Traders' Tips from TASC Magazine

Directional Breakout

Barbara Star's article, "Directional Breakout," describes two ways of displaying charts. They require 1 expert and 3 custom indicators to reproduce in MetaStock These formulas and the steps to include them into MetaStock are below:

To enter the indicators into MetaStock:

1. In the Tools menu, select Indicator Builder.
2. Click New to open the Indicator Editor for a new indicator.
3. Type the name of the formula.
4. Click in the larger window and type in the formula.
5. Click Ok
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for the remaining two formulas

Name: Directional Down

Formula:

If(H<Mov(C,20,S),-2,0)

Name: Directional Up

Formula:

If(L>Mov(C,20,S),2,0)

Name: Non-Directional

Formula:

c1:=H>=Mov(C,20,S) AND L<=Mov(C,20,S);
If(c1,1,0);
If(c1,-1,0)

To enter the indicators into MetaStock:

1. In the Tools menu, select Expert Advisor.
2. Click New to open the Expert Editor for a new expert.
3. Type a name for the expert, like "Directional Breakout"
4. Click the Highlights tab.
5. Click New to create a new highlight.
6. Type the name of the highlight.
7. Set the color to that specified.
8. Click in the condition window and type in the formula.
9. Click Ok
10. Repeat steps 5-9 for the remaining two highlights
11. Click Ok to close the Expert Editor.

Name: Directional Down

Color: Blue

Formula:

H<Mov(C,20,S)

Name: Directional Up

Color: Green

Formula:

L>Mov(C,20,S)

Name: Non-Directional

Color: Red

Formula:

L<=Mov(C,20,S) AND H>=Mov(C,20,S)

To build the first chart:

1. Open a chart of the security and remove all other indicators
2. Right-click in the chart and select Inner Window and then New Inner Window
3. Click on the title bar of this inner window and drag it below the price window
4. Plot the Non-Directional indicator in this window
5. Select one of the lines and change the style to histogram and the color to red
6. Select the other line and make the same changes
7. Plot the Directional Down indictor in the same window
8. Select the Directional Down line and change the style to Histogram and the color to blue
9. Plot the Directional Up indicator in this same window
10. Select the Directional Up line and change the style to Histogram and the color to green
11. Plot a 20 period simple moving average of the close in the window with the prices
12. Right-click in the chart and select Expert Advisor and then Attach
13. Select the Directional Breakout expert and click Ok
14. Right-click in the chart and select Expert Advisor and then properties
15. Select the Highlights tab and remove the checks by the blue and green highlights
16. Click Ok

Your chart should now look similar to the one below:

To build the first chart:

1. Open a chart of the security and remove all other indicators
2. Plot a 20 period simple moving average of the close in the window with the prices
3. Right-click in the chart and select Expert Advisor and then Attach
4. Select the Directional Breakout expert and click Ok
5. Right-click in the chart and select Expert Advisor and then properties
6. Select the Highlights tab and make sure all the highlights are checked
7. Click Ok

Your chart should now look similar to the one below:

Since the Expert Advisor is changed to make these two charts, you will not be able to use both styles at once, unless you make a second expert and use one for one style and the other to the second style.

William Golson
Equis International