Technical Indicators

Technical indicator is mathematical transformation of the security price and/or volumes in order to forecast future prices. Basing on alerts from technical indicators, one makes decisions about how and when to open or close a position. According to their functions, indicators can be divided into two groups: trend indicators and oscillators. Trend indicators help to determine the price movement in a direction and find the trend reversal moments simultaneously or with a delay. Oscillators help to find the reversals simultaneously or in advance.

Indicators are attached to the chart from the indicators list that can be called by the “Charts — Indicators” toolbar command.

The list is divided into two parts: the upper part is the general list of indicators, the lower one is the list of attached indicators. To attach an indicator to a chart, one has to select it with the cursor in the upper part of the list, then select in the lower part the window, into which the indicator must be added, then press “Add”.

Technical indicator can be built in a specially created separate window with its own vertical scale (like MACD, for instance) or directly attached to the price chart (like Moving Average). Indicators can be build not only on price data or derivatives thereof (Median Price, Typical Price, Weighted Close), but on other indicators, too.

For example, one can build a Moving Average on Awesome Oscillator and get one more signal line in addition to the AO. For this, it is necessary to build an AO first. Then one should select the MA in the upper part of the list using the cursor, then select the AO in the lower part and press “Add”. Then go to the MA properties window using the “Settings” button and select “Previous Indicator Data” in the “Apply to” field.

If the “First Indicator Data” is selected, the MA will be built on the very first indicator data, but this very first indicator is not necessary the AO. If any other value (Close, High, etc.) is selected in the “Apply to” field, MA will be built in a separate window based on the chart prices, but not on the AO values.

When setting up indicators, one can, along with analytical characteristic, specify colors of elements, line thickness and character size. Besides, in the “Display” tab one can switch among object displaying modes on different timeframes. The indicator will only be shown on the selected timeframes. This tool is very helpful if the object has different settings on different timeframes.

All settings can be changed. For this, it is necessary to select the desired indicator in the lower part of the indicators list and press “Settings”. To delete an indicator, it is necessary to select the desired indicator in the lower part of the indicators list and press “Delete”.