Strategy
Strategy
Indicator
+ Balance of PowerThe Balance of Power is an indicator that measures the strength of buyers versus that of sellers in the market, and needs to be smoothed by a moving average to be of much practical use (come to think of it, most indicators are smoothed by a moving average; this is why the RSI lookback mostly commonly used is 14, and not 1, but I digress...). I suppose it is possible to use it without smoothing, but that would be very difficult I think.
The oscillator pivots around a center line, and as with most indicators like this, above 0 is generally considered bullish in a bullish trend, and vice versa in a downtrend.
It can be good for spotting divergences (moreso with smaller lookback periods than I like).
To wit, you might be wondering why I have the default lookback period set at such a large number. My only answer I can give is that I prefer it that way.
The indicator is quite choppy, even when smoothed. The long period helps me to make beter sense of the data (smooth it with a Hull or Jurik MA and you get a different story, though).
In my version of this indicator I provide a pretty broad selection of moving averages with which one may choose to smooth out the BOP, as well as an EMA provided to use as a sort of signal line for trade entries and/or exits, taking partial profits, scaling into a position, etc.
I've also added the option for a second BOP, which is on by default. I think you might find the results interesting by pairing differently smoothed BOPs together.
Of course, you don't have to use both. In the case of the default settings you might look at the EMA-BOP crossing the JMA-BOP as an opportunity to look into exiting or entering trades.
Candle coloring is, as usual, included. I'd say I kind of overdid it here, but that seems to be my style. I just couldn't deal with the fact that with the indicator set to cumulative modes there is no zero line, therefor the color of the indicator plot and the candle coloring would not match the color swatches for bullish/bearish colors. So, there are selections for cumulative indicator/candle colors, and standard indicator/candle colors. Donchian Channels obviously doesn't matter because the colors of things are based on the channel only.
I've added Donchian channel bands (which I've begun adding to many of my indicators), and all necessary alerts as well.
The Donchian Channels can be a really effective tool for entering and exiting trades. I haven't mentioned it in my other indicators that have it, so I will here:
The outermost edge of the band is that which references the indicator for where it is plotted, and the inner channel is sort of dragged along, creating the band
It's a simple mathematical calculation that PulseWire actually provided themselves in their manual for pinescript.
When the BOP (or any other indicator using this) enters the band and then exits that could be an indication that price may be reversing, this the bands themselves act, or rather, show a current area of support/resistance for the BOP plot.
One thing that I did with it that they did not, is give the user the ability to change the width of the band. It can only go so narrow, obviously, but anywhere from three (quite wide) to eight is probably sufficient.
I've also provided the option of plotting the BOP as a cumulative line (like OBV), making it no longer an indicator which oscillates around a central pivot.
Because the balance of power is plotted as an accumulation, you may actually want to set the lookback to 1 (it works because it's not an oscillator then).
If you wish to smooth the noise, I suspect a low number would be acceptable here, but it's not necessary.
Oh, and lastly (almost forgot, as this was a late addition), I've added options for the BOPs calculated with volume as well. Gives a different bit of a perspective on the market, versus the traditional version which does not include volume. Screenshots below.
The above image is the balance of power calculated with volume. You can see the obvious difference versus the traditional indicator, where price is in a downtrend and you'd want to sell the orange.
Cumulative version. Looks a lot like OBV.
Cumulative version with volume. Indicator
RedK Bar Strength Inspector / Bar Strength Index (BSI)Summary
=========
The Bar Strength Inspector / Bar Strength Index (BSI) is an indicator that evaluates each price bar against a user-selectable set of "strength categories" - BSI then calculates a combined score from these categories and provides an index - plotted as a centered oscillator - roughly similar to the way Relative Strength Index (RSI) works, which can be used to evaluate the strength of price move and the possibilities of trend continuation or reversal.
Background
=============
BSI is like a Swiss-army knife with many components - so apologies upfront if this guide gets long - and i know i will still miss few pieces that needs explaining. please alert me if something is not clear.
BSI is an advanced / re-built version of my Ultimate Trader Oscillator (UTO)
I continue to believe that one of the best trading tools that i can use, is a tool that can automate the visual inspection of the price chart - a tool that simulates (and quantifies in numbers/score) the way we visually look at a certain price bar, and make a judgement that "this is a strong bar, so I expect the trend down to possibly reverse" - BSI is a an attempt to achieve that. An attempt to answer a simple question (in a quantifiable manner):
how strong / weak is this price bar - how does it compare to previous bars ? what is the average of that strength (or weakness) for the last few bars ?(based on the trader's preferred timeframe)
How does BSI work
====================
* BSI will inspect and evaluate each bar against various (selectable) strength categories.
