ZigZag expanded in time (code)

December 23rd, 2010, 03:25 PM

Hello everybody,

just thought the following code could be of interest for someone. It is a representation of zigzag, not in form of the well-known lines, but exactly the value of this indicator on each bar. Therefore you can follow its move during the forming of the most recent span, not only after a reversal occurs. The indicator uses two data streams: data1 is used for plotting and data2 � for determining the swing criterion. By default if is equal to 1 ATR of data2. The other lines on the chart are 2 standard errors from the uppermost or lowermost line (depending on the direction) and target levels for upwards and downwards movements. I hope the parameters are self-explanatory, but if you're in trouble please feel free to ask.

The indicator uses a function named __zigzagtrue_stddev__, please make sure the name is exactly that.

Code

input: period(numericSimple), factor_atr(numericSimple), factor_stddev(numericSimple), dir(numericRef), atr(numericRef), sd(numericRef);

var: xhigh(high), xlow(low);

xhigh = maxlist(high, xhigh);
xlow = minlist(low, xlow);

atr = avgtruerange(period) of data2 * factor_atr;
sd = stderror(close, period) of data2 * factor_stddev;

if low <= xhigh - atr and dir = 1 then begin
	dir = -1;
	xlow = low;
end;

if high >= xlow + atr and dir = -1 then begin
	dir = 1;
	xhigh = high;
end;

if dir = -1 then begin
	value1 = xlow;
end;
if dir = 1 then begin
	value1 = xhigh;
end;

__zigzagtrue_stddev__ = value1;

Now the indicator itself:

Code

input: period(20), factor_atr(2), factor_stddev(2), retracement(0.5);

var: xhigh(high), xlow(low), atr(0), dir(1), sd(0);

value1 = __zigzagtrue_stddev__(period, factor_atr, factor_stddev, dir, atr, sd);

if dir = -1 then begin
	setPlotColor(1, red);
	if dir[1] = 1 then value2 = value1 - atr;
	value3 = value1 + atr * retracement;
	value4 = value1 + sd;
	setPlotColor(2, red);
	setPlotColor(3, red);
	setPlotColor(4, white);
end;
if dir = 1 then begin
	setPlotColor(1, yellow);
	if dir[1] = -1 then value2 = value1 + atr;
	value3 = value1 - atr * retracement;
	value4 = value1 - sd;
	setPlotColor(2, yellow);
	setPlotColor(3, yellow);
	setPlotColor(4, white);
end;

plot1(value1);
plot2(value2);
plot3(value3);
plot4(value4);

If this stuff is apt for anyone please share your experience, would love also to hear about how this behaves on other instruments, in particular on index futures.

Hope I haven't dubbed someone else's work here on the forum.

December 28th, 2010, 11:25 AM

Thanks for sharing. Have you looked at SuperTrend? It seems similar.

EasyLanguage SuperTrend indicator
Here is my version of a TradeStation/MultiCharts EasyLanguage SuperTrend indicator.

I made it a function so it could be called easily from a strategy.

Function:

// SuperTrend function
// March 25 2010
// Big Mike
inputs:
ATRLength(NumericSimple), …

Mike

December 28th, 2010, 03:47 PM

No, I hadn't seen your code before posting mine, no kidding Seriously, the idea is the same except that I use separate data streams which sometimes allow for using interesting solutions like mixing up instruments or using artificial indices, etc.