Difficulty with a relatively basic EMA bar-cross indicator

July 22nd, 2021, 07:14 PM

Hey all,

I'm trying to create a basic EMA bar-cross indicator in EL for use in TradeStation's scanner. The criteria are:

+1 if the price crosses positively over the EMA (Last > EMA > Open)
-1 if the price crosses negatively below the EMA (Open > EMA > Last)
0 otherwise

It's a relatively simple criterion, and in its basic form I can already implement it within the Scanner app. The issue, however, is that the scanner's price parameters (Open, High, Low, Close, etc.) are restricted to a granularity of one day, whereas I want to be able to operate on a timeframe of something like 5 min.

I'm by no means a novice to programming, but I've only had to interact with EasyLanguage a couple of times. I created this indicator which looks correct, but does not work correctly:

Code

inputs:
	Length( 55 ) [
		DisplayName = "Length",
		ToolTip = "The EMA period to use."
	],
	Price( Last ) [
		DisplayName = "Price", 
		ToolTip = "The final price to use in the computation."
	];

Value1 = 0;
if (Price > XAverage(Close, Length)) and (XAverage(Close, Length) > Open) then begin 
	Value1 = 1;
end;
if (Price < XAverage(Close, Length)) and (XAverage(Close, Length) < Open) then begin 
	Value1 = -1;
end;

Plot1( Value1, "Oscillator" ) ;
Plot2( 0, "ZeroLine" ) ;

Attached is a snippet of the results on a random equity from the Scanner (VXX, 5min). It compiles, but it seems to ignore the positive crosses (where the value should be +1) and it also sustains a value, which it should not do. I've confirmed that the positive crosses do appear within the sample (i.e. it's not just "close"). The magenta line is an EMA with the same period as the indicator should be screening for (55).

Any ideas or suggestions on where I went wrong?

Thanks in advance.

ABCTG · July 23rd, 2021, 04:33 AM

nukespace,

welcome to futures.io. Last is a quote field that does not carry any history, but will return the current last price whenever you call it. Try using Close instead.

Regards,

ABCTG

nukespace

Hey all,

I'm trying to create a basic EMA bar-cross indicator in EL for use in TradeStation's scanner. The criteria are:

+1 if the price crosses positively over the EMA (Last > EMA > Open)
-1 if the price crosses negatively below the EMA (Open > EMA > Last)
0 otherwise

It's a relatively simple criterion, and in its basic form I can already implement it within the Scanner app. The issue, however, is that the scanner's price parameters (Open, High, Low, Close, etc.) are restricted to a granularity of one day, whereas I want to be able to operate on a timeframe of something like 5 min.

I'm by no means a novice to programming, but I've only had to interact with EasyLanguage a couple of times. I created this indicator which looks correct, but does not work correctly:

Code

inputs:
	Length( 55 ) [
		DisplayName = "Length",
		ToolTip = "The EMA period to use."
	],
	Price( Last ) [
		DisplayName = "Price", 
		ToolTip = "The final price to use in the computation."
	];

Value1 = 0;
if (Price > XAverage(Close, Length)) and (XAverage(Close, Length) > Open) then begin 
	Value1 = 1;
end;
if (Price < XAverage(Close, Length)) and (XAverage(Close, Length) < Open) then begin 
	Value1 = -1;
end;

Plot1( Value1, "Oscillator" ) ;
Plot2( 0, "ZeroLine" ) ;

Attached is a snippet of the results on a random equity from the Scanner (VXX, 5min). It compiles, but it seems to ignore the positive crosses (where the value should be +1) and it also sustains a value, which it should not do. I've confirmed that the positive crosses do appear within the sample (i.e. it's not just "close"). The magenta line is an EMA with the same period as the indicator should be screening for (55).

Any ideas or suggestions on where I went wrong?

Thanks in advance.

July 23rd, 2021, 05:31 PM

ABCTG

nukespace,

welcome to futures.io. Last is a quote field that does not carry any history, but will return the current last price whenever you call it. Try using Close instead.

Regards,

ABCTG

Well, I had a feeling it was a stupid mistake - and I was right. I thought I would've tried Close as a quick test, but apparently I didn't.

Now, will this still assert intrabar? That is, if the condition is met at 2.5 minutes into a 5 min candle, will the indicator read 1/-1 prior to the period closing?

Thanks for the help in the right direction. I'm still trying to get the hang of EasyLanguage.

n.s.

ABCTG · July 26th, 2021, 04:49 AM

nukespace,

this depends on your indicator settings. If you allow intrabar updates for the indicator in the settings it will.

Regards,

ABCTG

nukespace

Well, I had a feeling it was a stupid mistake - and I was right. I thought I would've tried Close as a quick test, but apparently I didn't.

Now, will this still assert intrabar? That is, if the condition is met at 2.5 minutes into a 5 min candle, will the indicator read 1/-1 prior to the period closing?

Thanks for the help in the right direction. I'm still trying to get the hang of EasyLanguage.

n.s.

Difficulty with a relatively basic EMA bar-cross indicator

Discussion in EasyLanguage Programming

Difficulty with a relatively basic EMA bar-cross indicator