Referencing past daily bars

[CharlieK]

With this script, I get results that will show an 8% or smaller range of the last 5 daily bars. If I wanted it to show the last 5 bars, not counting the current bar, how would you do it?

**********************************************************
#Shows consolidation range last 5 bars

def HH= Highest(high, 5);
def LL = Lowest(low, 5);
def Consolidate = (HH-LL)/LL*100;

Plot signal = if Consolidate <8.00 then 1 else 0;
***********************************************************

 

[tradecombine]

With this script, I get results that will show an 8% or smaller range of the last 5 daily bars. If I wanted it to show the last 5 bars, not counting the current bar, how would you do it?

**********************************************************
#Shows consolidation range last 5 bars

def HH= Highest(high, 5);
def LL = Lowest(low, 5);
def Consolidate = (HH-LL)/LL*100;

Plot signal = if Consolidate <8.00 then 1 else 0;
***********************************************************

HH[1] && LL[1] would be the respective conditions, for the bar prior to the current one.

For your scan, you can try this:

plot signal = if Consolidate[1] <8.00 then 1 else 0.

or this:

def signal = if Consolidate <8.00 then 1 else 0;
plot scan = signal[1];

I use this technique often to pull up setups for back-testing scenarios.

 

[halcyonguy]

EDIT

tradecombine has the simplest way. just define another variable that looks at an offset of Consolidate.

def consol1 = Consolidate[1];

.............

if i didn't need the values from the current formulas in any other formulas,
def HH= Highest(high, 5);
def LL = Lowest(low, 5);

i would change them, by adding an offset to high and low.
def HH= Highest( high[1] , 5 );
def LL = Lowest( low[1] , 5 );

 

[CharlieK]

I'm not sure why, but I couldn't get tradecombine's example to work. I did finally get it working with halcyonguy's. A screenshot below.

I have used the [1] to reference the past, but I was having troubles with where exactly to put it to make it work.

 

[tradecombine]

I'm not sure why, but I couldn't get tradecombine's example to work. I did finally get it working with halcyonguy's. A screenshot below.

I have used the [1] to reference the past, but I was having troubles with where exactly to put it to make it work.

Did you get an error?
Edit: Both ways worked right away for me:

 

[CharlieK]

Did you get an error?
Edit: Both ways worked right away for me:

No, I didn't get any errors. It was showing me stocks that were way over 8.00. Not too sure where exactly it was getting the numbers from, but it certainly wasn't the highs and lows of the last 5, or of the 5 before, or any combination that I could find.

I was also having another problem last night though... I'm using that scan, to scan a watchlist.... which is populated by scanning another watchlist... which scans yet another watchlist. When I first opened the watchlist, the names I expected to be there.. were there. A couple of minutes later, suddenly other names would pop into that watchlist, that were so far from not only the criteria I was scanning for, but they were also stocks, that were not in the list being scanned. They were in the 1st watchlist, but didn't pass the criteria to move to the next. Hopefully some of that makes sense.

It was almost like it was reverting to a previous scan... that didn't exist? Leaving it alone for 20 minutes, sometimes they would automatically leave the list... sometimes they would not. Multiple restarts and 'garbage cleaning', it was still doing it. I deleted a bunch of other old scans that I don't use anymore, and it appeared to be working again.... I think. Hopefully have some time to stare at it today!

The problem I was having with the script, may have been related to the scan problem... Would be easier to say it was, if I knew exactly what the problem was, that I was having!

 

[MerryDay]

The problem I was having with the script, may have been related to the scan problem... Would be easier to say it was, if I knew exactly what the problem was, that I was having!

Not sure if this answers your question.
Scans only update every 3-4 minutes.
When EDITING scans, best practices dictate that scans being EDITED be saved with a NEW scan name.

There are short-term issues with EDITING scans. When a scan is edited and you hit scan, it will provide the correct results. But because the scan is not immediately updated on the TDA servers and it will shortly revert to an old version. The new version isn't lost, it just takes awhile for the TDA servers to update EDITED scans.

The workaround is when editing a scan, save it with a new name. Thus, nothing for it to revert to.