RadarScreen^®: Indicators

Indicators display information on a price chart. The most common definition of an indicator is a mathematical formula that returns a number for every bar on a chart, with its resulting value displayed as a line, histogram, or series of points.

They are generally made up of one or more plot lines that display the results of technical analysis based transformation(s) of securities data. In other words, calculating and displaying a moving average would be one example of an indicator. Most of the well-known analysis techniques, such as MACD, Stochastics and RSI, fall in this category.

The following is a sample of the functionality that can be incorporated when creating indicators for RadarScreen®:

ALERTS:
Wherever you are, you will be able to have RadarScreen® track the markets for you and send you alerts in a host of different ways. On your screen, if you're at your computer. By e-mail, if you're at the office. You will even be able to set up RadarScreen® to deliver quotes at timed intervals to your computer via e-mail. Simply ask RadarScreen® to send you updates on a list of symbols you're tracking, and specify any time interval in 5 minute increments. RadarScreen® even knows not to send you updates if there has been no change in the specified time, assuring that you don't get pages after market hours. And, you will be able to set alerts on every single symbol, every single column and every single indicator, whether custom or built-in, which means that you can know instantly when a trading opportunity arises based on your criteria.

CUSTOM FILTERS:
Easily insert custom filter columns, again written in EasyLanguage®, with full ability to color-code background and foreground of cell indicators as columns in RadarScreen®. Choose from TradeStation 7’s library of built-in indicators or create custom indicators using EasyLanguage® and then enable them for use in RadarScreen®.

PLOT ATTRIBUTES:
The attributes of each of the plots of an indicator can be controlled independently and include:
Displacement: With displacement the plot can be positioned either forward or backward by a certain number of bars relative to its intrinsic location on the chart.

CUSTOM INDICATOR COLUMNS:
RadarScreen® provides the ability to insert indicators as columns. But RadarScreen® isn't limited to just built-in indicator columns. Developers will be able to create custom indicators with the power and flexibility of EasyLanguage®. With EasyLanguage®, simply describe the trading concepts or criteria you want to see using English-like statements and everyday trading terms. Design custom scanning criteria, indicators and analysis techniques and combine over 100 built-in math functions and technical indicators.

EasyLanguage Example:

Displacement is used in the Bollinger Band indicator.

Conditional Coloring:
With conditional coloring, the color of the plot can be set to change when a certain condition is met.

EasyLanguage Example:
The following chart shows the conditional coloring code used in the RSI indicator.

Conditional coloring code used in the RSI indicator.

Conditional Width:
Conditional width works the same way as conditional coloring except instead of changing the color of the plot when a certain condition is met, the width of the plot is changed. Usually, though, the width is set at a fixed value via the indicator’s property settings.

Plot Type & Line Style:
Multiple plot types (e.g., Line, Histogram, Point, Cross, Bar, High, Bar Low, Left Tick, Right Tick) are available as well as multiple line styles (e.g., solid, dashed, dotted) that can be set as the default. The program also allows for these to be changed by the end-user. A line plot, for example, could easily be converted to a histogram, or a solid line could be changed to dashes.

COMMENTARY:
Indicators can also include code for generating analysis commentary based on the author’s interpretation of the indicator configuration at any bar on a securities chart.