NeoTicker Blog

When you apply an indicator on a data, by default, NeoTicker will use the close value of the data as the input to the indicator. It is possible to use other fields in the data as the input. The following fields are available: open, high, low, close, volume, open interest, tick and date time (obviously fields like open interest are not applicable to all data).

Adjusting the link is done when you add or edit the indicator, under the Links tab of the dialog.

In the table, you can adjust the Field to any of the available fields.

I will use the Donchian Channels indicator to illustrate how linked field affects indicators. Donchian Channels is a commonly used indicator to detect breakouts. Traders often use Donchain Channels as a signal to detect the starts of a trend. The following figure shows a 20-period Donchian Channels.

If you are familiar with Donchian Channels, you probably know that the channel lines are defined by the highest high values and the lowest values of the period. So you can simply add a 20-period highest high indicator and a 20-period lowest low indicator to the chart and expect to get the same values as Donchian.

In the figure above, the blue dots are the values of the highest high value indicator and the red dots are the values of the lowest low value indicator.

As you can see, the values don’t match those of the Donchian Channels. The reason is by default highest high and lowest low indicators are linked to the close value of the data, whereas Donchain Channels. If you edit the highest high and lowest low indicator, changing their links to high and low value of the data, you will get an exact match with Donchian.

I will push the concept a little further. Suppose I want to make Donchian Channel a little more sensitve. I can do it by reducing the period parameter. Another way to do it is by setting the high and low values not at the absolute high low of the bars.

To do this, we need to use formula. Add a formula (fml) indicator to the chart. The source of the formula indicator should be the data. The formula is (H+C)/2 as the formula. Give the indicator a name you can easily reference like “Near High”. This indicator return values midway between close and high value of the bars.

The figure below shows the indicator editor of Near High.

Similarily, add another formula indicator to the chart. The source of the formula indicator should be the data. This time, use (C+L)/2. Give the indicator a name you can easily reference like “Near Low”. This indicator returns values midway between close and low value of the bars.

Now, edit Highest High Value indicator and set the link to Near High. See figure below.

Finally, edit Lowest Low Value indicator and set the link to Near Low.

The chart will look like:

Notice that the highest high and lowest low indicators are now more sensitive than the standard Donchian Channels. It is because these indicators are now linking to bar values that are not at the absolute high and low.

The chart is rather complex. So I’ve uploaded the chart to this site so you can experiement with it. You can right click here and save group export file to your local drive. After file is downloaded to your local drive, at NeoTicker main menu click on Group> Import Package then select the link_example_group file as source. This will import the group and chart file into your NeoTicker installation. Use Group> Open Group to open the imported group chart file.

Louis