[J-S]

Hi! First time poster here. I'm looking for something for tradestation in which I can define a trend and have it tell me when one is in place. For example, let's say 4 full points in the ES (16 ticks) WITHOUT a 6-tick retracement. Does anything like that exist? Thanks.

[Blu-Ray]

Hi J-S

Could you post some pics of what you're referring to. ( a picture can speak a thousand words )

Cheers

Blu-Ray

[J-S]

Hi Blu-Ray,

Agreed, but I don't really know what to take a picture of here. Really, any strong trend would do it. You know, just a trend not really broken up by any substantial retracements.

[Blu-Ray]

J-S

I think the main question would be what criteria you are after to define an uptrend, eg higher highs and higher lows, higher highs only, or consecutive higher closes etc........ if so how many bars..........

This would need to be worked out for it to be put into a TS code and that was the reason I was asking for a couple of pics to see what you mean.

Hope this helps

Blu-Ray

[J-S]

Ah, okay. Well, how about this. Simply the distance between the lowest low of a trend (uptrend, obviously) to the highest high. That is, let's say the ES goes from a low point of 1400.00 to a high point of 1404.00 WITHOUT ever retracing 6 ticks (say, from 1403.00 down to 1401.50, and then back up again to 1404.00). Does that help? Thanks again.

[Blu-Ray]

Originally Posted by J-S »

Ah, okay. Well, how about this. Simply the distance between the lowest low of a trend (uptrend, obviously) to the highest high. That is, let's say the ES goes from a low point of 1400.00 to a high point of 1404.00 WITHOUT ever retracing 6 ticks (say, from 1403.00 down to 1401.50, and then back up again to 1404.00). Does that help? Thanks again.

Apologies in advance, but how are you defining an uptrend ?

I'll have a look into after hours, but if you can post a pic it would really help.

In the meantime if anyone else comes forward............

Cheers

Blu-Ray

[J-S]

Hi. Well, I define an uptrend, for the sake of this conversation anyway (and what I'm looking for from a code), just as I described it in that last post. I just used the word uptrend to distinguish it from the opposite -- obviously a downtrend. For that, everything would simply be the opposite -- from 1404 down to 1400. Thanks.

[thrunner]

Here are some trend threads on TS to get a better idea of how to define a trend : https://www.tradestation.com/Discuss...Topic_ID=30732
https://www.tradestation.com/discuss...topic_id=30775

A lot of smarter traders than you and I have tried to define it and in the above threads you have mmillar, Bamboo, ghkramer, waynechem and others trying to do so. There is really no need to start your own new definition of trend when the market is full of traders following each other in these definitions.

If you want a short summary, here it is:
1. about half the market is looking at a moving average trend
2. the other half may be looking at some trend lines (or zigzags, similar idea).
3. the calculation of trends can be made more precise by using the average true range function (ATR). The market often trades with an ATR stop. In practice, a trend would often stall or ends once the ATR trailing stop is hit.

If you like the idea of following a moving average trend, the following waynechem indicator based on calculating the area under the trending moving averages may be a start:

{ TrendArea Indicator  WAV 9/15/04 } 
 
inputs: ThresholdArea(1500); 
 
vars: BarCount(0),SlowMA(0),FastMA(0), 
	color(0),area(0); 
 
SlowMA = average(close,15); 
FastMA = average(close,5); 
 
{ see if we have a new possible trend starting } 
if FastMA crosses above SlowMA or 
   FastMA crosses below SlowMA then 
begin 
   BarCount = 0; 
   area = 0; 
end; 
 
{ increment BarCount +1 if FastMA above SlowMA... 
  decrement BarCount -1 if FastMA below SlowMA} 
BarCount = IFF(FastMA > SlowMA,BarCount + 1,BarCount); 
BarCount = IFF(FastMA < SlowMA,BarCount - 1,BarCount); 
 
{ multiply each individual area by its barcount } 
area = area +  AbsValue(BarCount) * (FastMA - SlowMA); 
 
color = IFF(BarCount > 0,green,cyan); 
color = IFF(BarCount < 0,red,color); 
 
plot1(area,"Area",color); 
plot2(0,"zero line"); 
plot3(ThresholdArea,"+Thresh"); 
plot4(-ThresholdArea,"-Thresh");