|
||||||||||||||||
Abbreviations:
Price Histogram Properties: Various check box options are on the Price Histogram (PH) property form for showing the outside TPOs, inside TPOs, and range bands, etc. The following property form settings created the previous example.
The next example shows the PH with candles plotted on top. The PH can be plotted on top of the candles by unchecking the box to Plot Behind Bars. And the bars could be hidden by pressing the B key. For the sake of focus on PH, the bars will be hidden in the reminder of the examples.
One objective was to keep the TPO boxes square, so they are sized by the scale range and independently of the bar spacing.
The example on the left has a wide scale range which forces the boxes to be very small. When the chart's scale range is narrower, the TPO boxes can be drawn larger. Parameters:
The PH can control the box size in points, which if zero, will use the default tick size. But with a value entered, you can force a larger or smaller box size than would be the default. The 0.25 points is typical and appropriate for an ES #F chart because it trades in 0.25 increments. The next box labeled Initial % controls the size of the 2 additional bands drawn above and below the Initial Range. The entry of 50 would then draw a band of 2nd color from 100% to 150% and a 3rd color from 150% to 200%. and the image repeated below the Initial Range, with 2nd color from 0% to -50% and 3rd color from -50% to -100%. In my thinking you want the bands every 50%, so the enter is a 50. The initial range is optionally drawn on the left side of the PH as a vertical line. The Initial Range box is checked to show this vertical line, and the width of the line is the Line Style selection on the Intial Range row. The initial range color is the color box on this row, and the time period in minutes is the edit box on this row. In the example, the Initial Range is the time period of 60 minutes and is drawn in orange. The 2nd band color for the initial range will come from the next row, which is labeled Session Box. And the 3rd band color for the initial range will come from the next row down, which is labeled Session Bar. Collectively this makes the vertical orange/blue/light blue lines that extend above and below the daily range. The colors are are multiples of the initial range, ie 150% and then 200% of Initial Range. Session Bars: Like Initial Range, the Open Range can be plotted, which is another time period range from the PH start, and it has its own Line Style for thickness, color, and time period. Ensign Howard: In the example the Open Range is for 30 minutes, and is plotted to the left of the Initial Range as a fat red vertical line. The Session Bar is plotted to the left of both the Open Range and the Initial Range in its own line thickness and color. This is a range bar for the session and shows using left side and right side tick hash marks the PH open and the current prices. All we have to work with is the bars on the chart and their high and low values. If PH is on a 30 min chart, then first 2 bars will be found for the 60 min period. If on a 30 min chart, then 1st bar will be used for the opening range though the parameter might be less than 30 minutes, such as 15 minutes, because the 30 minute bar on the chart cannot be subdivided into smaller parts to find first 15 min of the 30 min bar. Session Box:The Session Box option will draw a frame from session high to session low and just beyond the POC width. This makes for a nice visual of a bar. If the marker on the Session Box is one of the fill markers like is shown on the property form, then the value area will be filled. The fill color is the color bar to the right of the fill marker. This fill is only recoloring those pixels that are the background color.
Uncheck the Session Box to have the VAH, and VAL plot as a horizontal line using the Bands line style and color as shown in this example:
TPO Boxes:
By the Open label is a color box for coloring the TPO that is the open TPO. By the Close label is the color box to color the current TPO. The First price in a histogram and the Last price in a histogram will color their boxes different colors. On a chart that is Day Session Only, it is today's day session open price and current price. Red box is current price, and the orange box is the session open in the chart shown. By the 50% label is a marker and color box that can be used to show a marker at the mid point of the session range. This plots on top of the Session Bar to the left of the PH, and in the example is shown as a big black right arrow. Any marker could be used, so pick what you like to see for the 50% marker. To disable this marker, change the marker selection to the first entry on the list which is blank. Another feature is to outline the TPO boxes with a frame, and this is done when the square box marker is selected on the line by the Frame label, and the frame color is this marker color. If the Frame marker is not this square box, but is something like the blank selection, then the area between TPOs shows the image behind. This example shows the frame disable, for comparison.
Here the background color shows through surrounding the TPO boxes. Personally, I like the crisper image of having a frame, and I like the black frame color.
Any of the markers could be used for the marker on the Frame row. Four examples are shown giving different visual effects. The example on the left is the smaller square box marker, in which case the marker is used for the TPO boxes instead of an actual box. Using the line markers, you can have thin lines, thicker lines, fats lines, etc, which is kind of like the PH in the old Ensign series that did horizontal lines, which was a request to retain. This permits lot of background image of bars, study lines, etc to show through so you can have a huge variety of variation just with the marker selection chosen. The nicest visual is the big hollow square marker, which then does variable size boxes that are framed. Dynamic VAH, POC, and VAL: The rows labeled VAH, POC,VAL optionally plot the VAH value, the POC value and the VAL value as they fluctuate bar by bar through out the day. Use this feature to plot curves, or bands, of these values. These values are exposed for use in other studies, such as DYOs, for testing bar by bar.
This example shows the plots of the VAH, POC, and VAL as they change during the day as more data is received. The bowtie fill marker has been used to color the area between the VAH and the POC, and the POC and the VAL. The price histogram can be hidden by unchecking the boxes for the outer and inner TPOs to hide them as in the next example.
Since the VAH, POC, and VAL values are available as the PH develops during the day, some clever implementations should be possible in system designs. On the right side are check box options for extending range lines and poc lines. There are options to show the session High and Low above the top of PH and bottom of PH. The color used for these prices comes from the Bands marker color, which in the example is blue. Showing the TPO (Trade Price Opportunity) count is also optional. The TPO counts show on the same location above and below the PH following the High and Low prices. The notation TPO 98/69 means there are 98 TPO boxes above the POC row, and 69 TPO boxes below the POC line. Value Area Methodology: The CQG method check box is used to select either the eSignal method of the CQG method for calculating the Value Area. These are the two methods most widely used for calculating POC, VAH, and VAL. They are similar, yet have some slight differences in calculating the value area in how they handle TPO counts that are equal. This a private property which permits either method to be used with histograms on any chart. Personally, I think the CQG method seems more logical and balanced, but that is just my opinion. You are welcome to use either, and in our comparisons of values with other programs across 3 weeks of trading days, our values match very well. To get the eSignal method just leave the election for the CQG Method unchecked. The examples have used the eSignal methodology. You can get the same histogram using any of the supported data feeds... we just refer to the method or set of rules for calculation of the value area as an eSignal methodology. Virgin POCs: Check the boxes to Extend the POCs (Point of Control) to the right edge of the chart. When the Virgin POC box is checked, the virgin POCs will be drawn as solid lines, and the non-virgin POCs will be drawn using dotted lines. A POC is considered Virgin until it is covered by the trading action of a subsequent histogram. See this example:
Study Mode: The Study Mode choice now named '24H Globex' combines both sessions with a boundary on the Globex open. 2nd choice is '24H RTH Open', and will have a boundary on the day session open time. 3rd Study Mode choice is a Price Histogram on each of the session opens. The selection for Visible Bars will make one histogram for all bars present in the chart view. The Minutes selection will restart on either session open time, and the duration of the histogram is the Minutes parameter, such as 120 for a 2 hour histogram.
The selections of Two Days and Three Days combine 24H Globex histograms into a composite histogram. The intent is to have bigger PH. For a Two Day histogram, the PH starts at beginning of yesterday on which the price action of today is added. A Three Day histogram would have two prior days plus today in the PH. There is a histogram for each day. Earlier completed histograms have collectively 2 or 3 days of bars in the histogram.
DYO PH Labels: The Design Your Own (DYO) study can reference values from the Price Histogram study.
This example DYO is putting on the labels. The labels are shown in a column in the margin space, and the selection on the form is the Column 2 location. Line A puts on the <- price label in blue in normal font size. Now the reason for the training is not to illustrate a font size, but rather to point out the impact a font selection in the DYO has on the nature of the DYO labels. When you set the FONT, then the DYO will handle the label in a different way by using a TEXTOUT of a message to write the label on the chart using the selected font. If you DO NOT set a font, then the label characters are pen stroked by Ensign using a fixed size character. This is a series of pen strokes, instead of a Windows platform font. If you do not set the font, then the Ensign pen stroke will draw commas that happen to be in the label. So see line D label of ,,,val If we did not do the Line B font size, then the label would have been drawn showing 2 commas and the letters val. However, when the label was processed by the label routine for the font, we treat the commas as line separators for a multi-lined message. So the ,,val ended up be two blank lines and val, all centered on the price for its location, which was the Range Low. The LINE C which did the VAH had 2 commas after the label which made a 3 line message of VAL and 2 blank lines. The POC was drawn in the pure position on top of the POC line. So in this example you see illustrated 3 slightly different effects, a label above, on and below the price location. So that was one little trick I thought some of you might use with your PH presentations. Price Histogram GVs: The price histogram property form includes 4 Global Variables (GV). The GVs are used in various places, primarily in DYOs. The first GV will be the VAH value. The 2nd GV will be the POC value, the 3rd on the POC line will be the VAL value, and the 4th GV is the VAH-VAL range. My example DYO used the study value selections, but I could have used the GVs to do the same thing. So the order was VAH, POC, VAL, and Value range. There are those who want to customize and get special effects and I am showing how additional effects can be achieved. You do not have to use all the tools in the toolbox. Last modified 6/30/08 4:06 PM |
||||||||||||||||
