With Valentine’s Day a couple of days away, we thought it’d be apropos to give some extra tender loving care to our loyal study enthusiasts. This month it’s all about scripting and studies, with the star of the release being our brand-new tool thinkScript® IDE! (IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment) “What is this thing?” you might ask. Well, you know how the saying goes “Ask and you shall receive.”
thinkScript® IDE
thinkScript® IDE is a dedicated thinkorswim interface that can help you create, edit, and manage your thinkScript®-based studies. It does everything thinkScript® Editor can do and more!
For example, it allows you to use any of the existing studies (both predefined and user-defined), keep multiple script tabs open, and detach the window (which we know is a must for our users with multiple monitors). This tool is going to give you the freedom to tinker with your scripts without being tied down to one section of the platform while you work. We all know how important it is to be able to make a quick move during the trading day. You no longer need to scramble to quickly save and close out of the editor in order to glance at your news, check out a chart, or place a trade.
To access this new feature, go to the Tools tab and select the new thinkScript® subtab. To read all about how this section works, read our dedicated article HERE.
Studies
For our next piece, please envision a heart shaped box filled with an assortment of very fancy studies. Bonus, no one will side eye you if you try each one before you decide which is your favorite.
The Cycle Trend Analytics indicator is an oscillator that can be used for analysis of cycles and trends in the market data. It is calculated as the difference between a price component and its moving average with a variable length. Cycle Trend analytics can be used in two modes: cycle and trend. The price component is selected based on the mode.
The FIR (finite impulse response) Filters Of Price Change indicator shows a smoothed-out value of the difference between close and open price. By default, it calculates a simple moving average of this value based on the function selected by the user. In the input parameters, you can also select a window function to be used for the smoothing: Triangle, Hamming, or Hann.
The FIR (finite impulse response) Hamming is an indicator that filters the data to find the balance between the simple moving average's filtering capability and its lagging. This filter uses a weighting system for data points: the first and the last data point are by default assigned a weight equal to sin10° (so-called pedestal), and data points between them are assigned weights consistent with sinewave half-cycle, peaking in the middle of the indicator length. Thus, most of the weight is given to data around the middle of the indicator's length, and least of the weight is given to data points at the beginning and the end of it.
The FIR (finite impulse response) Hann is an indicator that filters the data to find the balance between the simple moving average's filtering capability and its lagging. This filter uses a weighting system for data points: the data points are assigned weights consistent with raised cosine. Most of the weight is given to data around the middle of the indicator's length, and least of the weight is given to data points at the beginning and the end of it.
The FIR (finite impulse response) Triangle Weighting is an indicator that filters the data to find the balance between the simple moving average's filtering capability and its lagging. This filter uses a weighting system for data points: weights are linearly increased through halfway of the indicator length and linearly decreased afterwards. This way, most of the weight is given to data around the middle of the indicator's length, and least of the weight is given to data points at the beginning and the end of it.
The MAD (Moving Average Difference) study is a trend-following oscillator based on the difference between two simple moving averages of price: a faster and a slower one. The lengths of the moving averages need to be selected so that the length of the slower average is greater than that of the faster one by half-length of the dominant market cycle. The difference between the averages is calculated as percentage of the slower one.
The MADH (Moving Average Difference - Hann) indicator is a trend-following oscillator based on the MAD indicator. Unlike the original version, it utilizes price data smoothed by the Hann window function instead of simple moving average.
You’ve now reached the end of this study and scripting laden Valentine. We hope you felt the love.
Happy Trading,
The Support Team
thinkorswim