Indicator Parameters in Marketscope

Parameters

The Indicator Properties window has three tabs. The first tab contains all the Parameters which control the calculation and style of the indicator:

On this tab you can see:

1) Name of the indicator. This name will be displayed in the top-left corner of the chart when indicator is applied. Usually, this name contains a short name of the indicator (for example, MVA for Simple Moving Average, the name of the source and all significant parameters. However, this name is created by the indicator, so some custom indicators may show something else there. Every time when you change the parameter, the name of the indicator changes too, unless you have change the name manually.

2) Then the list of the indicator parameters is shown. The parameters are categorized for easier navigation. To collapse the category click on a small minus sign located at left of the category name. All the parameters related to the category will hidden. The minus sign will be changed to a plus sign, so you can expand the category back by clicking on it:

Editing Parameters

To edit the parameter click on the parameter value in the list. The name of the parameter will be highlighted and, for most of the parameter types, the text cursor will appear near the parameter value. Just type a new value you want to use:

Some parameters must be changed using a special form. For such parameters an ellipsis button appears at the right side of the parameter value. To change the parameter click on this ellipsis button:

Some parameter must be chosen from the list. For such parameters a small down arrow button appears at the right side of the parameter value. To change the parameter click on this down arrow button and choose the value from the drop-down list:

Changing the Name

If you want to change the name of the indicator, click on the name field to put the text cursor and type any name you want. To restore the default indicator name just click on the Reset button:

Showing in Background

You can choose showing the indicator in background under the prices. For that, select the Show in background check box:

Default Parameters

Each indicator has the default parameters. Usually, it is the parameters which are mostly recommended in books and manuals. If you want to save your parameters to be used by default - click on the Set as Default button. The next time you apply this indicator again, your set of parameters will be shown. So, if you use the same parameters all the time - just save them as default to avoid entering them again, again and again.

If you changed some parameters and want to restore the default parameters, click on Reset button.

Indicator Source

Tick and Bar Indicators

There are two kind of the indicators:

• the indicators which require only one price to be calculated (for example, MVA) (tick indicators).
• the indicators which require a number of bar's prices to be calculated (for example, both high and low bar prices for Aroon indicator) (bar indicators).

You can use the source tab to choose the price at which the indicator must be applied.

Source for Indicators

The tick indicators can be applied on

• tick prices
• any price of the bar (open, close, high, low, median, typical or weighted)
• result of another indicator

By default, the tick indicator is applied to the close price of the main instrument of the chart.

Tick Indicators

For a tick indicator all prices of all bar sources, and all previously applied indicators will be shown:

So, for example, if you need an MVA(MVA(MVA(median, 10), 20), 30) indicator, you don't need to develop a custom indicator. To create it do the following:

1) Add MVA indicator. Choose 10 in the indicator parameters, No Line in the style and Median price as the source.

2) Add MVA indicator. Choose 20 in the indicator parameter, No Line in the style and MVA(median, 10) in the source.

3) Add MVA indicator. Choose 30 in the indicator parameter, the line style you would like to have and MVA(MVA(median, 10), 20) as the source:

Bar Indicators

Bar indicators can be applied on the whole bar only.

By default, the bar indicator is applied on the bars of the main instrument on the chart. In the situation when you have more than one bar sets on your chart (for example, you have both the instrument prices and Heikin-Ashi indicator applied to the separate area, you can use the source tab to choose which bars must be used:

Choosing the Time Frame

Often, the analyst needs to see an indicator applied on a bigger time frame than the time frame of the chart. For example, to see daily MVA on 15-minutes data to check the long-term trend. You can choose the time frame for any indicator, right in the indicator properties, on the Data Source tab:

Please note that only the same or bigger time frame can be chosen. You cannot apply the indicator on 1-minute data when the chart is 5-minute. This may cause loading of reasonless amount of the data, for example 1-minute indicator applied on 100-bars 1-day chart will cause loading of 144,000 bars of 1-minute data.

Indicator Location

Indicators and Oscillators

By the result produced, an indicator can be:

• A "pure" indicator, which can be displayed right over the data it is applied over.
• An oscillator, which produces the numbers which aren't comparable with the source (for example, Aroon result is always between 0 and 100, no matter what is the range of the source data). Such indicators which cannot be drawn over the prices are painted in the separate area below the prices. You can create as many areas as you need.

Choosing the Location

By default:

• an oscillator is always shown in a new area below the charts.
• an indicator is always shown in the same area where the source of the indicator is located.

If you want to change the oscillator or indicator location, use the Location tab.

At this tab you can either:

• Set a "Show in a new area" option to display the indicator/oscillator in a new area (for example, to show a bunch of Moving Average below the prices.
• Choose one of the existing areas to display the indicator (for example, to show two oscillators with different parameters in one area: