List of "Must Have" Fishing Ponds and Indicators for ThinkorSwim

[BenTen]

@andre.muhammad I'm tagging @FateOwnzYou here, so he knows someone appreciates his work

As for me, I like to keep things simple. My last response in this thread was a year ago. A lot has changed since. My setup consists of no more than one main indicator, our Buy the Dip indicator (shameless plug!)

 

[MerryDay]

@andre.muhammad My #1 is also the Buy The Dip used injunction w/ 1hr/2hr/4hr/Day/Week/Mth charts w/ manual trend lines along w/ the TOS live news to review catalysts, analysts updates, earning reports

 

[mfsteve]

Another member here praising BTD. I'm happy to buy my ETFs on sale (which is what BTD does for me) and then ignore the charts until I get an alert telling me there's another sale. BTD is all I use now.

It's like buying guns: I have to force myself to wait for a sale before I buy more. It ain't easy!

 

[germanburrito]

I have been messing with the fourier series indicator to predict cycles, however i dont know how to tune it, because elher did mentioned that most indicators should be tuned to each individual ticker.

 

[Paulo41Sixty]

AMM, BDD, or others? What TOS script has worked for you the best...and why?

 

[nrk786]

I use OCO Bracket order to buy and sell the stock. Usually I set the BUY as Limit order. But for SELL, I want to set a strategy so I don't have to wait at the terminal.

I usually use 'RSI crosses below 70' strategy for SELL, but sometimes the RSI goes below 70 and goes up again and the stock price goes up several %.

Are there better indicators I can use for SELL strategy, so we get the max. profit for Day Trading?. Any suggestions, much appreciated.

 

[rad14733]

@nrk786 I use OCO as well, but with different logic and goals... I set a Stop Limit to protect my losses and a Limit Order where I'm content with profit... I don't have to watch every trade, although I do unless I have to run out to see a customer, and let the trade play out unless I feel that the strength is there to bump my Limit Order up... Have goals, whether dollar or percentage based... When shooting for maximum profits you can end up trying to catch a "falling knife" and end up with a winning trade turning into a loss...

 

[nrk786]

@nrk786 I use OCO as well, but with different logic and goals... I set a Stop Limit to protect my losses and a Limit Order where I'm content with profit... I don't have to watch every trade, although I do unless I have to run out to see a customer, and let the trade play out unless I feel that the strength is there to bump my Limit Order up... Have goals, whether dollar or percentage based... When shooting for maximum profits you can end up trying to catch a "falling knife" and end up with a winning trade turning into a loss...

Thanks for the response. The stocks I pick for day trading are highly volatile stocks and may go up by several %. If I set a SELL limit for set profit %, i might loose a big profit.

I am wondering if I can combine RSI with another indicator for the SELL to get max. Profit.

 

[rad14733]

@nrk786 Yes, RSI is a great indicator but it should be paired with another indicator or an additional line plot should be added because the issue with RSI is that you never know when it is a true reversal or just a temporary take-profit reversal... An trend indicator that uses other market criteria can help filter these occurrences... Check out ErgodicOsc, which is based on True Strength Index, comes with TOS... I run a modified version on my charts as it can give early signs of weakening and reversal... While perhaps not overly popular I prefer it to other popular indicators like MACD and Stochastics...

 

[nrk786]

@rad14733 I used the ErgodicOsc indicator. Looks like this indicator is better than 'RSI crosses below 70'.

We are still selling little early (since we are missing the uptrend). Is there a way we can get this uptrend too?.

 

[rad14733]

@nrk786 I have added a moving average to my version and use that to help indicate early entry and exit signals... I have also added a no trade zone but can't say that I've paid much attention to it... It also paints dots when the histogram gaps below/above the average and that is my weakness/reversal indicator... Here it is... Let me know what you think...