* BSI will give a -100/+100 score against each "strength category", then combine these scores into an index and create an average of that index
* the average index (also called BSI) will be calculated for both a short and long lengths
* the short length represents "local / short-term" strength - plotted as a blue/orange line (with an additional signal line to make easier to "read")
* the long-term reflects the broader bias (sentiment) - plotted as green/red area (or mountain)
How is BSI different from UTO
=============================
- I wrote BSI from the ground up to validate each scoring calculation and the resulting outcomes - so i would consider BSI to be more accurate than UTO
- i wrote BSI in a way to make it a lot more flexible. BSI allows me to choose which category to include in the "inspection"
- the strength categories are streamlined to reflect single bar strength, strength from bar-to-bar, and relative strength (range and volume) - they have also been chosen in a way that map to commonly used Technical Analysis concepts, to increase the value of BSI and the ability to compare with other common indicators (for example, BoP, Stochastic, Relative Volume and RSI)
- added the table view - which i use mainly to track the action within the current bar - and to learn more about how to evaluate strength vs weakness with various chart patterns
- UTO still represents the foundation of this work - but i will not update UTO any longer so all changes will be applied to the BSI- i have been using both UTO and BSI to guide my trading for the past few months.
- couple of other features in BSI:
- support for instruments with no volume data (even if the user chooses volume) - number of inspection categories will show as "7" in that case
- ability to plot the individual category scores, and the total weighted score (for the selected categories) - these plots are hidden by default
- ability to see the total score for all 8 (or 7 in case no volume data) categories regardless of how many are active - but only in the table view
- ability to be used as both a lower (independent) and a top indicator (on the price chart) -- see below examples.
Structure of the BSI Strength Categories
=====================================
The first 3 inspected strength categories focus on "single bar strength", they evaluate how the bar closes compared to the low, the Balance of Power (BoP) and the relative BoP
The next 3 categories focus on evaluating the bar-to-bar strength: how the bar closes compared to the low of the 2-bar range, how the bar closes compared to prior close - and the relative "shift"
The last 2 "strength" categories evaluate the relative range of bar compared to recent average range and the relative volume.
Understanding the bar inspection & scoring approach
==================================
During inspection for each category, a score is calculated with a value between 0 to 100, then it will be made "directional" - which means that +100 represents highest possible strength score and a value of -100 is the highest possible "weakness" score
Note that a 0 score doesn't mean "weak" - but rather "neutral" - this can be a bit confusing until we get used to the way BSI scoring works.
Example: in relative volume, a bar associated with the lowest volume observed during the lookback length, will have a 0 relative volume score -- while a bar associated with the highest volume observed will have either a +100 or a -100 score (depending on whether it's an up or down bar) - same thing for relative range.. and so on
Here are the 8 strength categories evaluated by the BSI
1 Bar closing score
2 Body : Spread (BoP) ratio
3 Relative BoP
4 2-bar Closing Score
5 2-bar Shift Ratio (Shift : 2R)
6 Relative Shift
7 Relative Range
8 Relative Volume
Specific meaning of keywords / concepts (within BSI context):
======================================================
Relative : compared to recently observed values (= within Lookback # bars)
Shift : the change in closing value vs prior bar
Bar Spread : high - low
Range : True Range ..... as in the tr() Pine function, so not to be confused with "spread"
More detailed notes about scoring and calculations for each strength category are included within the code
BSI Settings:
=============
Here is a chart showing the main sections in the BSI Settings box and how to configure it to your preference
Using the BSI:
================
- I use BSI for 2 main scenarios
(1) Guiding my Day-to-day trading: the usage here is roughly similar to a volume-weighted dual-period RSI .. with a lot more options - picking and choosing between the 8 strength categories in BSI allows for 255 variations of "strength evaluations" - a trader can choose to focus only on "single bar strength" score categories, so only picks the top 3 in the settings - another trader wants to track only the strength reflected by the relative range and relative volume, so picks the lower 2 categories. another trader wants to use BSI as a volume weighted Balance of Power.. and so on. Many combinations are possible.
i have added couple of charts that explain some of the "signals" we can expect from BSI (below chart) - note that i use the "Green/Red mountain plot" as the "prevailing sentiment" - as it confirms the longer term strength (or weakness). the BSI line plot reflects the short term strength and not necessarily tied directly to how the price is moving (see example in the chart - and also compare to how RSI works)
- 2 important points here if you plan to use BSI in trading: set BSI up on a 1-min or 5-min chart and watch how it works to learn how it evaluates each bar - and always use BSI in combination with other indicators that you are familiar with to validate and confirm any signals
(Important note: do not react to the values in the table as they change in real time - i found that to be very tempting - rather look at the broader context and the flow of the BSI / sentiment) - you can also test BSI with Paper Trading in TV - it's like a new car that you need some time to get used to :)
(2) Use BSI to help learn chart / pattern analysis - watch BSI print scores against the various categories in real time to hone your chart (pattern) reading skills and how to evaluate strength of various bar shapes - for example, a bar that closes at the high but does not reach the mid point of the prior bar - strong or weak ? how about a doji or a hammer ? ...etc
Chart showing main usage scenarios
Example BSI in real time:
======================
I hope this work helps few fellow traders hone their trading skills, or help inspire other ideas - please let me know if you have feedback or suggestions.
Indicator
Indicator
Indicator
Indicator
