Blast Off Indicator for ThinkorSwim

[BenTen]

Description of Indicator:

• This measures the day's open / close vs then high lows of the day (range)
• When the open /close is less than 20% of the range, then it's likely that the following day will have a big jump.
• The Thought Process is Simply When (Open - Close) is Less Than 20% Of The Range…Shows Indecision and Breakout is Probable.
• Which way? Use whatever indicator you want to figure out if the market is oversold or overbought.

You should use this indicator on the daily chart. A pink candle represent a "blast off" candle. Expect a big move the next day. For day traders, you can also use this on the lower timeframes to look for indecision candles.

thinkScript Code

reference this one in the Scan Hacker

# Blast Off Indicator
# Should use on the Daily chart
# Assembled by BenTen at useThinkScript.com
# Converted from https://www.tradingview.com/script/V9Mi6eOO-CM-Blast-Off-V1-Alerts-Ready/

input trig = 20;
input paintbar = yes;

def val = absValue(close - open);
def range = high - low;
def blastOffVal = (val / range) * 100;
def trigger = trig;
def alert1 = blastOffVal < trig;
def col = blastOffVal < trig;

assignPriceColor(if paintbar and blastOffVal<trig then Color.MAGENTA else Color.Current);

# Plot Arrow
plot arrow = col;
arrow.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.BOOLEAN_ARROW_UP);
arrow.SetDefaultColor(Color.CYAN);
arrow.SetLineWeight(1);

Shareable Link: https://tos.mx/3DOXHdO

Fancy Version

As suggested by @john3

# Blast Off Indicator
# Should use on the Daily chart
# Assembled by BenTen at useThinkScript.com
# Converted from https://www.tradingview.com/script/V9Mi6eOO-CM-Blast-Off-V1-Alerts-Ready/

# Modified version: added line to high and low of blast off candle.

input trig = 20;

def val = absValue(close - open);
def range = high - low;
def blastOffVal = (val / range) * 100;
def trigger = trig;
def alert1 = blastOffVal < trig;
def col = blastOffVal < trig;

def blast_candle = blastOffVal < trig;

def b_high = if blast_candle then high else b_high[1];
def b_low = if blast_candle then low  else b_low[1];

plot hh = b_high;
plot ll = b_low;

hh.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.HORIZONTAL);
ll.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.HORIZONTAL);
hh.SetDefaultColor(Color.YELLOW);
ll.SetDefaultColor(Color.YELLOW);

assignPriceColor(if blastOffVal<trig then Color.MAGENTA else Color.WHITE);

 

[john3]

I don't know who originally created this indicator, but if I am not mistaken it has been frequently mentioned by Linda Raschke and Larry Connors. It might be in their famous Street Smarts book, but I'm not 100% sure. I believe it is meant to be used on a Daily chart. That said, on an intraday chart, it does a great job at highlighting spinning top/doji-like candles.

I think it would be useful to have an option to plot a box around those candles (high/low). The breakout in either way seems tradeable as either a trend continuation or a reversal.

 

[BenTen]

@john3 Thanks for the info. I’ll modify the code and post it here later today

 

[J007RMC]

@john3 Thanks for the info. I’ll modify the code and post it here later today

I like this script I am running it on a basic blank chart with my slow and fast ma’s. Im excited to test this. I very much like the concept.

 

[CarlG]

I noticed that if you used the momentum study in conjunction with the Blast Off Study, then you could get better sense of which direction the stock was going to move. Follow the direction of the momentum. Rising momentum gave bullish trades and falling momentum gave bearish trades.

 

[Piper2808t]

Ben can this be put into a scan?

 

[BenTen]

@Piper2808t Yes. Watch this video here.

 

[C4men]

Can anyone help me with turning the blastoff into a daily scan / watchlist? I cannot seem to figure that out.

I am doing the steps incorrectly and cannot figure out what I am doing wrong...

 

[BenTen]

@C4men Use the indicator from the original post, see this video: https://usethinkscript.com/threads/how-to-use-the-tos-scanner.284/

 

[TOSTrader]

Hi @BenTen ! I'm trying to understand how to use this:

At the close of the trading day, I will have either a pink or white candle which signals that on the following day, expect a big move. However, if I wait until the closing of the current day, then I can't open a position because the market is closed. Does that make sense?

Or will this indicator allow me to see a pink candle one hour before the trading day is over, so I can make a play for the following day. Did I miss something?

 

[BenTen]

@TOSTrader You should be trading it the following day. You still need to wait for the current day to close to confirm whether we get a blast off day or not.

