IT-Trader

I just wanted to clarify a separation between indicators and 'highlighters' for want of a better term. (Tradestation calls them 'show_me'.) I think Jon was asking for a 'highlighter'. ie. 'Show me all instances where the range of a bar is greater than average'. I don't class that as an indicator, its shorthand. Its letting the machine highlight something I'm looking for manually which speeds up the process. That kind of stuff is very easy to code. However I would agree that the use of RSI/Stochastics/MACD etc all come under the indicator banner and while inidcators can be an aid to some, taking a trade just because the 'wiggly line turned up' is not likely to be successful.

Firstly I've been reading your blog with much interest. The frustration of banging your head against a wall for months on end is something I know well and am still working through. So much is written about the psycological aspects but it seems to get forgotton that the best discipline in the world won't help you win if you have a negative expectancy system. Developing and defining that system explicitly is a huge challenge. Anyway, this is your journal. I just wanted to say that you're not alone fighting this. On to the purpose of my post... In short, yes but..... It depends on exactly what you want to look for. The work breaks into two parts, the first is writing the 'logic' out to define exactly what you want to look for. Then the second part is coding it up. Lets pick something simple like a volatility breakout. The 'logic' is say - find the average range over the last 10 bars - if this bars range is 2x average range then flag this bar as 'volatile'. Then you have the fun of coding it! ...which depends on exactly which package you use etc. You can also add criteria such as "...and closes on its high/low" or "...and on above average volume". To start with you can use something like Sierra Charts so you can code this stuff up using Excel which makes life easy for relatively simple ideas. Unfortunately it quickly gets complicated, defining things we can easily see in 'cold computer terms' is often waaaay more difficult that it first seems. I've been doing just this kind of thing lately (the simple stuff) to highlight bars that meet certain critera. I'm far from an expert in indicator writing but I'm happy to help if I can. ITT.