Hey guys,

I was wondering if there was a non-discretionary way to mark the swin highs and lows? Something like fractals. I tried using them but they end up marking continuous 2-3 swing highs or lows at one single go.

Does anything have a method for it?

Fudgester 

Hey guys, I was wondering if there was a non-discretionary way to mark the swin highs and lows? Something like fractals. I tried using them but they end up marking continuous 2-3 swing highs or lows at one single go. Does anything have a method for it?

For what trading platform? NinjaTrader, Sierra Shart, TradeStation, TOS, etc.... ?

If you let people know what you are asking about, you may get more answers.

Bob.

You can try a zig zag indicator or donchian channel.

bobwest 

For what trading platform? NinjaTrader, Sierra Shart, TradeStation, TOS, etc.... ? If you let people know what you are asking about, you may get more answers. Bob.

Hey there. I am using multicharts. So I guess even transactions code would probably work. I was looking for a methodology to mark the swing higs/lows. Something like fractals or a way to mark structural pivots.

RADO 

You can try a zig zag indicator or donchian channel.

I tried using zigzag. But realised there is alot of repainting and not very trustworthy during love markets. I was amazed by fractals but the issue with that is, it ends up giving 2-3 highs or lows in a row. Which makes it again, hard to look at in real time. In hindsight things are clear, but not in real time.


Can you kindly share how can we use donchian channels?

Fudgester 

Hey there. I am using multicharts. So I guess even transactions code would probably work. I was looking for a methodology to mark the swing higs/lows. Something like fractals or a way to mark structural pivots.

Thanks. I have moved this thread to the MultiCharts sub-forum, where it may get more responses specific to your platform.

Bob.

Fudgester 

Hey guys, I was wondering if there was a non-discretionary way to mark the swin highs and lows? Something like fractals. I tried using them but they end up marking continuous 2-3 swing highs or lows at one single go. Does anything have a method for it?

Not sure if I understand what you're asking... are you saying that you don't want 2 (or more) swing highs in a row, before having a swing low? IOW there's no swing low in between those 2 swing highs. If so, then yeah you can do that... you just write the code so that you don't plot the swing low until you have a potential swing high, then your code keeps updating the latest swing high and waits for the opposite potential... it waits for a potential swing low and then plots the swing high. So the swing highs & lows always ALTERNATE, there's never 2 in a row without the opposite being in between. I wrote my own code that does this. I originally tried a different algorithm, whereby the code was only looking for swings on one side at a time (and not even looking at the opposite side), but the algo I described above is so much simpler and works ~perfectly.

BTW I defined the swing strength as basically being at least 2 bars, but I also added some other optimization criteria as well such as I allow 1 bar strength if it's a big reversal amount. Then, since I have swings coded, I was easily able to code the fractal swings too, which I don't actually use LOL, but they're cool to use for S/R levels. I actually only use the "base"/minimum swings to run my custom indicators on.

Larry Williams describes one such method in a second edition of his book "Long-term secrets to short-term trading". Basically it is a bar with two bars with higher lows at each side for short term low, and short-term low with 2 short-term lows at each side for intermediate term low. I've tried to explain it with the attached picture.


Another approach is to use N-bar highs and lows or any wave type indicator.

Fudgester 

I tried using zigzag. But realised there is alot of repainting and not very trustworthy during love markets. I was amazed by fractals but the issue with that is, it ends up giving 2-3 highs or lows in a row. Which makes it again, hard to look at in real time. In hindsight things are clear, but not in real time.

If this is still a live topic for you, you may notice that all of the responses so far have exactly this same issue -- you have to wait until price goes the other way a bit before you can assume that it made a high or a low.

But there is really no other way to do it. Until price has turned, by at least some amount, you can't be sure that it has (wait for it), turned.

If you knew that a certain point was going to be the high or low at the exact time it happened, this would be better than a crystal ball, or at least the same. You simply aren't going to get that knowledge at that point. (And if anyone could, they wouldn't be sharing it with anyone else. They wouldn't even be trading any more. Why trade once you have become a multi-billionaire?)

So, while this is an interesting question, and it has been addressed fairly often with zig-zags and fractals and probably a lot more, you can't answer the question until the turn has passed. So you're always, to some degree, working with hindsight. This doesn't mean you can't use the information, just that at best you'll be a little late, and also it's always going to be a matter of probability, not certainty, that the turn really has come. To be more certain, you can wait longer, but then the usefulness of the information keeps going down as the time to act on it has passed by.

Bob.