Answers to Commonly Asked Questions

[MerryDay]

Everything you wanted to know about REPAINTING and were afraid to ask

Repainting is when an indicator triggers (prints an arrow, shows up on a scan/watchlist, sends an alert, etc) because at that moment the conditions are true for whatever triggered it. But the conditions don't stay true so later that arrow, scan/watchlist, alert disappears with no trail that it happened in the first place.

The Negative: Repainting is problematic especially for newer traders. Many of these indicators provide triggers promising that a stock has hit a low (or high) and is indicating NOW NOW NOW is the time to make entry and it can be right, reinforcing their belief that this is a good strategy. But it can also be wrong, it erases that signal, continues to drop like a rock, and crushes previous profits. Just the potential of that possibility causes traders to lack confidence, to leave trades early at the smallest sign of trouble, creating a feedback loop of ever-smaller profits and ever-larger losses.

No, repainting indicators can not be rewritten to not repaint. Repainting is part of their DNA.

Positive Side of these Indicators:

• Savy scalpers, who are also using other strategic elements and have expertise in reading price action are known to make use of some of the repainting indicators because they trigger MUCH faster than the non-repainting. They factor the cost of losses due to phantom signals into their strategy.
• Swing Traders and Scalpers will sometimes use these indicators to analyze overall trendlines as opposed to looking for specific entry or exit. The caveat being even if the point is many many candles past, the trendline can go from up to down based on new information. But this is true even when drawing manual trendlines. So I can see the use for utilizing these types of indicators to get a general idea of historical trends.

How do you know if an indicator is a repainting indicator?
Generally, if you have an indicator that shows buy and sell signals on your chart and every single signal works out perfectly, such as: Trend Reversals, Zig-Zags, Swing High, Swing Low, COG, Hurst indicators, some of the Pivot Points, etc... then most likely that indicator repaints. Looks great for backtesting but acts very differently live.

Other REPAINTING-type Behavior:
In TOS, an indicator can be triggered and signal prematurely during the formation of a candle because the conditions are met but the signal can disappear by the close of the candle if the conditions for the signal do not hold true. A workaround would be to be scan/alert/paint the arrow on the prior candle and/or do not trigger your scan/watchlist/alert/arrow/signal based on just one study. This holds true for reducing many types of false signals.


This information was compiled from the various posts written about repainting. A search of this forum will provide the detail from which these statements were derived.
HTH

 

[MerryDay]

Supertrend, the Trend Reversal Indicators, and other Repainting Indicators are generally too complex to utilize the TOS Scanner or to use as WatchLists.
And No, they can not nor can any other indicator showing the 'too complex' error be rewritten to not be complex.

 

[MerryDay]

Commonly Asked Questions about Alerts:

The alerts written into studies --cannot be sent to phone/email --cannot have custom sounds
The create alerts on charts will only fire once. At that point, the condition has been met, the alert expires. No, this can't be changed.
The scanned watchlist alerts are 3-7min delayed

Alerts blinking by too fast? To see all alerts: click on the message center
Want to see a list of alerts all the time? detach the message center

 

[MerryDay]

Guidelines For Posting To The UseThinkScript Forum

1. Many questions asked have answers already posted. I did a search of one question recently and it had been answered over 100 times. All these duplicate posts clutter the forum making it difficult for you and all of us find what we are looking for. PLEASE search the forum for possible answers, before posting!
2. Post your request in the thread about that study, that way everyone can see what study you are referencing.
3. Here is a Great Hack For Searching Those Huge Threads for your answer.
4. Reference the post# of the study you are asking about. Frequently, threads will have multiple script versions.
5. Tell us what aggregations you are trading on.
6. Provide a marked-up screenshot of what you are attempting to accomplish w/ your question or to illustrate the issue you are having. Provide at least one screenshot of the whole chart (or scan, watchlist, etc) and then any close-up screenshots. Don't know how to upload screenshots to the forum? Here are directions.

If no thread exists for the indicator you are referencing. YOU MUST PROVIDE THE CODE. Not a link to a YouTube video or to some other site. Nobody can help modify an existing code unless the code is provided. To share code in your post, click on this icon at the top of your post and then paste the code.

Lastly, be concise and complete in your query. "It's broken" isn't a detailed enough explanation. What aggregations have you tested?
Which equities? etc.. Pictures are worth 1000 words. Not providing screenshots severely limits the type of assistance that can be given. HTH

 

[MerryDay]

TOS Mobile App

The TOS built-in mobile indicators work on the TOS mobile app.
Custom indicators that utilize vertical lines or labels or bubbles or clouds or color changes for slopes and lines and things like that do not work.
Read the Mobile Tutorial for more information

 

[MerryDay]

Multiple Time Frames on a Chart

1. Use of multiple time frames in a strategy can be integral to success. Plotting the higher time frame that you want to analyze on the time-frame that you are trading on, eliminates the need to have multiple charts open.
2. MTF indicators should ONLY be used for the overall analysis.
3. MTF indicators should NOT be used to analyze the current candle for entry or exit due to repainting behavior which causes phantom signals to appear and disappear until the candle closes on the higher aggregation.

