Hi Muheeb

Here's the "Multi-Frame D OHLC" indicator set up for weekly data with the first day of the week being Monday and the last day of the week being Sunday. Adjust the offset to change the beginning/end of each week. Each offset increment will delay the transition from one week to the next by one bar. When used without Saturday or Sunday daily data the 5 and 6 offset settings will make no difference to the end-of-week plots. The offset feature does not affect monthly or higher periodicity results in any way.

Roy

{Multi-Frame D OHLC}
{Requires Equis Forum DLL}
{Roy Larsen, 2008-2009, 30/10/09}

{User settings}
N:=Input("Multi-Frame D OHLC (end-of-week offset by N days)",0,6,0);
J:=Input("Months per Frame, 0=Weekly",0,12,0);
J:=If(J<5 OR Mod(J,3)=0 AND (J<>9),Int(J),-1);
Q:=Input("Mode, 0=Static 1=Dynamic 2=Delayed",0,2,1);
{Update on last bar, new bar or new frame}

{Timing signals}
{Day counter by metastocktools.com}
D:=DayOfWeek();M:=Month();Y:=Year();
Z:=Cum(1);F:=Rnd(Life(291231));
M:=If(J=0,ValueWhen(1,Z=1,F+D-N-1)-F,
(Y-ValueWhen(1,Z=1,Y))*12+M);
I:=If(J=0,Int(M/7),Int((M-1)/Max(1,J)));
I:=I>ValueWhen(2,1,I);
G:=LastValue(J<0 OR Lowest(Sum(I>0,5))=5);
I:=ExtFml("Forum.Sum",I,1);M:=G+I;
F:=ExtFml("Forum.Sum",Ref(I,1),1)*(M=0)*(Z>1)+G;
B:=LastValue(Z);A:=B-1=Z;B:=B=Z;
F:=F+B*(Q=0)*(J=0)*(D=5);
J:=If(F,1,(Alert(F,2)=0)*M*2*(Z>1));
J:=If(A+LastValue(J)>2 OR B+(Q=1)=2,1,J);
J:=If(G,1,If(Q=2,M*2,J));

{Frame prices}
Om:=ValueWhen(1,M+(Z=1),O);
Hm:=HighestSince(1,M+(Z=1),H);
Lm:=LowestSince(1,M+(Z=1),L);
Om:=ValueWhen(1,J,If(J=1,Om,ValueWhen(2-G,1,Om)));
Hm:=ValueWhen(1,J,If(J=1,Hm,ValueWhen(2-G,1,Hm)));
Lm:=ValueWhen(1,J,If(J=1,Lm,ValueWhen(2-G,1,Lm)));
K:=ValueWhen(1,J,If(J=1,C,ValueWhen(2-G,1,C)));
Om; Hm; Lm; K;

Hi Muheeb

How could you have plotted the original weekly OHLC if you didn't have the Forum DLL installed? You don't say if the modified indicator plots 4 visible plots, N/A, or something else. For what it's worth I just copied the indicator from two pages above as <New Indicator> and got exactly the weekly OHLC prices I expected. Options 0, 5 and 6 plot weekly prices as of each Friday on my data, and options 1-4 plot weekly data based on Monday to Thursday end-of-week orientation. As intended. Open up the Data window so that you can at least see whether the indicator is plotting anything or just returning N/A.

I assume you restarted MetaStock after installing the Forum DLL?

With a little more information I may be able to figure out what, if anything, you're doing wrong. What do you mean by "nothing happens"? Does that mean you see nothing at all or that you see no plot changes when changing the options? What days of the week does your data have? More information please!!!

Roy

Hi Muheeb

Yes, it does seem that you have followed the correct procedure for installing the DLL and indicator. Although MetaStock error messages can seem rather cryptic at times they generally point to a quite specific cause and solution.

Opening a new window to display an indicator is not wrong. In this case, however, the indicator plots weekly prices and it could be plotted in the same window as the chart without casing any major issues, apart from the one we’re already trying to deal with of course.

When an indicator is dropped into a window and no plot is visible it can mean a number of different things. The two most likely possibilities are that the plot is unscaled and zero, or N/A (the indicator is incapable of generating a real and visible output). An unscaled plot of a constant (most often zero) sits along the bottom edge of a window such that it can be detected and selected by drawing the cursor over it, but without it being visible to the user. Once selected a left or right scale can be applied and the plot will then become visible, of course depending on what other plots use the same scale.

An N/A plot (no output possible) is easy to check for and this is done by opening the Data Window (click the crosshairs on the toolbar) and checking what value corresponds to the problem indicator. This window can also tell you if there’s more than one copy of any indicator currently plotted – it’s a useful diagnostic tool. If the indicator is “plotting” N/A it can be helpful to draw the cursor across the chart and see if a real value appears at or near the right side. If plotted for only one or two bars an indicator in a window with other items can be very hard to locate.

You should now have a better idea of the problem. What I’d like to know, in addition to the outcome of these initial checks, is this. How many price bars are displayed on your chart? What ticker symbol have you applied the indicator to? What days of the week does the ticker data have?

An simple but effective method of tracking down the cause of an N/A plot is to add the variable name (terminated by a semicolon) after each variable definition in turn (only check one definition at a time). The first variable that does not plot when the Indicator Builder is closed will most likely be the source of the problem. Obviously as this series of tests moves from one variable to the next the inserted variable names already tested must be removed. If you get as far as performing this check then it would be really helpful to know the results. Thanks.

Roy

Hi Muheeb

Thankyou for your responses to my questions. From what you've said I think the indicator problem must lie with the combination of data and indicator. I'll look at the situation tomorrow, I'm sure there's a way through this. Once sorted out you'll need the weekly volume indicator as well. It's not practical to have volume and price plot from the same indicator as the scale of one would severely distort the other. The weekly volume could be added as a histogram in its own window into the default template.

Roy

Hi Muheeb

I have cycled through enough charts now and it seems that some of the securities you sent me do not have OPEN data. This will certainly cause the OHLC weekly indicator to fail. It was because of this potential problem with some types of securities that I created HLC versions of the OHLC indicators a little while back. I’ve not found any other problems or reasons why “Multi-Frame D OHLC” should fail to plot. I’m still working on a template for simulating weekly bars based using the OHLC or HLC indicators as a base.

Roy