TASC 2014-10 | Exploring Charting Techniques: Part 3 (Vervoort)

Modified on 2014/08/29 10:38 by Eugene — Categorized as: TASC Traders Tips

Traders' Tip text

At first it may seem that the idea presented in the current month's article is trivial. After all, what else we don't know about the many variations of a moving average crossover? However, author Sylvain Vervoort takes the technique a step further, applying moving average crossovers on his modified Renko chart with an added twist of Heikin Ashi. The premise behind this is to reduce the noise of a typical used fixed-time-related chart and to produce less losing trades.

First, we build two moving averages: the fast is the SMA of the Renko-based typical price and the slow is a SMA of Heikin-Ashi recalculated prices. For simplicity of our example Strategy, we take a standard Renko chart and use Daily prices. Despite using the same period, the HA-based average always lags behind due to added smoothing. The rules are:

When the 8-period “fast” average crosses above the “slower” counterpart of the same period, a long position is established.
When the 8-period “fast” average crosses below the “slower” average of the same period, the long position is closed.

Figure 1. A Wealth-Lab 6 chart illustrating the application of the system's rules on a Daily chart of AXP (American Express).

The green and red bricks on Figure 1 show Renko bricks supermiposed on the usual OHLC chart.

To execute the enclosed trading system, Wealth-Lab users may copy/paste the enclosed strategy’s C# code or simply let Wealth-Lab do the job: in the “Open Strategy” dialog, click “Download” to get the strategy code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using WealthLab;
using WealthLab.Indicators;
using WealthLab.ChartStyles.Trending;

namespace WealthLab.Strategies
{
	public class VervoortOct2014 : WealthScript
	{
		StrategyParameter paramRPU;
		StrategyParameter paramPeriod;
		
		public VervoortOct2014()
		{
			paramRPU = CreateParameter("Renko Units", 1, 1, 10, 1);
			paramPeriod = CreateParameter("MA Period", 8, 2, 20, 1);
		}
		
		protected override void Execute()
		{
			double rpu = paramRPU.Value;
			int period = paramPeriod.ValueInt;
			TRenko renko = new TRenko(Bars, rpu);
			DataSeries dsOpen = new DataSeries(Bars,"R-Open"), dsHigh = new DataSeries(Bars,"R-High"),
				dsLow = new DataSeries(Bars,"R-Low"), dsClose = new DataSeries(Bars,"R-Close");
			DataSeries haOpen = new DataSeries(Bars,"HA-Open"), haHigh = new DataSeries(Bars,"HA-High"),
				haLow = new DataSeries(Bars,"HA-Low"), haClose = new DataSeries(Bars,"HA-Close");
			
			for(int bar = 1; bar < Bars.Count; bar++)
			{
				Renko rko = renko.Columns[bar];
				
				// Create Renko-based OHLC and Heikin Ashi for averaging
				if( rko.Col > -1 )
				{
					if( rko.Col > renko.Columns[bar-1].Col )
					{
						Renko prev = renko.Columns[bar-1];

						double open = rko.DirectionUp ? rko.Low : rko.High;
						double close = !rko.DirectionUp ? rko.Low : rko.High;
						double high = rko.High;
						double low = rko.Low;
						
						double prevOpen = prev.DirectionUp ? prev.Low : prev.High;
						double prevClose = !prev.DirectionUp ? prev.Low : prev.High;
						double prevHigh = prev.High;
						double prevLow = prev.Low;
						
						double _haClose = (open + high + low + close) / 4;
						double _haOpen = (prevOpen + prevClose) / 2;
						double _haHigh = Math.Max( Math.Max(high, open), close );
						double _haLow = Math.Min( Math.Min(low, open), close );
						
						dsOpen[bar] = open;
						dsHigh[bar] = high;
						dsLow[bar] = low;
						dsClose[bar] = close;
						
						haOpen[bar] = _haOpen;
						haHigh[bar] = _haHigh;
						haLow[bar] = _haLow;
						haClose[bar] = _haClose;
					}
					else
					{
						dsOpen[bar] = dsOpen[bar-1];
						dsHigh[bar] = dsHigh[bar-1];
						dsLow[bar] = dsLow[bar-1];
						dsClose[bar] = dsClose[bar-1];
						
						haOpen[bar] = haOpen[bar-1];
						haHigh[bar] = haHigh[bar-1];
						haLow[bar] = haLow[bar-1];
						haClose[bar] = haClose[bar-1];
					}
				}				
			}
			
			//The first and faster average is the SMA of the typical price (HLC/3)
			//The second average is a SMA of heikin ashi re-calculated prices or haOpen + haHigh + haLow + haClose divided by four

			DataSeries maTypical = (SMA.Series( dsHigh, period ) + SMA.Series( dsLow, period ) + SMA.Series( dsClose, period )) / 3;
			DataSeries maHeikin = (SMA.Series( haOpen, period ) + SMA.Series( haHigh, period ) + SMA.Series( haLow, period ) + SMA.Series( haClose, period )) / 4;

			maTypical.Description = "SMA of Renko-based typical price";
			maHeikin.Description = "SMA of Renko-based Heikin Ashi";
			
			PlotSeries( PricePane, maTypical, Color.Blue, LineStyle.Solid, 1 );
			PlotSeries( PricePane, maHeikin, Color.Red, LineStyle.Solid, 1 );

			
			for(int bar = 1; bar < Bars.Count; bar++)
			{				
				// Detect crossover/crossunder and store state in a variable
				bool maXo = CrossOver(bar, maTypical, maHeikin);
				bool maXu = CrossUnder(bar, maTypical, maHeikin);
					
				Position p = LastPosition;				
				if ( IsLastPositionActive )
				{
					if ( maXu )
						SellAtMarket( bar + 1, p );
				}
				else
				{
					 if ( maXo )
						BuyAtMarket( bar + 1 );
				}

			}
		
		}
	}
}

Eugene
Wealth-Lab team
www.wealth-lab.com