Having Problems? Does the MTF indicator appear to be not working or partially working when you load the study onto your chart?
A common error when using MTF indicators is trying to use a time frame that is lower than the chart you are posting it on. On the TOS platform, you can display data from a higher timeframe onto a lower timeframe but not the other way around.

HTH

 

[lee-I-O=coke-A]

Multiple Time Frames on a Chart

A common error when using MTF indicators is trying to use a time frame that is lower than the chart you are posting it on. In ThinkorSwim, you can display data from a higher timeframe onto a lower timeframe but not the other way around.

thank you, I was not aware of this.

 

[MerryDay]

How To Search Long Threads
Don't want to read all 30 pages of a post. Just want to find the scan, an alert, a watchlist for the study, you are looking for?
Here is how:

1. Goto the Search feature in the upper right corner of the page...
2. Enter the term "scan" .... or alert or watchlist or arrow. whatever you need.
3. Select "This thread" from the dropdown on the right where it is defaulted to "Everywhere"
4. Press Enter or click on the word "Search"...

If you press the "G" part of the "Search" button you'll get an even longer list of Google Search results, so start with the standard "Search" first and if you're not satisfied then try the "G"...
Thanks to @rad14733 for this tip.

 

[MerryDay]

The Basics for Developing a Good Strategy

1. Never trade just one indicator. Additional indicator(s) give confirmation that improves your odds of being right as long as that second indicator does not have multicollinearity.
2. Never trade on just one timeframe. Analyze multiple-time frames for a broader picture of what is happening w/ an asset. Higher aggregations provide a warning when there is no long-term trend or momentum to provide support to your entry. Whether scalper or swing trader the likelihood of success increases when trades go with the trend.
3. Never enter into a trade without a strategy of when you are getting out. Studies have consistently shown that it is not poor entry points that are causing retail investors to lose money; it is poor exits. Use of the above, will improve exits and reduce false signals.

Are there traders that make money and don't follow these basic tenets of Technical Analysis? Absolutely! But if you are not one of them, incorporating these concepts into your strategy could help.

You can google the basics of a good strategy for more information. This Technical Analysis Cheat Sheet link has a whole set of articles, I found informative in helping me develop successful strategies. Do not be put off by the word 'dummies' in the title. These articles are comprehensive but understandable. HTH

 

[MerryDay]

How to take perfect screenshots:

1. Click on the upper-most hamburger icon
   
   at the top right-hand side of the TOS chart.
2. Click on take a screenshot.
3. Click save.

Mark up your screenshot using an image editor so we can understand what you want us to look at.
Then to upload your screenshot to this forum, follow this tutorial:
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/how-to-insert-image-in-a-post-thread.277/
HTH

 

[MKToronto]

Merryday: Thanks for the guidance-much appericiated.

 

[MerryDay]

'custom expression subscription limit exceeded'

WatchLists

There may only be 1,100 - 1,500 Custom Watchlist Fields displayed in the TOS app at one time. It is necessary to either have fewer results populate the watchlists or have less watchlists. There is no work-around for this limitation.​

​

 

[codydog]

@MerryDay - Last year when I was exporting options data for gamma calculations, it seems tos consider each cell in excel that gets populated as a 'field', so, 50-60 strikes across a single expiration was ok, second expiry generated the dreaded 'limit exceeded', fwiw.

 

[Nick]

@MerryDay Thank you for this post....this is something I am trying to resolve with my indicator. You mentioned

"A workaround would be to be scan/alert/paint the arrow on the prior candle and/or do not trigger your scan/watchlist/alert/arrow/signal based on just one study"

I don't quite understand this condition "do not trigger your scan/watchlist/alert/arrow/signal based on just one study"

This is a simple script and during mkt hours, the watchlist and the arrow changes constantly as what you have explained.
Can u advise me how to plot Signal1 on the prior bar and the prior bar must close above 10EMA, this is the part where i got stuck now.

plot T1 = MovAvgExponential(close, 10);
T1.AssignValueColor(if close > Trend1 then Color.GREEN else Color.RED);
plot T2 = MovAvgExponential(close, 30);
T2.AssignValueColor(if close > Trend2 then Color.GREEN else Color.RED);
def T3 = MovAvgExponential(close, 10);
def condition1 = close > T3;

input length = 14;
input over_sold = -100;
input over_bought = 100;
def price = close + low + high;
def linDev = LinDev(price, length);
def CCI = if linDev == 0 then 0 else (price - Average(price, length)) / linDev / 0.015;
def condition2 = CCI crosses above 0;

#Prior Bar this candle must close above the 10EMA to be considered a valid candle to print the arrow.
def priorbar =close[1]>condition1;

# How to write the condition for arrow to print on the prior bar when the all the conditions are true ?

plot Signal1 = condition1 and condition2 and T1 > T2;
Signal1.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.BOOLEAN_ARROW_UP);
Signal1.SetLineWeight(3);
Signal1.AssignValueColor(Color.blue);

Thanks

 

[MerryDay]

@Nick That isn't what you really want to do. Your Signal1 plot statement is perfectly fine the way it is. What I think you want is to write scans and conditional orders using "one bar ago" or [1]. By definition, that means you will only be looking at charts that have signals on the prior candle.
FYI, no on the TOS platform, you cannot tell TOS to go back in time and print an arrow.
HTH