Indicator based on an earlier period, rather than current period.

[jasonbradh]

I am trying to create an indicator that averages the volume of the first few bars of the day.

So even though it's 11 AM or 2PM, I want this indicator to still display what the SMA of volume was from the first 10 or so bars, using tick charting.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_ZacharyG]

Hello jasonbradh,

Thank you for writing in.

I have created an example below that will plot the SMA of volume over the first 10 bars of a new session. It will continue to plot that last value until the next session occurs again.

private int startBar = 0;
private int endBar = 0;
private double lastSMAValue = 0;

protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
        // check if the current bar the indicator is evaluating over the first bar of a new session
	if (Bars.FirstBarOfSession)
	{
                // set startBar to CurrentBar and set endBar to CurrentBar + 9, which would be nine bars ahead
                // CurrentBar is the index of the bar the script is evaluating over
		startBar = CurrentBar;
		endBar = CurrentBar + 9;
	}
	
        // plot the volume SMA if CurrentBar is more than or equal to startBar and CurrentBar is less than or equal to endBar
	if (CurrentBar >= startBar && CurrentBar <= endBar)
	{
		Value.Set(SMA(Volume, 14)[0]);
                // set lastSMAValue to the current value of the volume SMA
		lastSMAValue = SMA(Volume, 14)[0];
	}
	
        // if CurrentBar is more than endBar, this means the script is evaluating a bar outside of our range we have set
        // we'll set our plot to lastSMAValue while outside of this range
	if (CurrentBar > endBar)
		Value.Set(lastSMAValue);
}

Please, let me know if you have any questions on this sample.

[jasonbradh]

It works beautifully. Thank you so much!