volume question

[cello2econ]

There is an indicator called VOL and another indicator called VOLMA. VOLMA calculates the average volume over a set (user input) number of periods.

The issue I am having is that volume varies greatly (say in silver or in natural gas) depending on what hour it is trading. So natural gas volume tends to pick up (all times PST) at around 5 AM peak around 6 or 6:30, trail off a bit before having another peak into the pit close at 11:30 AM. Logically, then, if I want a useful volume average, I want to be averaging comparable periods...

Let's say I'm using a 3 minute chart and I want to find high volume spikes. well, if I just program it to look at a trailing 60 minute period, than every morning at 6 AM, the program is going to say (ah-hah! we have a high volume spike) when in reality people are just starting their day and you always see volume pick up at that time. So, what i really want to do is compare the volume at 6 o'clock with the volume of the last 3 days from 6-7 AM.

What is the easiest way to do this?

It would be a great help to figure this out. Thank you!

Matt

[NinjaTrader_RyanM1]

Hi Matt,

The easiest may be to create your own custom session template that is set for the times that you want. This controls bar construction as well and would be the quickest way to get the values from only a time range without custom coding. This page can help working with the session manager:

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

You can custom code an indicator based on a time range. It may get a bit tricky with items like moving averages. Biggest hurdles will be manually calculating everything and deciding what to do with your values on session transitions. This sample can help get you started getting values from a time range if you decide to custom code it:

http://www.ninjatrader.com/support/forum/showthread.php?p=44911#post44911