Developing a custom charting type based on the 3-line break... can anyone recommend the best software for creating custom chart types and then apply indicators to such?
Mark, I would recommend Investor RT of Linn Software for charting Three line break related strategies. You have the possibility to chart TLB the usual way, or expand it over the actual time frame (so the TLB chart remains with the same Lo/Hi except the bars are wider) As you have access to all TLB bar information to build your own custom indicator or trading signals, you may implement trading strategies including information like TLB just switched from short to long direction or TLB just formed a new rising bar, or last TLB reversal was more than x bars ago, etc See http://linnsoft.com/tutorials/tlb.htm for more information Moreover, they developed the TLB oscillator which is providing even more information for TLB type of analysis. For example, this allow you to plot on top of your regular quotes the âcurrent reversal priceâ, ie the price to break in order to get a reversal in the TLB direction mode, or to plot as an oscillator the difference between the current price and this reversal price. There are as well several other options : have a look to http://linnsoft.com/tour/techind/tlbosc.htm Myself, I use TLB together with the multi periodicity feature of IRT allowing you to mix time frames when displaying trading signals on a charts⦠Basically, below my 1 min bar chart, I have three color bands corresponding each to a time frame reference (1, 3 and 13 min). These bands will be green if TLB is long / red if short. On top of that, some smaller circle marker will appear at the center of each bands when the TLB produces a new bar âbreakâ in the continuation of the existing trend. So the top color bands will show me the state of the TLB as calculated with the 1 min bar data (and the usual reversal criteria of â3 linesâ) while the other band will show me the state of the TLB calculated with 3 (resp 13 min) bar data, everything being conveniently displayed in a reduced space below my main 1 minute charts⦠This has proven to be a very interesting trend indicator confirmation tool, helping showing which kind of âbreaksâ are major one, ie the one appearing simultaneously in several times frames according to the TLB calculations rules⦠Eddy
You'd better think twice before you start using Investor Rt. i've used it for about 6 montgs and I think the daily use is a big pain in the ass, because of all kinds of disturbing bugs in the program. I.e. scrolling a chart is horrendously slow, i used to plot automatic pivot points, that got stuck at infrequent times, had some custom indicators, that had the annoying habit of plotting a zero during the formation af a bar, etc, etc,..... I want "report" all the problems that I had, but I can assure that this was in no way benificial to my trading.
Wholeheartedly agree. I put out $49 for the trial and couldn't get through all the bugs even while sending daily emails to support. I had always had very high hopes for Linnsoft since it's so feature packed but I found it horribly non-intuitive and a giant PITA. I also tried QCharts and Esignal but have since found my beacon in the night, Sierra Chart w/MyTrack which I can't recommend enough. --opm8
I fully agree that the learning curve might be harder for IRT than on other packages because of the very extensive list of available features and I had as well my lot of frustration too while "trialing" the software. I have been testing most of the existing software package available (Qcharts,TS, RavenQuote/ErlangerQuote, WL, Ensign..) and I finally settled down for InvestorRT (with Esignal as feed) one year ago. Not because IRT is "better" than the other software (we all know that all packages have their strong and weak features and ultimately, everybody find its "beacon in the night") but because it was suiting at best my daytrading needs in term of designing custom indicators & workspaces. To come back to the main subject of this thread, as I mentioned in my initial post, I was able to build a custom indicator showing how TLB indications were in "sync" for different timeframes (TF). When you get used to it, you may then, instead of having the 3 color bands for the 1/3 & 13 min just build one color band (a TLB "TF sync" band) showing when you get the synchronized "breaks"... Then, if you done that for the ES, you add a similar "TLB TF sync" color band for the NQ just below : when both indications match, it will help you detect that a major buying/selling program may be underway... I would appreciate very much If other daytraders using TLB might share the way they use this tool... Eddy