TraderWill

Jojojo, here's a small Tradestation program that calculates the bar number for a swing high or low and prints the number above/below the swing. It first determines how many bars ago the swing occured, then subtracts that from the current bar number to determine the bar number of the swing. The bottom of the program simply prints the number on the chart. Inputs: SwingStrength(5); Variables: SwingHiBarsAgo(0), SwingLoBarsAgo(0), SwingHiBarNum(0), SwingLoBarNum(0); SwingHiBarsAgo = SwingHighBar(1, high, SwingStrength, SwingStrength+1) ; if SwingHiBarsAgo <> -1 then begin SwingHiBarNum = CurrentBar - SwingHiBarsAgo ; //You can add code here to store the bar number in an array, or do whatever other calculations you need end ; SwingLoBarsAgo = SwingLowBar(1, Low, SwingStrength, SwingStrength+1) ; if SwingLoBarsAgo <> -1 then begin SwingLoBarNum = CurrentBar - SwingLoBarsAgo ; //You can add code here to store the bar number in an array, or do whatever other calculations you need end ; Variables: TextSwingHi(0), TextSwingLo(0); if SwingHiBarsAgo <> -1 then begin TextSwingHi = Text_New(date[swingHiBarsAgo], time[swingHiBarsAgo], High[swingHiBarsAgo], NumToStr(SwingHiBarNum,0)) ; Text_SetStyle(TextSwingHi, 2, 1) ; end ; if SwingLoBarsAgo <> -1 then begin TextSwingLo = Text_New(date[swingLoBarsAgo], time[swingLoBarsAgo], Low[swingLoBarsAgo], NumToStr(SwingLoBarNum, 0)) ; Text_SetStyle(TextSwingLo, 2, 0) ; end ;

Cutshot, if you do a search on the forums for Blu-Ray and squeeze you should find one of his post where he provided several indicators, including his BR_Squeeze. It's slightly different from the one I showed, I think he uses a different measure for the histogram, maybe MACD. The one I posted was from the Tradestation forums, search for BB_Squeeze there.

Amtrend, Snowbird is referring to an indicator that highlights the squeeze without needing to plot the bollinger bands and keltner channel on the chart. There are several versions of this indicator. Blu-Ray has posted one version, this picture shows a slightly different version. Whenever the squeeze is in effect the midline dots change color from blue to green (first bar in squeeze) to red (remaining bars in squeeze). Once the squeeze is over the color of the dots goes back to blue. The histogram measures strength of directional trend, and this can be implemented in different ways, which is why we have different versions of the indicator. You can apply divergences to the histogram and that is what I assume Snowbird was commenting on. But if all you care about is knowing when the squeeze is on then just focus on the midline dot colors.

Blu-Ray posted a set of indicators for Tradestation in another thread. One of them in particular, the squeeze indicator may be useful for you. It essentialy is a measure of volatility, as the indicator moves up volatility and trendiness is increasing. It's plotted as a histogram oscillator so you can also look for divergences and key levels. ADX is another indicator commonly used to measure trend strength, or weakness, and is available in most if not all charting packages.

You really can't go bad with Tradestation. If you are commited to backtesting your strategies before putting real money on the line, TS gives you boatloads of historical data to play with. As mentioned earlier, it may seem expensive but if it helps you trade with confidence you'll easily cover the expense with just one or two good trades.

I assume you mean at the bounce off the channel high, yes that would be a good place. You have the MACD crossing below the zero line which suggests a change in direction. You could also have considered placing the stop a few pips below the bar for added confirmation. Maybe you did that, it's hard to see on the chart.