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Charting ratios between the prices of two symbols can easily be done with AmiBroker. For this purpose we can use Spread built-in formula available in Charts window:

Then select the style as Ratio:

The primary symbol (Symbol1) is the one selected in the chart window, the other symbol (Symbol2) is defined in the Parameters window, as presented in the above screenshot.

It is also possible to create such ratio chart programmatically in AFL using the following code:

Symbol1 and symbol2 names in the above code need to be replaced with the actual symbol names from our database we want to use.

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 7:10 am under Charting
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Built in HHV and LLV functions allow to read highest high or lowest low of n-past bars. If we want to refer to future values, there is an easy way to do it using simple Ref function and just shift HHV or LLV reading from N-bars ahead. A ready to use function showing such approach is presented below:

And here is the chart produced by the formula above:

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 7:25 am under Indicators
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Among built-in drawing tools, the Triangle, Rectangle and Ellipse allow to fill the background with custom color. However, if we wanted to fill the space between manually drawn trend lines, then we could use AFL formula with Study function that allows to detect the position of the line. Then – knowing the arrays of top and bottom lines we could fill the area between with a cloud plot.

A sample formula, which shows such implementation is presented below. The code fills the space between L1 and L2 trendlines (red color) and between upper and lower bands of the regression channel (RU and RL study id’s respectively).

The chart produced by the formula looks as follows:

We need to remember that each line needs to have unique Study ID assigned in the Properties window.

In case of regression channel the ID’s of the upper and lower lines are defined in Regression Channel tab:

If we wanted to handle more lines, then it may be more practical to process the list of study ID’s defined in a custom string instead of individual function calls.

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 2:56 pm under Charting
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Built-in RSI indicator offers the ability to display one of predefined grid levels to indicate oversold and overbought regions. This can be done in Axes&Grid tab of Parameters window available under right-mouse button.

If we require more flexibility, then as an alternative, we could modify the code and call PlotGrid function to display the custom grid lines. This allows to specify any level for the grids. A modified formula is presented below:

Now, since the formula uses Param function as input, the custom grid levels can be defined and modified in Parameters tab.

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 12:01 am under Indicators
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In this example we will present a method to plot automatic support and resistance lines based on recently hit highs/lows. In order to draw horizontal lines showing levels of recent HHV/LLV values and start drawing at the point of the chart, which defines given price level – we first need to identify the bar, where the line should start. This can be done with use of HHVBars / LLVBars functions.

These functions allow to find out the number of bars that have passed since our support or resistance level was established, so we could prevent from drawing the lines before these points.

This example shows how to draw support and resistance lines based on HHV/LLV levels:

The chart below shows the output produced by the formula:

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 12:06 am under Charting
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In realtime conditions we may be interested in executing some parts of our formula only once per bar, when a new bar is created (e.g. for auto-trading purposes or just for notification). To do that – we would need to identify the very moment when new bar appears.

This can be done using static variables to record the timestamp of the most recent bar, then comparing current reading with the recorded value. Once the difference is detected – we can conditionally run our code and update the recorded time info.

Such an approach will work if we use timestamps that don’t change with each tick, so preferred option is to use Start Time of Interval for timestamp display (for daily and higher intervals we should unmark “override” box):

Then we can use the following code (this sample formula will just play a ding.wav system sound when the new bar is detected):

Newer AmiBroker versions (>5.60) can use this for reading last bar timestamp (this is faster than using DateTime() function).
lastBartime = Status("lastbarend")

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 12:19 am under Indicators
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Built-in indicators and averages which are shipped with AmiBroker use Param() function calls to provide the ability to adjust parameter values through Parameters window. Param function in the code specifies default, minimum, maximum values for the input arguments.

The order of arguments in Param function is the following:

In certain situations, we may however want to use larger period settings than the pre-defined maximum. There is an easy way to adjust the code to achieve such task. Let us consider using built-in Price (all in one) indicator and setting e.g. 200 or 300 periods for Bollinger Bands (default maximum is 100).

To modify the underlying code, we need to:

1. Click on the chart with right mouse button and choose Edit Formula from the context menu to bring up the AFL code editor
2. In the code identify Bollinger Band section and the Param function call responsible for setting number of periods and change it from 200 to 300 as shown in the picture below.

   

3. Approve the changes, by selecting Tools->Apply from the editor’s menu

Now we can go back to Parameters dialog and we will be able to set Bollinger Bands Periods setting up to 300 periods.

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 7:30 am under Indicators
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In order to select certain range of dates in the historical chart, then scroll through the history of tickers, we can mark the range of dates we interested in using Range Markers (double-click on the chart or mark the bars and hit F12, SHIFT+F12).

Then, use View->Zoom->Range menu to zoom the chart to our range selection.

We can also assign a keyboard shortcut to View->Zoom->Range command or create a custom toolbar button to have it easily accessible (e.g. CTRL+SHIFT+R). This can be done in Tools->Customize (http://www.amibroker.com/guide/h_customizeui.html)

After we switch the symbol, in situations when the chart shifts e.g. due to different history length in those symbols – all we have to do is to hit CTRL+SHIFT+R to bring back the view to the range we wanted.

Browsing through the list of symbols can be automated further with scripts. Below is a sample auto-play script that will automatically browse through the list of symbols and will set the zoom to the dates we set in the code. All we need is just to start the script and watch it all switching automatically, without any manual actions required.

Here is a sample script that will browse through the list of symbols and set the zoom to show year 2010:

To use above code follow these steps:

1. Open Notepad
2. Copy-paste above the code
3. Save the file with .JS extension (which means that system will treat this as JScript code)
4. Make sure that AmiBroker is running with desired chart as active one
5. Double click on .JS file to execute the JScript code

IMPORTANT: if you are running 64-bit Windows and have BOTH 32-bit and 64-bit versions of AmiBroker installed the OLE scripts by default would only talk to 64-bit instance. To use 32-bit version instead you would need to follow advice given in this article: http://www.amibroker.com/kb/2015/01/12/ole-automation-scripts-with-32-and-64-bit/

It is worth noting that going through series of charts is not the only way to compare performance of various symbols over time. There are other dedicated built tools for comparing several securities (without switching symbols, but within one chart window), including Price (Foreign) and Relative Performance indicator. These functionalities are shown in the following video:
http://www.amibroker.com/video/TwoSymbolsOneChart.html

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 7:04 am under Charting
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When we want to paint the background with custom colors to indicate certain states or conditions – we can use area plots style for this purpose. The code example presented below shows green background when Close stays above 50-period moving average and red when below MA-50.

However – by default both grid lines and the selector line would get covered by the area plot:

There is an easy fix for that – AmiBroker allows to specify the Z-axis position too, so we can shift the visibility and order of plots (including their position against grids and other elements) by means of Z-order argument of Plot function.

If we specify the Z-order argument to -1 that means we move the particular plot one level behind and this would also be located below the grids.

More information about use of Z-order can be found in the User’s Guide:
http://www.amibroker.com/guide/h_indbuilder2.html

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 10:23 am under Indicators
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The built-in Relative Performance chart displays symbol names colored respectively in the chart Title. However – it may be practical to display the symbol label next to the plotted line for easier identification. This can easily be done with PlotText or PlotTextSetFont function.

A sample code showing such modification is presented below. Font size of the labels can be changed through Parameters dialog.

Filed by Tomasz Janeczko at 4:35 pm under Charting
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