#ErgodicOsc
#Modified by rad14733 for personal use
#Added moving average and no trade zone

declare lower;

input longLength = 25;
input shortLength = 13;
input signalLength = 8;
input averageType = AverageType.Exponential;

plot ErgodicOsc = TrueStrengthIndex(longLength, shortLength, signalLength, averageType).TSI - TrueStrengthIndex(longLength, shortLength, signalLength, averageType).Signal;

plot ZeroLine = 0;

ErgodicOsc.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.Histogram);
ErgodicOsc.SetLineWeight(3);
ErgodicOsc.DefineColor("Positive", Color.GREEN);
ErgodicOsc.DefineColor("Negative", Color.RED);
ErgodicOsc.AssignValueColor(if ErgodicOsc >= 0 then ErgodicOsc.color("Positive") else ErgodicOsc.color("Negative"));
ZeroLine.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(7));

plot avgErgodic = MovingAverage(AverageType.SIMPLE, ErgodicOsc, 8);

def noTradeValue = 2.5;

plot posNoTradeLine = noTradeValue;
plot negNoTradeLine = -noTradeValue;

plot longweak = if ErgodicOsc > 0 and ErgodicOsc < avgErgodic and ErgodicOsc < ErgodicOsc[1] and ErgodicOsc[1] > avgErgodic[1] then 0 else Double.NaN;
longweak.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.POINTS);
longweak.SetDefaultColor(Color.CYAN);
longweak.SetLineWeight(5);
longweak.HideTitle();

plot shortweak = if ErgodicOsc < 0 and ErgodicOsc > avgErgodic and ErgodicOsc > ErgodicOsc[1] and ErgodicOsc[1] < avgErgodic[1] then 0 else Double.NaN;
shortweak.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.POINTS);
shortweak.SetDefaultColor(Color.MAGENTA);
shortweak.SetLineWeight(5);
shortweak.HideTitle();

 

[nrk786]

@rad14733 Thanks. I will review the details this morning.

The modified script looks better. One thing I didn't understand ( It also paints dots when the histogram gaps below/above the average and that is my weakness/reversal indicator... "). What the purple and blue dots indicate?. See the chart below.

 

[rad14733]

@nrk786 The dots are my early indicators and for my use they fire a candle or two before my other indicators... You may need to tweak the indicator settings to what works best for your chart timeframe and security price range and volatility... They'll either work for you or they won't and they aren't 100% accurate, but they do help me... I use the same concept for almost every histogram indicator I use...

 

[nrk786]

@nrk786 The dots are my early indicators and for my use they fire a candle or two before my other indicators... You may need to tweak the indicator settings to what works best for your chart timeframe and security price range and volatility... They'll either work for you or they won't and they aren't 100% accurate, but they do help me... I use the same concept for almost every histogram indicator I use...

Thanks.

 

[JPIMP]

@nrk786 I have added a moving average to my version and use that to help indicate early entry and exit signals... I have also added a no trade zone but can't say that I've paid much attention to it... It also paints dots when the histogram gaps below/above the average and that is my weakness/reversal indicator... Here it is... Let me know what you think...

#ErgodicOsc
#Modified by rad14733 for personal use
#Added moving average and no trade zone

declare lower;

input longLength = 25;
input shortLength = 13;
input signalLength = 8;
input averageType = AverageType.Exponential;

plot ErgodicOsc = TrueStrengthIndex(longLength, shortLength, signalLength, averageType).TSI - TrueStrengthIndex(longLength, shortLength, signalLength, averageType).Signal;

plot ZeroLine = 0;

ErgodicOsc.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.Histogram);
ErgodicOsc.SetLineWeight(3);
ErgodicOsc.DefineColor("Positive", Color.GREEN);
ErgodicOsc.DefineColor("Negative", Color.RED);
ErgodicOsc.AssignValueColor(if ErgodicOsc >= 0 then ErgodicOsc.color("Positive") else ErgodicOsc.color("Negative"));
ZeroLine.SetDefaultColor(GetColor(7));

plot avgErgodic = MovingAverage(AverageType.SIMPLE, ErgodicOsc, 8);

def noTradeValue = 2.5;

plot posNoTradeLine = noTradeValue;
plot negNoTradeLine = -noTradeValue;

plot longweak = if ErgodicOsc > 0 and ErgodicOsc < avgErgodic and ErgodicOsc < ErgodicOsc[1] and ErgodicOsc[1] > avgErgodic[1] then 0 else Double.NaN;
longweak.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.POINTS);
longweak.SetDefaultColor(Color.CYAN);
longweak.SetLineWeight(5);
longweak.HideTitle();

plot shortweak = if ErgodicOsc < 0 and ErgodicOsc > avgErgodic and ErgodicOsc > ErgodicOsc[1] and ErgodicOsc[1] < avgErgodic[1] then 0 else Double.NaN;
shortweak.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.POINTS);
shortweak.SetDefaultColor(Color.MAGENTA);
shortweak.SetLineWeight(5);
shortweak.HideTitle();

