In the June 05 Stocks and Commodities magazine p.25 "Less is More", the writer talks about an oscillator called (true strength index),creater Willaim Blau. How can i get this formula and how could i add it to the [censored]nal. I am a beginner and am just learning this. oz_pdt_03p

From what I have read this index is very good, better than most of the rest. Has anyone used it, and if so what has been your experience with it?

... and thinking a little more on the subject and looking again at the core of the code: ROC(C,1,$) / Abs(ROC(C,1,$)) in pseudo code says: If the price went up then return a value of 1 If the price went down then return a value of -1 If the price didnt change then return a value of 0 So the core can rewritten along the lines of: x:=If(ROC(C,1,$)>0,1,If(ROC(C,1,$)<0,-1,0)) Doesnt look too mathematical now does it? wabbit :D

I don't subscribe to S&C magazine. As a matter of fact the only subscription I have is to Roy Larsen's excellent MS Tips and Tricks. I used to get all sorts of newsletters and mags, but they all say the same thing. Get a copy of the most popular shares magazine in your area from six months ago and have a look at their "expert" opinions. How many predictions have come true. Now look back one year, 18 months and two years. See any patterns forming? Is there a link to an online S&C variant? Maybe the author of the article also posts on their own site? Perhaps you might like to write a precis of the article (caution: copyright sensitivities) and post it here. As I said, the author may have been able to show where it can be used in a profitable against a particular (probably) small universe of stocks, in a particular market condition that doesnt exist now. I could show you how it is not profitable against a larger universe of stocks in today's market. The author said his indicator was more profitable when compared to stochs, but then again stochs only work well in particular markets under some very specific conditions. So what was the author comparing it to? I am sure Mr Bollinger would try to show how his system is more profitable again. Mr Hull would do the same again. There are loads of people still left cueing up here to take your money. Who do you believe? Be very careful reading. There are a lot of people out there who make their money, not from trading, but from writing articles and creating "systems" they later sell. You wont make any money, but they certainly do. Yours! Some of them do get very rich from doing this. Anyway, please post more information, and it will be discussed further. Until then, why not use the System Tester to run some trials of your own and see how the reults compare. Thats what MS is for! wabbit :D

Hi I agree to wabbit. Just testing it with a statistical approach shows you whether a specific indicator works in general or not. A lot of esoteric stuff is looking fine on the paper (i.e. on the one chart selected for this indicator) but on a big universe you often could roll a dice. Rolf

Have a play with this.... as an indicator (System Tester code to follow, soon) Change the "m" value to set the band widths to find the overbought and oversold levels: prd1:=Input("ROC Periods",1,100,1); prd2:=Input("MA Periods",1,100,25); prd3:=Input("Smoothing Periods",1,100,13); prd4:=Input("Trigger Periods",1,100,7); {plot:=Input("1-Use Lastvalue(), 2-Dynamic",1,2,2);} plot:=2; {use any other indicator in here} ind:=100*Mov(Mov(ROC(C,prd1,$)/Abs(ROC(C,prd1,$)+0.00001),prd2,E),prd3,E); fmDate:=Input("Start ddmmyy (0=first trade)",0,311299,0); fmDay:=If(fmDate=0,ValueWhen(1,Cum(1)=1,DayOfMonth()),Int(fmDate/10000)); fmMonth:=If(fmDate=0,ValueWhen(1,Cum(1)=1,Month()),Int((fmDate-fmDay*10000)/100)); fmYear:=If(fmDate=0,ValueWhen(1,Cum(1)=1,Year()),Int(fmDate-Int(fmDate/100)*100)); fmYear:=If(fmYear<100,If(fmYear<40,fmYear+2000,fmYear+1900),fmYear); toDate:=Input("End ddmmyy (0=last trade)",0,311299,0); toDay:=If(toDate=0,LastValue(DayOfMonth()),Int(toDate/10000)); toMonth:=If(toDate=0,LastValue(Month()),Int((toDate-toDay*10000)/100)); toYear:=If(toDate=0,LastValue(Year()),Int(toDate-Int(toDate/100)*100)); toYear:=If(toYear<100,If(toYear<40,toYear+2000,toYear+1900),toYear); betweenDates:=((DayOfMonth()>=fmDay AND Month()=fmMonth AND Year()=fmYear) OR (Month()>fmMonth AND Year()=fmYear) OR Year()>fmYear) AND ((DayOfMonth()<=toDay AND Month()=toMonth AND Year()=toYear) OR (Month()<toMonth AND Year()=toYear) OR Year()<toYear); MV:=Cum(If(betweenDates,ind,0))/Cum(If(betweenDates,1,0.00001)); MV:=If(plot=1,LastValue(MV),MV); SD:=Sqrt(Cum(Power(If(betweenDates,ind-MV,0),2))/Cum(If(betweenDates,1,0.00001))); SD:=If(plot=1,LastValue(SD),SD); {shift:=LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates));} m:=1; MV:=Ref(Ref(ValueWhen(1,betweenDates,MV),-LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))),+LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))); LL:=Ref(Ref(ValueWhen(1,betweenDates,MV-m*SD),-LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))),+LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))); UL:=Ref(Ref(ValueWhen(1,betweenDates,MV+m*SD),-LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))),+LastValue(BarsSince(betweenDates))); ind; {red solid} mv; {blue solid} Mov(ind,prd4,E); {green solid} UL; {blue solid} LL; {blue solid} wabbit :D

Thanks so much but this is over my head :shock: Is what you wrote the same as the initial formula: 100 * ( Mov( Mov( ROC(C,1,$),25,E),13,E) / Mov( Mov( Abs(ROC(C,1,$)),25,E),13,E)) I added this to the building indicators option on metastock. they helped me with that. What you wrote what does that do and where does it go? Thanks

My indicator looks something like: wabbit :D

r:=Input("first TSI time period",1,200,25); s1:=Input("second TSI time period",1,200,13); u:=Input("third TSI time period",1,200,7); tsi:=100*(Mov(Mov(CLOSE-Ref(CLOSE,-1),r,E),s1,E))/(Mov(Mov(Abs(CLOSE-Ref(CLOSE,-1)),r,E),s1,E)); tsi; Mov(tsi,u,E)

Totus: Did you ever locate anything on the MS code for TSI? I also found the article extremely interesting, but have been striking out on locating the formula. I will pick up Blau's book in the near future before I use the oscillator. John Kapetan kapetanj4696@comcast.net