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A moving average that is easy to review on an end of day chart
I like to enter a trade when the opening price is between a fast and a slow moving average. This works well enough on live trading but there is an issue when looking at a chart at the end of the day (or even during the day). The SMA I use is based on the closing price so it moves during the bar. I would like to use a moving average that stays stable and is a snapshot of the MA at the time I made my decision. Do I simply need to switch it to be based on the OPEN and get my "moving average vision" tuned to that ?? The goal is to be able to have a chart at the end of the day that I can review and see missed entries or rushed entries.
For instance in the attached screenshot - the moving average was not touching the open of the bar that is located under the blue square on the open. It moved significantly when the downtrend continued.
Can I achieve this with a setting on an SMA or do I need another type of moving average - or just another plot type - maybe not a line ??
TKS podski
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
Not sure why you think the close price is a problem. My suggestion is not to worry about what happens intrabar while all the wiggling is going on. Base your entry on the bar close price.
I agree with you that the close price/open price is what I am looking at.
I just modified the original post with a picture.
The issue is that the "state" of the moving average at the decision time ... cannot be seen at the end of the day (or even 10 minutes later) and I would like a sort of reliable rear view mirror.
The picture didn't really clarify anything as far as I can tell. The close price of a bar is going to be the same real time as it is on historical bars. So, I'm still not sure what the problem is.
My understanding is that COBC = True will stop it jumping around during the bar - that is ok and doesn't bother me.
I want to be able to lookback at the end of the day and see a chart that reflected a moving average at the "crunch time" decision time ... i.e. the seconds before the close and on the open of the new bar.
Set COBC = true and the values on your chart will not change. With COBC = false, the values can change after you entered the position but before the bar closes.
COBC = true, wait for bar to close, enter position. If this is a daily bar and you want to enter seconds before the market closes each day, it is unlikely that it would affect the moving averages so you would be fine. If it is not a daily bar then there is nothing magical or special about any time frame bar, so just enter once your time frame bar has closed.
On the picture (attached again for ease of use) the little white + that I have at the open of the bar appears to be right on the moving average. However - when the bar opened .. it wasn't like this it was well below the MA line.
I understand the value of the price at closing and there is some value in having the COBC=False (so that I can see the development of the line) - it is just that when I look back at a chart that has had a big trend move I see lots of entries that looked good value (i.e. within my moving averages) but in reality at the open of those bars they were outside the MA envelope.
@Big Mike
I agree with you that this will help with the actual "crunch time" decision - yes. But wont the MA in fact move and smooth itself out at the next open.
Or are you saying that an SMA (in this case) takes more reference points if COBC=True. I don't think so .. I think that during the bar it will of course take each tick .. but at the close it just takes the last tick and that's it.
Maybe the sort of plot I am looking for is not an SMA at all. It might be a bit more jagged.