 

[lex_sanity]

@BenTen can you help with scanner setting? I saved the study, and set up the following parameters. I am seeing a big set of results, and even though i have set my 'bar' within 1, i am seeing the purple candle from few days before. So it is not showing purple candle on the last day. Also, if I was running this scan after EOD, how can I return results from today?

Offset = 0
Plot - hh
inputs - trig - 20

is true

within 1 bar

I'm having the same problem smh. Help please??

 

[BenTen]

@lex_sanity Please take a look at this video:

 

[jezzer46]

On lower time frames this highlights what I call tiny trigger bars. The small indecision bar before a move up or down. In theory the smaller the bar the less you risk if you use a risk reward based on bars height. From what I see so far in the right setup can give you really good entries even @ 5min. Awesome work @ Benten

 

[powderchick5]

You should use this indicator on the daily chart. A pink candle represent a "blast off" candle. Expect a big move the next day. For day traders, you can also use this on the lower timeframes to look for indecision candles.

thinkScript Code

# Blast Off Indicator
# Should use on the Daily chart
# Assembled by BenTen at useThinkScript.com
# Converted from https://www.tradingview.com/script/V9Mi6eOO-CM-Blast-Off-V1-Alerts-Ready/

input trig = 20;
input paintbar = yes;

def val = absValue(close - open);
def range = high - low;
def blastOffVal = (val / range) * 100;
def trigger = trig;
def alert1 = blastOffVal < trig;
def col = blastOffVal < trig;

assignPriceColor(if paintbar and blastOffVal<trig then Color.MAGENTA else Color.Current);

# Plot Arrow
plot arrow = col;
arrow.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.BOOLEAN_ARROW_UP);
arrow.SetDefaultColor(Color.CYAN);
arrow.SetLineWeight(1);

Shareable Link: https://tos.mx/3DOXHdO

Fancy Version

As suggested by @john3

# Blast Off Indicator
# Should use on the Daily chart
# Assembled by BenTen at useThinkScript.com
# Converted from https://www.tradingview.com/script/V9Mi6eOO-CM-Blast-Off-V1-Alerts-Ready/

# Modified version: added line to high and low of blast off candle.

input trig = 20;

def val = absValue(close - open);
def range = high - low;
def blastOffVal = (val / range) * 100;
def trigger = trig;
def alert1 = blastOffVal < trig;
def col = blastOffVal < trig;

def blast_candle = blastOffVal < trig;

def b_high = if blast_candle then high else b_high[1];
def b_low = if blast_candle then low  else b_low[1];

plot hh = b_high;
plot ll = b_low;

hh.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.HORIZONTAL);
ll.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.HORIZONTAL);
hh.SetDefaultColor(Color.YELLOW);
ll.SetDefaultColor(Color.YELLOW);

assignPriceColor(if blastOffVal<trig then Color.MAGENTA else Color.WHITE);

Is there away to make this so that the scan occurs once the bar has closed. I'd like to use on a 30 minute chart and have the scan identify the blastoff bar at close of a given time frame.

 

[BenTen]

@powderchick5 Do you mean scanning for the Blast off candle on a lower timeframe such as the 30m chart rather than on the daily chart?

 

[powderchick5]

Yes but want the bar to be closed before being picked up by the scanner.

 

[BenTen]

@powderchick5 Your best bet would be to increase the value of the within X bar field. This will ensure that any Blast off candles from a few bars ago will still be included in the scan result.

 

[Stocksdfb]

I got the indicator set up and the scanner as well. I also added to my scanner to have stocks at least $12.00 and up as well as a minimum volume of 250,000 with an ATR greater than $6 so I can see some movement.

It populated a nice list of 31 stocks to review with some popular symbols I know about (NVDA, REGN, BYND, etc) and some pretty good ones I never seen before (FLT, ANTM, ANSS, etc).

However, it just appears that my search could've been done by using an RSI study. Almost all the positions look to be overplayed on the day.

NFLX is one that sticks out to me as a good play because there has been significant movement when the 20MA crosses above the 50MA on the daily chart. POOL is another that looks severely overbought in the moment.

Am I using this indicator to read these charts correctly or am I missing more to do DD on?

 

[BenTen]

@Stocksdfb The purpose of this indicator is to help you identify indecision candlestick pattern, specifically this one called Blast Off, indicated by Larry Williams. It does not suggest the direction of the stock or where it'll be heading. It would be best if you combined it with other research or technical analysis to make that decision. I hope that makes sense.