/*********************************************************************************************** Title: Midas Top/Bottom Finder for eSignal By: Divergence Software, Inc. Web: http://www.sr-analyst.com ================================================================================================ Uses eSignal mouse interface for the creation of a Midas Top/Bottom Finder support/resistance curves. Dislaimer: For educational purposes only! Obviously, no guarantees whatsoever and use at your own risk. ********************************************************************* eSignal 10.x versus eSignal 12.x ================================ This indicator will operate in either eSignal 10.x or in eSignal 12.x. The only difference is that, in eSignal 12.x, you must hold down the SHIFT key prior to clicking on any buttons and/or clicking on any data points. So, for example, to 'wake-up' the indicator and create a new curve in eSignal 10.x you would simply click on the "TBf" button, and then click on the trend anchor point, and click again on the first pullback. In eSignal 12.x you would follow the procedure above BUT you would also hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard before you perform any of the click operations. Project Description: =================== This indicator is designed to be used in conjunction with the Midas S/R Lines indicator and allows you to create and adjust up to five Midas Top/Bottom Finder support/resistance curves in any chart. The Midas method of technical analysis was introduced by Paul Levine. You can find more information on Midas by doing a quick search on Google. There is also a good article on the subject by Andrew Coles and David Hawkins in the July 2009 issue of TASC. Standard Midas lines are based on volume-weighted average price as measured from a specific launch point...generally a swing low that represents the beginning of an up-trend, or a swing high that represents the beginning of a down trend. In general, Midas lines offer strong support/resistance and, when broken, indicate trend exhaustion. The Top/Bottom Finder is based on Levine's belief that each trend has a fixed amount of "fuel" (cumulative volume) and as the trend develops it will follow the curve of the Top/Bottom Finder plot. When the "fuel" is consumed then the trend is over and prices (in an uptrend) will likely move to the Midas curve. The key to the operation of the Top/Bottom Finder is to determine the correct amount of "fuel" (cumulative volume) to assign to the curve and, therefore, to the trend you are measuring. This normally cumbersome and tedious process is fully automated in our Top/Bottom Finder indicator. To begin the process you click on the "TBf" activator button that you see at the bottom-left of your chart and then you click once on the anchor point (the beginning of the trend), and then you click again at the first pullback of the trend. The indicator will then run an optimization process to find the amount of total volume that creates a support/resistance curve that best fits the trend from the point of origination to the pullback, and once it arrives at this number it will plot the curve. This process generally takes less than a second to complete. Now if you are not happy with the optimized Top/Bottom Finder curve you can fine-tune it to a high degree. This is done by double-clicking on the curve line which will pull up a Curve Control button bar for that line. With the button bar you can increase the cumulative volume being considered, decrease the cumulative volume being considered, reset the curve back to its optimized cumulative volume value, and delete the curve entirely. Once a Top/Bottom Finder curve has been created, as new bars come in the Top/Bottom Finder will continue to plot and update until the allocated cumulative volume is exhausted...which indicates the end of the trend based on this particular Top/Bottom Finder curve. Up to 5 Top/Bottom Finder curves can be created on a chart in this fashion. If you need to create a new curve and you already have the maximum of 5 displayed, you must delete one of the existing curves before you create a new one. During the curve creation process, if you click near the low of a bar (i.e., near the low of a bar that creates a swing-low trend reversal) then the Midas Top/Bottom Finder formula will anchor the line at the low of that bar. In this scenario the low price will be used in the VWAP cumulative volume calculation to construct a Top/Bottom Finder support line if "high/low" is selected as the source in the indicator menu. If you click near the high of a bar (i.e., near the high of a bar that creates a swing-high trend reversal) then the Midas Top/Bottom Finder formula will anchor the line at the high of that bar. In this scenario the high price will be used in the VWAP cumulative volume calculation to construct a Top/Bottom Finder resistance line if "high/low" is selected as the source in the indicator menu. Steps to Create a Midas Top/Bottom Finder Curve: =============================================== 1. Load the Midas_TB_Finder_1.efs indicator into your chart. When loaded, you will see a small button at the lower-left of your chart labelled "TFf" (i.e., for TopBottom Finder). This is the activator button. 2. Click once on the "TBf" button. The "TBf" button will be replaced by a prompt "Single-Click near bar High/Low to set Midas Anchor...". Move your mouse cursor near the high or low of any bar on your chart and click once. A triangle will appear above or below the point where you clicked. 3. You will now be prompted to "Single-Click near High/Low of Pullback...". Move your mouse cursor near the high or low of the bar that represents the pullback and click again. 4. The Midas Top/Bottom Finder indicator will now evaluate the volume and price data between those two points and will calculate a cumulative volume value that represents the best fit between those two points, and this value will be used to create the Top/Bottom Finder curve. 5. Once the Top/Bottom Finder curve has been drawn the "TBf" button will reappear and you can click on it to create another curve (up to a maximum of 5 curves per chart in which the indicator is loaded). Remember that if you are using eSignal 12.x you must hold down the SHIFT key prior to clicking on the activator button or selecting the points on the chart. Steps to Delete an Existing Midas Top/Bottom Finder Curve: ========================================================= 1. Each Top/Bottom Finder curve drawn by this indicator will have a "Delete Tag" drawn just to the right of the end of the line. Just double-click your mouse on this Delete Tag and the associated curve will be removed from the chart. 