getPreviousTradingDay and GMT

[futurenets]

with your help, I'd like to try and clarify the best use of getPreviousTradingDay ...

user1
- located in London GMT 0.
- has a PC set to local time.
- 2 x 24 hour charts, JPY & GBP.
- efs study utilises the getPreviousTradingDay function.

user2
- located in Toyko GMT +9.
- has a PC set to local time.
- 2 x 24 hour charts, JPY & GBP.
- efs study utilises the getPreviousTradingDay function.

getPreviousTradingDay will generate different results for user1 & user2.

given that both users want their PC set to local time, any suggestion on how this can be accomplished (I will code this if required and add to my fileshare).

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello Paul,

Please describe in greater detail what you need to accomplish and I'll try to help you devise a solution. Based on the information you've posted I don't think the getPreviousTradingDay() function is going to work for you as it is based on each users local time.

[futurenets]

thanks Jason

For a given symbol, I need to be sure that if I refer to a previous days high/low then the result is not influenced by local time.

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello Paul,

Because the advanced chart is based on each user's local time, the midnight reset for the daily bar for each user will occur at their local time, which will produce different results if you use high(-1, inv("D")). What you will have to do is write your study logic to be based on UTC time. Each bar date that you process will need to be converted to UTC time as follows.

var myTime = getValue("time");
var gmtTime = myTime.getUTCHours() + ":" + myTime.getUTCMinutes() + ":" + myTime.getUTCSeconds();

Then using the gmtTime variable you will have to look for the start and end of the session for the given symbol that is also based on its UTC start/end times. Then collect the daily high/low values from the chart data with global variables or arrays using min()/max() methods of the Math object.

In the 8.0 version we are supposed to have some new features that will allow the user to set the Advanced Chart time to local, UTC or exchange time. This should solve this type of problem. I haven't seen a beta for this yet so I'm not certain its in the 8.0 version yet.

[futurenets]

thanks Jason, that would be a useful update.

does that mean high(-1, inv("D")) is also influenced by the local time or is this okay?

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello Paul,

I don't think that will work because each user's new daily bar gets generated on the first tick after their local midnight.