a "momentum change" - expressed by a "relatively significant price move" - has been detected - either up or down
A "Significant price move" is defined as a price move that is relatively large compared to the "recent" average (absolute) price moves within a certain period
The "strength average" period can be adjusted - in terms of how the average is calculated (WMA, EMA, SMA), the number of bars (length) taken into consideration, as well as to include a "significance factor" of the price move relative to that average
using a significance factor of 1.5 is like saying: i want a new step only when the price move is 1.5 times the average price moves within the last (x) bars
the move has to be in the direction of the underlying MA trend - this is an additional condition i added, when i found that some moves will be significant but in the opposite direction and will cause a new step to be created - adding unnecessary "noise"
Default settings and other tweaks
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By default, we use WMA for both the base MA and for calculating the average price change - other moving average types are available -
the significance factor is set to 1 by default.
feel free to experiment with other values and settings.
here's a chart with some additional notes - the significance factor here is set to 1.5 times the average price move.
- code is commented with further notes
- this indicator should not be used in isolation - as usual, it should be supported by other trend and momentum indicators to get proper confirmation of signals
RedK_MAGicWAVe_v3: Improved Visual & Code RevampI have been planning to re-write the MAGicWAVe script for a long time, so here's a totally revamped version.
What is the MAGic WAVe ?
- this is one of my first indicators - and is a constant in my trading charts ...
- It's really a simple idea that plays with weighted moving averages (WMA) to produce a low-lag MAGnified Weighted Average (hence the name MAGic WAVe) - that enables me to better visualize how the momentum of the price move changes and when a change in trend is to be expected.
see link to the TA series below for more info.
- This simple concept can then be utilized in trading in a similar way to a basic MA Crossover approach, with the added benefit of the ability to magnify the trend moves
- you can also think of this as a MACD plotted on the price chart - in fact if you add a MACD to the chart and compare to the WAVe, you will see exactly what i mean.
What are the improvements in this new version
- better visualization, removed a lot of the clutter from previous versions
- the WAVe code was re-written to produce a "smoother" WAVe line.
note that the WAVe line in this version is also "lazier" than the previous version .. we need to set length to around 7 to match a 10 in v2 due to the increased lag caused by the smoothing.
- introduced the cloud fill to act as additional visual clue - introduced a WAVe "depth" variable - which will grow/shrink the fill area as preferred for improved visual.
- kept the optional slow EMA filter line set by default to 50EMA
here's a comparison of MAGic WAVe v3 (top panel) vs the older version (lower panel)
can be used with any timeframe and any instrument .. adjust settings as needed to suit the trader's own style.
- i'm not a big fan of alerts and always prefer "less signals" than "too many signals" in trading, so i don't think i will add alerts to this script in future.
Please feel free to use and comment. good luck!
RedK_9/30 Trader_v1: aka The MusicianThis is my implementation of a simple trading system inspired by the 9/30 trading strategy, which i came across few years ago. i hope some traders are still using it :)
(please google "9/30 trading strategy" if you're not sure what it is)
- the improvements i added focus on: faster (long/short) signals, discovery of best entry "zone", ride the trend
- no exit option, trader can use a pre-set target, a trailing stop, or any other mechanisms
- i tried to explain some of the definitions and rules on the below chart
- in spite if its simplicity, the 9/30 has a lot to offer - different traders will also use it differently and add their own "do's and don't's"
default settings should be adjusted to suit timeframe, type of trader and what is being traded (Stocks, FOREX,..etc) - the concept itself is very flexible and well-tested for mechanical trading.
code-named "The Musician" due to the 5-line plot :)
i will continue to improve this work whenever i find time - i liked it a lot.. (please tag the idea to receive the updates)
Extras and improvements (compared to the classic 9/30 concept)
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* signal line is a smoothed zero-lag WMA of a shorter length (responds faster to trend change = faster signal)
* instead of a single longer MA line, we utilize an "average range" -based channel (not ATR, but provides the same concept) to provide the ideal "entry zones" in both directions - an adjustable multiplier is included in the settings to adjust the channel width
* adds an optional long EMA as additional filter (take longs only above, take shorts only below)
* clearer visualization
What's next:
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* clean-up code
* add signals (arrow-up & arrow-dn) for entry and for exit
* tri-color signal line (green on long, red on short, gray on no trade)
* other options for the channel (ATR-based, DC center-line..etc)
* other MA-type options for the Filter MA (SMA, WMA ?)
* maybe: convert to strategy and back-test
Please feel free to explore and test - Comments and feedback are welcome.
Good Luck!
RedK_Larry William's TrendI'm not the author of this indicator or the concept behind it
i found this code - written for another platform - while researching "Larry William's Trend" - while i also couldn't find that specific keyword in the TV public library. So thought to bring this in.
Also unfortunately there was no coder details to give credit to with the code i found. it seems this may somehow be related to the famous SuperTrend - but i have no idea how they are connected. i simply ported this to Pine in my own way.
will be happy if this is useful to some traders who use these types of trend indicators. if you do find it useful, pls leave a comment here - or feel free to take this code and modify it in any further way for your specific need.
we continue to learn and explore new tools everyday. good luck!
