TZtraderTZtrader
This is a TrendZones version with features to set stoploss and targets in short and long positions meant for use in intraday charts. It aims to provide signals for opening and closing long and short positions. In the comments under the TrendZones publication several people expressed a need for features for a short position similar to those for a long position as implemented in TrendZones, some want to use it for scalping, some asked for alerts. When I proposed to create a version for day trading with target lines based on ATR, several people liked the idea.
Full disclosure: I don’t do day trading, because, after I lost a lot of money, I had to promise my wife to stay away from it. I restrict myself to long term investing in stocks which are in uptrend. However I understand what a day trader needs. I gather from my experience that day trading or scalping is an attempt to earn something by opening a position in the morning and close, reopen and close it again during the day with a profit. It is usually done with leveraged instruments like CFD’s, futures, options, and what have you. Opening and closing positions is done within minutes, so the trader needs a quick and efficient way to set proper stoploss and target. TZtrader supports this by showing only three or four numbers on the price bar: The price of the instrument, The logical stop level (gray or green or maroon dots), and the target level (navy). All other numbers are suppressed to prevent mistakes. Also a clear feedback for current settings at the top-center of the pane and an alert feedback at bottom that flashes alerts during the development of the current bar and gives suppression status.
The script
First I made a bare bones version of TrendZones to which I added code for long and short trading setups and a bare setup for no position. The code for the logical stops in long setup had to be reviewed, after which this became the basis for stops in short setup.
Then I added code for 10 alert messages, which was a hassle, because this is the first time I coded alerts and the first time I used an array as a stack to avoid a complicated if-then construction. During testing the array caused a runtime error which I solved by adding ‘array.clear’ to the code, also I discovered that in TradingView separate alerts have to be created for all three setups - short, long and bare. Flipping setups is done in the inputs with a dropdown menu because Pine Script has no function for a clickable button.
One visual with three setups.
The visual has the TrendZones structure: Three near parallel very smooth curves, which border the moderate uptrend (green) and downtrend (orange) zone over and under the curve in the middle, the COG (Center Of Gravity). Where the price breaks out of these curves, strong trend zones show up over and under the curves, respectively strong uptrend (blue) and strong downtrend (red).
Three setups were made clearly different to avoid confusion and to provide oversight in case of multiple trades going on simultaneously which I imagine are monitored in one screen. You have to see which one is long, which short and which have no position. The long setup should not trigger short signals, nor should the short trigger long signals nor the bare setup exclusive long or short signals.
The Long setup is default, shown on the example chart. In this setup the Stoploss suggestions (green, gray and maroon dots) are under the price bars and the target line (navy) at a set distance above the High Border. A zone with a width of 1 ATR is drawn under the Low Border. In this setup 5 specific alerts are provided
The Short setup has the Stoploss suggestions over the price bars, the target line at a set distance under the Low Border. A zone with a width of 1 ATR is drawn above the High Border. This setup also has 5 specific alerts.
The Bare setup has no Stoploss suggestions, no target line and supports 4 alerts, 2 in common with the Long setup and 2 with Short.
The table below gives a summary of scripted alerts:
Setup = Where = When = Purpose
Long, Bare = Green Zone = Bars come from lower zones = Uptrend starts
Long, Bare = Green Zone = Sideways ends in uptrend = Uptrend resumes
Long = COG = First crossing = Uptrend might end warning
Long = Orange Zone = Bars come from higher zones = Uptrend ended take care
Long = Red Zone = Bars come from higher zones = Strong downtrend->close Long
Short, Bare = Orange Zone = Bars come from higher zones = Downtrend starts
Short, Bare = Orange Zone = Sideways ends in downtrend = Downtrend resumes
Short = COG = First crossing = Downtrend might end warning
Short = Green Zone = Bars come from lower zones = Downtrend ended take care
Short = Blue Zone = Bars come from lower zones = Strong uptrend -> close short
You can use script alerts in TradingView by clicking the clock in the sidebar, then ‘create alert’ or plus, as condition you choose ‘Tztrader’ in the dialog box, then the “Any alert() function call” option (the first item in the list). The script lets the valid alert trigger by TradingView after the bar is completed, this can differ from the flashed messages during its formation.
When you create alerts in Tradingview, I advice to do that for each setup, then to make only the alert active which matches the current setup, pause the other ones.
