Studies: Color Bands

Ensign Windows has a flexible Color Band tool whose primary use is to indicate bar relationships.   Several examples will be shown to open your mind to the possibilities that this tool might serve in your technical analysis.

Color Band is the last entry on the bottom of the drop down study list.

The parameter form has three combo boxes:  Study, Location, and Style.

The Study list has 21 predefined color band studies, and the ability to implement additional studies in the ESPL programming language.  (Examples follow).

The study can be plotted in 14 different locations using 10 different styles.   This gives the tool extreme flexibility.

The following examples show two to four color bands added to a chart to illustrate the wide variety of visual effects possible with this tool.

As has been shown, the available studies, locations and styles allows one to add a wide variety of visual effects to the chart.  The ability to implement proprietary logic for the Color Band tool will be illustrated next.

When Study is set to the top choice of ESPL Study, the ESPL Who = edit box appears so a value can be assigned to the global Who variable.   This variable is used to parse execution to the appropriate procedure that will set the color for each bar position on the chart.   The user sets the color value, and Ensign Windows will draw the color band using the color, location, and style settings.   Setting a color value of zero will tell Ensign Windows to do nothing at this bar position.   Assign a color value of 1, 2, 3, or 4 to use one of the 4 colors set on the Color Band parameter form.   Any color can be assigned, and one could use the predefined color constants such as clRed and clYellow.

var j: integer;
begin
  if who=61 then
    for j:=BarBegin to BarEnd do 
      if High(j)>High(pred(j)) then 
        SetStudy(0,0,1,j) 
      else 
        SetStudy(0,0,2,j);

  if who=62 then
    for j:=BarBegin to BarEnd do 
      if Low(j)>Low(pred(j)) then 
        SetStudy(0,0,1,j)
      else 
        SetStudy(0,0,2,j);
end;

This script implements two very simple Color Band tests.  For one of the color bands, the ESPL Who =  parameter is set to 61.  For the 2nd color band tool, the ESPL Who = parameter is set to 62.   Thus, both tools can call the same ESPL script and yet be routed to separate logic that implements each tool.

The code loops through all bars for the chart which made the call to ESPL.   Arrays hold the chart bar values and these can be used in formulas.  The Who = 61 tool tests to see if a bar's High is higher than the preceding bar's high, and if so, sets the color band to use the 1st color.   If the test is not true, the color band uses the 2nd color.

The Who = 62 tool tests to see if a bar's Low is higher than the preceding bar's low.  If true, the 1st color is used, otherwise the 2nd color is used.   This is the visual effect for these two Color Band studies applied to a chart using the Top Row 1 and Top Row 3 locations, and the Band Double style.

When both bands are blue, the bar has a higher high and a higher low and is ascending.  When both bands are red, the bar has a lower high and a lower low and is descending.   A blue top with a red bottom indicate an outside range bar.  A red top with a blue bottom indicate an inside range bar.

Color Bands are a great tool for marking bar relationships.  Because it can be programmed with proprietary rules, there is no limit to the creative possibilities for indicating formations and relationships with a flexible and pleasing visual presentation.  Enjoy it, and be sure to use it.