Indicator to count bars?

[hando311]

I'm looking for an indicator that keeps a running total of bullish and bearish bars for x period. On a given chart there were 15 bullish candles and 12 bearish candles if that makes sense. Has anyone ever seen an indicator like this before? I looked everywhere but couldn't find anything. Thanks!

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hello Hando311,

Welcome to our forums.

I'm not familiar with this by name or concept but it should be pretty easy to implement with custom programming.

Here are some questions to consider if you plan to program it:
How are bullish and bearish candles defined?
Are there two lines? (one for counting bullish, the other bearish)
Is this a running total of all bars on the chart or does it reset every session?

[kabott]

Hello, im trying to count the last 50 bullish candles and this is what i got so far, but i think there is is something wrong, a little help please?

{
if (Close[0] < Close[50] )
{
if ( Close[0] > Open[0] )


UpCandles = UpCandles +1;


else

UpCandles = UpCandles;

}
else
UpCandles = 0;

}

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hi kabott,

What is wrong exactly -- are the any error messages in log tab of control center when you run this?

Can you please clarify what is your goal with this code snippet? Are you trying to count the number of bullish bars over a 50-period lookback?

[kabott]

Yes Ryan, im trying to count the number of bullish bars then bearish bars , subtract them to the the "wining " rate of bulls vs bears, the problem i have is i dont know how to tell it to start calculating from the last "xx" bars

[kabott]

I want to know how many bars did the bears Vs the bulls won over the past "X" periods

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

You could custom code a counter, but using built-in method CountIf() should work well for this:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/countif.htm

[kabott]

Ryan; i dont think this is the key (maybe i don't understand it well) but what i need is to know what code should i use to "look-back 50 bars " and start counting from there .

if the bar is bullish then : 1,2,3,4, etc , if its bearish (inside the 50 period bar) then = keep the last count

and start adding again if the next bar is also bullish


Bull - Bull - Bull - Bull - Bull - Bear - Bear - Bear - Bull - Bull
1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 6 7


etc,

i got the rest done ( i think , he) but how do i tell the script to start the count from the last 50 periods back?


thank you

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Countif() has a lookback component and it returns the number of occurrences that the test condition you specify is true within this lookback. The example in the help guide uses a very similar condition to what you're looking for:

if (CountIf(delegate {return Close[0] > Open[0];}, 10) > 8)
EnterLong();

[kabott]

i must be very sleepy, sorry , i cant seem to make it work

i only need this part : if (CountIf(delegate {return Close[0] > Open[0];}, 10)

but doesn't work, cause ninja doesn't recognize it .

what do i do with the >8) i dont need that :P

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Just work with the value returned by the method. Try printing this and checking outputwindow:

if (CurrentBar > 50)
Print(CountIf(delegate {return Close[0] > Open[0];}, 50));

It returns the number of times over the last 50 bars that the close is greater than open.

[kabott]

and how do i use the value?

this wont compile

if(CountIf(delegate {return Close[0] > Open[0];}, 50));

UpCandles =UpCandles +1;

else

UpCandles = 0;

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Countif already does the counting for you. How you use the value returned by it is up to you.

If you have limited time or programming experience but have some ideas for an indicator you would like to see developed, please consider working with one of our 3rd party NinjaScript consultants:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/partners#NinjaScript-Consultants

[kabott]

Thanks for your time and advice Ryan, but i want to learn , what ever it takes, so ill keep reading from other posts, see if i figure it out

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

That's a great attitude, and we're happy to see it and help you along. Try with simple approaches, printing values like shown in the post earlier. See here for additional help using Print() to debug your script:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?t=3418

CountIf is a long expression, so assigning its value to a double variable could make working with it easier.

These introductory tutorials are good for the structure and basics of developing indicators:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/helpGuides/nt7/developing_indicators.htm