Rad14733 can you please explain how to use your version of this? As far as what entry and exit points you look for on this indicator? Thx

 

[rad14733]

Rad14733 can you please explain how to use your version of this? As far as what entry and exit points you look for on this indicator? Thx

Sure... If you look at the image above in Post #53 you can see in the bottom indicator that there is a white MA line and colored dots on the zero line... The dot colors are ambiguous but they indicate when the histogram bars fall below the MA line, for positive bars, or above, for negative bars... This indicates weakness and potential reversal... When this happens you can watch for reversal or make an early entry/exit based on how the chart looks and what other indicators tell you... I trade with MA crossovers and other indicators and about 50% of the time an entry or exit can be made a bar or two before the crossover, providing lower entry price or greater profits... For a regularly traded symbol it is sometimes, but not always, beneficial to tweak the MA length for optimal performance... Sometimes the entry/exit benefit is far more than the one or two bars mentioned previously... For scalping this can be a real benefit... For some symbols there may be little benefit and that's where knowing the symbols you trade intimately comes into play... That's the overall concept...

I wouldn't necessarily consider the chart above to be a best case example... Watching the other indicators is still critical... I could probably provide an example or two if further clarification is required but I'd suggest just monitoring the concept and perhaps tweaking the average setting and evaluate whether it's worthwhile from there... As I've stated previously, I add the MA line to virtually every histogram indicator... If there are additional questions, just ask...

 

[Chuck]

This is very nice advice, thank you. I'm incredibly comfortable with ichimoku for some reason. Everything makes sense to me. The last week has been playing with paper, and I've been up on 80% of my choices. I think Thursday and Friday were just weird days. I'll keep playing around with your advice. Thank you for the feedback!

Ichimoku is awesome and easy. Just about every indicator on this platform in my opinion can be seen on ichimoku. An awesome resource for scans and a great ichimoku indicator.

I am able to see price action, relevant support and resistance zones, momentum, trend confirmation, balanced and unbalanced zones, Elliot wave, RSI...etc.....and more. All from the five lines on an ichimoku chart!

 

[JPIMP]

@rad14733 Ok thanks for your explanation and help, I appreciate it. If I trade with 5M, 15M, 1H and 4h time frames...what MA crossover do you recommend? I use a 21 SMA and 55 SMA crossover for shorter TF and 50 EMA and 200 EMA crossover for longer TF's. Thx

 

[rad14733]

@JPIMP I currently monitor 30m, 10m, 5m, 3m, 1m, and sometimes 15m, for scalping and use my custom EMA_x5_Stack set to 8, 21, 34, 55, 89 and watch for 8/21 crossover... I find the 200 SMA to be too slow in responding for my liking and 89 EMA suits my needs well... I'm looking more for day to day and intraday movement rather than long term trends... In fact for some stocks I can run 3, 8, 13, 21, 34 or 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 stacks, depending on movement range... Those three combinations pretty much cover the entire price and volatility range of the symbols I follow for trading... And at times I may even turn off two mid to upper half and only plot something like 3, 8, 34... I have ample flexibility with my ever-evolving setup... Of course I do mix in a few other indicators as well...

 

[Thomas]

Must Have: identified futures and their movements, specific sector news, my MUST preparation consists of, consolidating my scans into one watchlist, flipping through charts to identify which ones to trade? I will identify that with price, in specific pattern, a "Set-up," not reliant on indicators, volume might be of assistance, and make the decision to swing or position. Once the "set up," is identified, an entry will be considered, long or short, depending on strength of the set up and market conditions. That's it, indicators make no decision, and have never been instrumental in my trade entry, target, or exit. Scans are important,..... but indicators play absolutely zero in my trade. My set up and scan are my must haves....
some columns with a Squeeze, volume strength I will take into consideration..... but if my set up isn't there, no trade.