2. Alternatively, you can use the "Curve Control" button bar to delete the line. To access the "Curve Control" button bar, simply double-click anywhere on the curve you wish to delete. The "Curve Control" button bar will appear and you can click on the "Delete" button to remove the curve. Remember that if you are using eSignal 12.x you must hold down the SHIFT key prior to clicking on the "Delete Tag" or double-clicking on the line to call up the associated "Curve Control" button bar. Steps to Adjust an Existing Midas Top/Bottom Finder Curve: ========================================================= 1. Each Top/Bottom Finder curve that you create on your chart has a "Curve Control" button bar associated with it. You can use this button bar to increase or decrease the cumulative volume associated with the curve, to reset the curve back to the optimized cumulative volume value, and to delete the curve. 2. To access the "Curve Control" button bar, simply double-click anywhere on the curve that you wish to modify. The "Curve Control" button bar will appear at the bottom-left of your chart. A. [++] - Clicking on this button will increment the cumulative volume being used to create the Top/Bottom Finder curve by the factor specified in the indicator menu. The default value is 0.20 but, again, you can change this in the menu. B. [+] - Clicking on this button will increment the cumulative volume being used to create the Top/Bottom Finder curve by the factor specified in the indicator menu. The default value is 0.05 but, again, you can change this in the menu. The idea here is that you click on [++] to produce a large increase and then use the [+] button to fine-tune. C. [-] - Clicking on this button will decrement the cumulative volume being used to create the Top/Bottom Finder curve by the factor specified in the indicator menu. The default value is 0.05 but, again, you can change this in the menu. The idea here is that you click on [--] to produce a large decrease and then use the [-] button to fine-tune. D. [--] - Clicking on this button will decrement the cumulative volume being used to create the Top/Bottom Finder curve by the factor specified in the indicator menu. The default value is 0.20 but, again, you can change this in the menu. E. [Reset] - Clicking on this button will restore the optimized cumulative volume value that was produced when the curve was initially created. F. [Delete] - Clicking on this button will delete the associated curve from the chart. G. [Done] - Clicking on this button will close the "Curve Control" button bar. Each time you click on buttons A-D above, the associated Top/Bottom Finder curve will be redrawn. You can and should use this process to fine tune your Top/Bottom Finder curves. Remember that if you are using eSignal 12.x you must hold down the SHIFT key prior to double-clicking on the line to call up the associated "Curve Control" button bar or clicking on any of the buttons in the "Curve Control" button bar. Indicator Parameters: ==================== [++/--] Increment Factor: This represents the factor by which the cumulative volume will be incremented or decremented each time you click on the [++] or [--] buttons in the "Curve Control" button bar. The default value is 0.20 but you can adjust this to any value between 0.01 to 20.00. [+/-] Increment Factor: This represents the factor by which the cumulative volume will be incremented or decremented each time you click on the [+] or [-] buttons in the "Curve Control" button bar. The default value is 0.05 but you can adjust this to any value between 0.01 to 20.00. Curve #1 Line Color: This is the line plot color associated with the most recent Top/ Bottom Finder curve in your chart (i.e., with an anchor point closest to the most current price bar). If you have only one curve on your chart then it will be assigned this color. The default is green. Curve #2 Line Color: This is the line plot color associated with the next most recent Top/Bottom Finder curve in your chart. The default is blue. Curve #3 Line Color: This is the line plot color associated with the next most recent Top/Bottom Finder curve in your chart. The default is orange. Curve #4 Line Color: This is the line plot color associated with the next most recent Top/Bottom Finder curve in your chart. The default is grey. Curve #5 Line Color: This is the line plot color associated with the next most recent Top/Bottom Finder curve in your chart. The default is dark-purple. Line Thickness: The line thickness to use when drawing the Top/Bottom Finder curves. The default is 2 and you can set it to a value beteen 1 and 10. Line Type: The line type to use when drawing the Top/Bottom Finder curves. The Default is line type of Dot. Price Source: The price source to use when performing the VWAP cumulative volume calculations. If "high/low" (the default) is selected then the indicator will use the low price when calculating the VWAP for a support curve and will use the high price when calculating the VWAP for a resistance curve. When hl2 is selected, the indicator will use the median price in the VWAP calculation for both support and resistance Top/Bottom Finder curves. Delete Tag Extension: Number of bars past the end of the Top/Bottom Finder curve at which to draw the Delete Tag. The default value is 2 bars. Color: The color to use for the Delete Tags. Default is red. Button FG Color: The color to use as foreground color for the activator button. The default is white. BG Color: The color to use as background color for the activator button. The default is dark-purple. Vert Offset: Used to adjust the location of the activator button on the the chart. Vert Offset represents the number of pixels up from the bottom of the chart where the button should be drawn. Horz Offset: Used to adjust the location of the activator button on the the chart. Horz Offset represents the number of pixels from the left-hand side of the chart where the button should be drawn. Disclaimer: For educational purposes only! Obviously, no guarantees whatsoever and use at your own risk. **********************************************************************/