OHLC Red and Green in Tradestation 8.x

[sunilrohira 10]

I noticed that in Tradestation there are only green OHLC bars but an option to convert to Red and Green candlesticks. However, I need red and green OHLC bar charts. Can someone help. Also can you suggest 1. a good timer for bars and 2. Pivot point indicator. Thanks to all who respond in advance.

[UrmaBlume 10]

Right click on the price part of the chart - Select "Format Symbol" then select the "Style" tab - from there you can give OHLC bars any color you want.

[Tams 20]

I noticed that in Tradestation there are only green OHLC bars but an option to convert to Red and Green candlesticks. However, I need red and green OHLC bar charts.

 

 

look up PlotPaintBar in the manual.

example is include.

 

 

 

Can someone help. Also can you suggest 1. a good timer for bars and 2. Pivot point indicator. Thanks to all who respond in advance.

 

 

there is a search button at the top right corner of this page.

Edited June 10, 2009 by Tams

[sunilrohira 10]

I dont think that the option of Right click followed by style- format works, since I did ask Tradestation tech support. Thank you but any other suggestions.

[UrmaBlume 10]

I dont think that the option of Right click followed by style- format works, since I did ask Tradestation tech support. Thank you but any other suggestions.

 

I have been using Trade Station longer than any other customer. The right click, format symbol does work. This is a very basic operation that has been in effect for a very long time. You must have misunderstood support.

 

Here is a chart I just created with several different symbols, all OHLC charts. I changed the colors of the bars via right click - format symbol - style.

 

A paint bar will also color the bar but it is most often use as a conditional change in style. To just change the color a right click is the easiest.

 

[b4gt 10]

I think the OP means that he needs red down bars and green up bars. Like a candlesticks chart.

[UrmaBlume 10]

I think the OP means that he needs red down bars and green up bars. Like a candlesticks chart.

 

Easy enough. Either plot candlesticks or use paintbar.

 

OP need a bit of learning on his chosen platform. If this low level stuff is a problem - he faces a bit of a learning cruve before he can access anything that approximates optimal application.

[sunilrohira 10]

B4gt, you are correct. Perhaps I was not clear in communicating my need.

 

Just wanted to mention that I have been on this forum for a while and do know how to trade reasonably well. I just needed red down and green up OHLC bars for a specific price action system. Otherwise I have a good trading plan that works for me.

 

I have red and green OHLC bars in Metatrader (Trading the Forex), but not Tradestation (Trading futures).

 

Also I was exploring other platforms and they have a way to trade right off the chart. For example MT4, but not Tradestation.

[Iris 10]

Sunilohira:

Let's take 1 thing at a time:

Because you compare to Candlesticks, I assume that you want the bar to be Green when C>O and Red when C<O (this is what all charting candlestick packages do - they "paint" the bar when this happens).

R click on the chart, not on a bar.

L Click on <Insert Analysis Technique>

L Click on <Paint Bar>

Check the box on the bottom right <Prompt For Format>

L Click on <Avg C < Avg Open>

Hold down the Ctrl Key and do the same for

<Avg C > Avg Open>

Click <OK>

Menu now will be on <Input> so Change to 1 (default is 14) which means one bar ago, and will be the same as a candlestick which changes color per every bar.

Click on the Color Tab and choose the color you want for that bar e.g. if it is the C>O then click on the green box.

Click OK and the next menu for the opposite will appear and do the same and choose your color.

Every now and then a bar will have the same open as the close = Doji

To manage this, R click on the bar, choose <Format Symbol>

Click on OHLC Bar and choose a color for the High/Low which is neutral e.g. DarkGray - do not choose black if the background color of your chart is black as the bar will then not be visible. Also choose the color for O and C.

 

Hope this helps.

Regarding Pivots - do you mean the Floor Trader Pivots or the recent support/resistance direction change "Pivot Points"?

[sunilrohira 10]

Thanks for the OHLC. I am still getting several neutral bars but most have converted to red/green. Floor trader Pivots are available as an indicator on Tradestation, but I am more interested in rolling hourly pivots and support / resistance lines.

[Iris 10]

Some explanations are needed here:

The floor traders pivots are based on the sum of yesterday's (close+H+L)/3 (the "PivotPoint"). The traders on the floor of the S&P watch that line today and almost always gravitate back to it. "Support" and "Resistance" lines are created based on that line and are used by them to aim for and change direction or daily philosophy e.g. Supp = PP*2 - yesterdays H and Res = PP *2 - Yesterdays Low. They are different lines depending on if you use daily charts or intraday charts. They are fixed at the open and stay that way for the entire trading day and stay that way the whole day moving across the chart. In electronic trading such as FOREX, there are no Floor Traders and this is not as reliable as in the Futures markets. The "Market Makers" here that manipulate the prices that we follow are the Big International Banks and I doubt that they follow these type of pivots as their buy/sell philosophy. Thus they are less important as Supp/Res lines.

 

Pivot Points are direction changes that we see when a Trend in one direction changes to the opposite way. There are Minor and Major Pivots. A minor pivot occurs within a major trend when traders are cashing out and taking some profit. The the trend resumes. A major pivot occurs when the is exhaustion in a particular direction and there are no more takers, so it is "overbought" or oversold" and changes directions. Those tops and bottoms are the true support and resistances because the market tell you that that is where it is happening.

 

To see these, Tradestation gives you and Indicator called ZigZag which shows you major trend direction changes. Most people do not like these types of lines on the chart. They also give you a Showme indicator that plots as dots and there are three types that you can try: Under the <Showme> menu when you right click on the chart AND CLICK ON <Insert Indicator> there are "Pivot High" "Pivot Low" / Pivot Rev Gen - Dn Pivot Rev Gen - Up / SGPivotHighBar SGPivotLowBar. You can make them show more or less pivots on the chart by changing the default from e.g. 3 in Pivot High and Low to 5. The math is complicated, but you should realize that there is a delay with all of these indicators because it has to happen first before the program can calculate it. A Pivot High or Resistance is a High which is lower than a previous high which was higher than that previous high; and a Pivot Low or Support is a low which is higher than the previous low which was lower that its previous low. So it takes a minimum of 4 completed bars to calculate.

 

If you want a Supp Res indicator that plots them as horizontal lines for intraday charts, I have one that I wrote that might work for you, but it has to be fiddled depending on how slow or fast you want it to show up.

 

Hope that this helps.

[Iris 10]

Regarding the neutral bars. They are called Doji Bars where the O = C and sellers = buyers. They tell you not to trade on that bar. One reason to use candlesticks is that if you have decided to trade in a certain direction and a Doji shows up, it is telling you to wait on the entry. If the next candle closes and the color matches the direction in which you want to go, then you place your entry, otherwise you wait.

If you do not want to see the neutral bars then change the input to (e.g.) 5 and it Averages the opens and closes over 5 bars getting rid of that issue. This of course will slow down the indicator (the color change) that tells you of the direction change.

[Uli Schmuli 10]

Attached is what I use to do what you are asking in Tradestation. This is very simple code that I've written with an input to select which color you want to display for a bullish bar and which for a bearish bar.

BARTREND.ELD