Moving average indicator difference between ToS and TradeStation?

[excal666]

I use both TradeStation and ToS (primarily ToS) but just noticed a big difference in the simple moving average indicator between the two platforms. The images show the continuous S&P 500 mini futures on a daily chart with a simple 50-day moving average. Two obvious differences at first glance:

1) the 50-day MA at the most recent (right-most) day is roughly 8 points higher on TS than ToS, and

2) there is a minimum in the 50-day MA between Nov-Dec 2022 and ToS shows this at roughly 3800, where TS shows this at well above 3800.

Does anyone know why this is? Does TS use some kind of offset to adjust between quarterly contracts? Would like to know if there's a simple reason before going to TS tech support. BTW, ToS does match a 3rd charting website.

Understanding the MA is just based on the closing prices which are different between the 2 platforms - just asking why do they show this much difference between the 2 platforms?

 

[MerryDay]

Understanding the MA is just based on the closing prices which are different between the 2 platforms - just asking why do they show this much difference between the 2 platforms?

Think about it, you already understand that the MA is based on the closing prices which are different between the 2 platforms.

Therefore, a 50-bar moving average is 50-bars of close differences that extrapolate the discrepancies.
https://usethinkscript.com/threads/tos-tradestation-chart-discrepancies.8457/#post-79039

 

[Joshua]

Does anyone know why this is? Does TS use some kind of offset to adjust between quarterly contracts? Would like to know if there's a simple reason before going to TS tech support. BTW, ToS does match a 3rd charting website.

There are a few things at play here.

The closing price on trade station's Daily charts is the settlement price, not the last trade price. Using a 1440 minute chart instead of Daily will adjust Trade Station to last trade price. TOS also has the option to use settlement, so it depends on which one you want to conform to the other.

Then there is the continuous contract rollover trigger, which can be done any number of ways, by preference, with no right or wrong way to do it. TOS is fixed at the customary roll date, which is the Monday prior to expiration Friday, with no way to change it. Trade Station, by default, rolls based on open interest, when the back month overtakes the front month in popularity, but you can conform trade station to TOS with customization.

There is also the issue of the back adjustment methods. Trade Station has a couple of them, along with Unadjusted. TOS only has one, which can be enabled or disabled, but when enabled it doesn't seem to sync up to either of Trade Station's adjustment options.

So, to sync up both platforms, you to disable adjustments in TOS, use Unadjusted as the back adjustment method in trade station, and set the rollover trigger in trade station to 5 days prior to expiration, as per the Monday I mentioned above.