Smoothing an indicator in real time?

[windswepttom]

I have some custom buy and sell indicators in my ATS that can change values in a range in real time that can cause many buys and sells in a short time when the trade first starts.

Any ideas on the best way to smooth them out?

I thought I could do something like a moving average of the last X trades using a series with efsInternal. I see esignal has moving average functions sma, ema, wma, and vwma. I'm not sure which to use or how to code it.

Thanks for any help and ideas

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello windswepttom,

If the indicator your buy/sell conditions are based on is in the form of a series, then you can pass it as the source to one of the moving average functions. The key is that the source must be a series object. If you're not sure, try passing the variable name that you want to use as the source to debugPrintln(). If it is a series, you will see [object series] printed to the formula output window.

If you post your code, I or someone may be able to provide more specific suggestions.

[windswepttom]

My indicators are not in a series but I was thinking I could make a series using efsInternal some how. The actual code for x and y is to long and complex but some dummy code goes something like this:
function preMain() {
var x=0;
var y=0;
var inaTrade = false;
function main() {
X = (open() + 2)/2;
Y = (close() - 3)/2;
if (((y - x) > 1) && !inaTrade)
buy();
if (((y - x) < 0.75) && inaTrade)
sell();
return; }
function buy() {
inaTrade = true;
return; }
function sell() {
inaTrade = false;
return; }

So I need to smooth out x and y over the past few trades.

[eSignal_JasonK]

Hello windswepttom,

Here's the basics of how to convert a custom calculation into a series with efsInternal(). You should change the function names of your custom buy() and sell() functions as those conflict with the existing generic broker functions.

// global vars for Series Objects
var xSeries = null;
var ySeries = null;

function main() {
    // initialize Series objects, occurs only once.
    if (xSeries == null) efsInternal("calcX");
    if (ySeries == null) efsInternal("calcY");
    
    // assign current value of Series to local vars for conditions
    var x = xSeries.getValue(0);
    var y = ySeries.getValue(0);
    if (x == null || y == null) return;  // validate local vars

    if (((y - x) > 1) && !inaTrade) buyFunction();
    
    if (((y - x) < 0.75) && inaTrade) sellFunction();

    return; 
}

function calcX() {
    return (open(0) + 2)/2;
}

function calcY() {
    return (close(0) - 3)/2;
} 

[eSignal_JasonK]

Next, to add the smoothing of the xSeries and ySeries you would do the following.

// global vars for Series Objects
var xSeries = null;
var ySeries = null;
var xMAofX = null;
var xMAofY = null;

var bInit = false;  // initialization flag

function main() {
    // initialize Series objects, occurs only once.
    if (bInit == false) {
        xSeries = efsInternal("calcX");
        ySeries = efsInternal("calcY");
        xMAofX = sma(3, xSeries);
        xMAofY = sma(3, ySeries);
        bInit = true;
    }
    
    // assign current value of Series to local vars for conditions
    var x = xMAofX.getValue(0);
    var y = xMAofY.getValue(0);
    if (x == null || y == null) return;  // validate local vars


    if (((y - x) > 1) && !inaTrade) buyFunction();
    
    if (((y - x) < 0.75) && inaTrade) sellFunction();

    return; 
}

function calcX() {
    return (open(0) + 2)/2;
}

function calcY() {
    return (close(0) - 3)/2;
} 

[windswepttom]

Thank You Jason very much!
I like the way you did it in two parts, it makes it much easer to understand.

[eSignal_JasonK]

You're most welcome.