Suppressing false and annoying signals
The script has two ways to suppress such signals, which have to do with the numbers in the alert feedback. The numbers left and right of the message with a colored background, depict the zones in which the previous (left) and current (right) bar move. 1 is the strong downtrend zone (red), 2 the moderate downtrend zone (orange), 3 the sideways zones (gray), 4 the COG (gray), 5 the moderate uptrend zone (green), 6 the strong uptrend zone (blue), 7 something went wrong with assigning a zone (black). In extensive testing the number 7 never occurs, because I catch that error in the code. The idea is that an alert is only triggered if the previous bar was in a different zone. When the bars are in the same zone, no alert is possible. This way all annoying signals are suppressed and long, short and bare get the appropriate alerts.
The third number is a counter. It counts how often the COG is crossed without touching the outer curves. The counter will reset to zero when the upper or lower curve is touched. When the count is 1 you have zone situation 4 and appropriate alerts are flashed. When the count is 2 or higher, a sideways situation (3) is called and while the recrossings are going on, no alerts can be flashed. This suppresses false signals. The ATR zone and curves are brownish-gray where sideways happens(ed). When the channel is narrowed down to just the three curves, some false signals still might occur.
Inputs
“Setup”, default is long, drop down menu provides long, short and bare.
“Target ATR”, default is 2, sets the amount of ATR for the target line. In 1 minute charts 4 seems an appropriate setting, you have to learn by experience which setting works.
“show feedback …” default is on, This creates two feedback labels, a Setup feedback on top of the pane, which shows charted instrument, Setup type, Trend and timeframe of the chart. Background color of Trend feedback is green when it matches the setup, red when mismatches and gray when no match. The alert feedback at the bottom of the pane shows a number, a message and two numbers. The numbers will be explained in the chapter about false and annoying signals below. During formation of the bar, valid alerts are flashed with a blue background, otherwise the message ‘alerts for current bar suppressed’.
Logical Stops
The curves are the logical place to put stops, because, as these are averages of the high and low border of a Donchian channel, they signify the ‘natural’ current highest, lowest and main level in the lookback period that fit the monitored trend setup. A downtrend turns into an uptrend when a breakout of the upper curve occurs. If you are short, that is where you want to close position, so the logical place for the stoploss is the upper curve. Vice versa, when you are long, the logical stop is on the lower curve. The stops show up as green or gray dots on the curves, the green dots signify a nice entry level, the gray stops are there to suggest levels where unrealized profits might be secured, the maroon dots indicate that the trend mismatches the setup.
COG versus other lines
Any line used to identify a trend, be it some MA or some other line, is interpreted the same way: When the bars move above the line there is an uptrend and when below, a downtrend. COG is not different in that sense. If you put such a line in the same chart as TZtrader, you can see situations in which the other line shows uptrend or downtrend earlier than COG, also some other lines, e.g. Hull MA, are very good at showing tops and bottoms, while COG ignores these. On the other hand the other lines are usually a little nervous and let you shake out of position too soon. Just like the other lines, COG gives false signals when it is near horizontal. The advantage of the placement COG is the tolerance for pull backs. This way TZtrader keeps you longer in the trend. Such pull backs are often ‘flags’ which are interpreted in TA as confirming the trend. Tztrader aims to get you in position reasonably soon when a trend begins and out of position as soon as the trend turns against you. The placement of COG is done with a fundamentally different algorithm than other lines as it is not an average of prices, but the middle of two averages of borders of a Donchian channel. This gives the two zones between the curves the same quality as the two zones above and below the middle line of a standard Donchian Channel.
A multi timeframe application.
In this scenario you put a 5 minutes and 1 minute chart with Tztrader side by side. If the 5 minutes shows uptrend, set the 1 minute on long trading and open positions when the trend matches uptrend en close when it mismatches. Don’t open short positions. Once the 5 minute changes to downtrend, set Tztrader in the 1 minute to short trading and open positions when the trend matches downtrend and close when it mismatches.
The idea is that in a long ‘context’, provided by the 5 minutes, the uptrends in the 1 minute will last longer and go further, vice versa for the short ‘context’. This way you do swing trading in the 5 minute in a smart way, maximizing profits.
You can do this with any timeframe pairs with a proportion of around 5:1, 4:1, 6:1, like e.g. 60 minutes and 15 minutes or weeks and days (5 trading days in a week).
Dear day-traders, may this tool be helpful and may your days be blessed.
Take care
