How to reference a chart's indicators when coding in MultiCharts?

April 8th, 2014, 11:34 PM

Novice question: I have added studies to a chart and would like to build a strategy (signal) to trade based on them. For example, I have "Mov Avg 1 Line" on my chart. I would like to place a BUY STP order 1 cent above that signal's value (assuming price is currently lower than that value), and update the BUY STP price whenever that indicator's value changes (at the close of each bar, when the MA gets recalculated).

I'm sure there will be a few challenges but the first one is how to reference the price of that indicator, which has already been added to the chart? Or do I need to reproduce that indicator within the code?

I will need to code the following logic:

If Close is lower than "Mov Avg 1 Line" value, place BUY STP at "Mov Avg 1 Line" value + 1 tick

I can tell my next problem will be how to place a BUY STP at a certain price, in advance, and then update that order at the close of each bar, since it seems most example strategies use "buy next bar at market" which is not what I want. Thanks guys!

ABCTG · April 9th, 2014, 03:13 AM

jesse514,

you will have to reproduce the code within the signal and can't reference the indicators on the chart directly.
When you open the code for the "Mov Avg 1 Line" the top lines are the ones necessary for calculating the average.

Code

inputs:  Price( Close ), Length( 9 ), Displace( 0 ) ;
variables:  var0( 0 ) ;
	
var0 = AverageFC( Price, Length ) ;

Change var0 will something more meaningful like vAverage, so you can find your way around your code better.
The code below is a demonstration on how you could code what you have in mind and is not meant for live trading:

Code

inputs:  Price( Close ), Length( 9 ), EntryOffSetInTicks( 1 ) ;
variables:  vAverage ( 0 ) , vOneTick ( 0 ), EntryOffSet ( 0 );

//compute minimum move and order offset
once
begin
	vOneTick = MinMove / PriceScale ;
	EntryOffSet = vOneTick * EntryOffSetInTicks ;
end;
	
//compute average
vAverage = AverageFC( Price, Length ) ;

//send order
if Close < vAverage then	
	Buy ("Long") next bar vAverage + EntryOffSet stop;

Regards,
ABCTG

April 9th, 2014, 06:18 PM

ABCTG,

That's incredibly helpful, thank you. I was just using a Powerlanguage tutorial on your website yesterday so it's very cool to be talking to you on here. This gives me a lot to work with for now.

Jesse

ABCTG · April 10th, 2014, 04:42 AM

Jesse,

thanks for letting me know. If you have any questions regarding the code just post back here.

Regards,
ABCTG

jesse514

ABCTG,

That's incredibly helpful, thank you. I was just using a Powerlanguage tutorial on your website yesterday so it's very cool to be talking to you on here. This gives me a lot to work with for now.

Jesse

How to reference a chart's indicators when coding in MultiCharts?

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How to reference a chart's indicators when coding in MultiCharts?