Hi I asked a question earlier in the week to do with support and resistance and was kindly helped by some people. I am now getting into the details of my formula. I basically want to create a formula that checks the closing price and sees how many times there was a peak or trough in the past at around that level (give or take a dollar) I have so far done this by setting 19 peak variables going back one peak each time and summarising a total count of how many peaks were near the close. I was just about to add trough variables and do the same thing but I have run out of variables and it doesn't seem like an elegant solution anyway. e.g peak1 := ABS(PEAK(1,C,5) - C) < 1 peak2 := ABS(PEAK(2,C,5) - C) < 1 .... peak19 := ABS(PEAK(19,C,5) - C) < 1 results := peak1 + peak2 + ... peak19 Is there a nice way to do this kind of thing, with looping or recursiveness or ref or PREV or something clever, more than the way I am doing. Hopefully where I can specify the number of peaks (or troughs) to look back at and not set a variable each time. Also I have no way of knowing how many peaks are contained in total on each chart given the percentage change I am looking for. I also eventually wanted to somehow highlight the peaks that were selected as being near the close on the actual graph itself (as returned by explorer when I do open chart) either with a short line or some kind of symbol at the relevant peak. I am unsure as to ow to go about this. Many thanks for any help. It's much appreciated. David

No need for external formulae for this simple request. 8) Try this MS indicator: [code:1:06c76c70d6] ============================= Peak/Trough zone-strike count ============================= ---8<-------------------------- {©Copyright 2005 Jose Silva For private use only. http://www.metastocktools.com } { User inputs } level:=Input("Select price level: (0 = last Close)",0,100000,0); zone:=Input("Price strike zone, +/- % of price", .01,100,5)/100; pr:=Input("Peak/Trough %minimum change", .01,100,5); plot:=Input("[1]All Pk/Tr, [2]Zone Pk/Tr, [3]Strike count, [4]%",1,4,3); { Peaks, values } pk:=PeakBars(1,C,pr)=0; pkVal:=Peak(1,C,pr); { Troughs, values } tr:=TroughBars(1,C,pr)=0; trVal:=Trough(1,C,pr); { Price level } prLevel:=If(level=0,LastValue(C),level); { Price strike zone } ClHi:=prLevel*(1+zone); ClLo:=prLevel*(1-zone); { Peaks within price strike zone } pkZone:=pk AND pkVal>=ClLo AND pkVal<=ClHi; pkZonePer:=Cum(pkZone)/Max(Cum(pk),.00001)*100; { Troughs within price strike zone } trZone:=tr AND trVal>=ClLo AND trVal<=ClHi; trZonePer:=Cum(trZone)/Max(Cum(tr),.00001)*100; { Plot strike count in own window } If(plot=1,pk,If(plot=2,pkZone, If(plot=3,Cum(pkZone),pkZonePer))); -If(plot=1,tr,If(plot=2,trZone, If(plot=3,Cum(trZone),trZonePer))) ---8<-------------------------- [/code:1:06c76c70d6] jose '-)

Jose One last thing. Can I use this formula in explorer or is it meant more as a plot on the graph. I saw the input function and I remember you can't use that with explorer. My original intention was to do an explorer search which returns me the shares and the number of hits close to the resistance zone if there was at least one previously Thanks again for the help. Regards David.

Jose Thanks again for the formula, it's exactly what I was looking for. David

Hi Jose Yeah its going quite well. I bought it last month and I have made some progress despite moving house and working like a dog in my day job! I was meant to email Patrick yesterday about what I've done so far and about pooling our resources. In summary, I have created a zigzag function which utilises high and low prices instead of just one price. I am also aiming to make the zigzag function usable in system tests, i.e. resolve the problem of "seeing into the future". I have also created trough and peak functions using the new zigzag function. The above functions are going to be used to build much better trendline, resistance and support line functions and more hopefully (chart patterns, fibonnacci lines, etc). I have created the first build of my trendline program. Its a long term up trendline and works quite well except in a few cases. I am currently building a second version of trendline using new rules which should detect almost all trends. I can cc you in the email to Patrick if you're interested. Cheers Craig :)

Hi Jose Just had a look at the function. It works broadly similar except I have attached more importance to identifying the highest high points and lowest low points so I can identify full extent of a trading range. For example, when in a current up trend and the next price bar makes a slightly higher high but also makes a significantly lower low, I plot the higher high in the Zigzag as I want the line to represent the whole trading range. I have ignored the fact that the same day brought a lower low since if that new low does signal a new down trend/move then the zigzag should be plotting the following day's low. Vice versa for current down trends/moves. Craig :

[code:1:214f111837] { Variables reference from "Peak/Trough zone-strike count" indicator } trZonePer:=FmlVar("Peak/Trough zone-strike count","TRZONEPER"); trZone:=FmlVar("Peak/Trough zone-strike count","TRZONE") ; tr:=FmlVar("Peak/Trough zone-strike count","TR") ; { Choose from 3 outputs: } trZonePer; Cum(trZone); Cum(tr) [/code:1:214f111837] jose '-)

Sure, David - please email me at [color=green:017da48968]jose at MetaStockTools.com[/color], and we'll take it from there. Completed work is usually returned to the client in the form of self-installing MetaStock files, so you won't have to deal with the problem you have experienced so far. jose '-)