Why does Tradable Trendline not produce streaming alerts?
Author: Gostling
Creation Date: 12/15/2015 3:13 PM
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Gostling

#1
I am a newbie to TT function and want to make the simplest use of TT real time with 1 minute symbols.

PART A:
Setup:
1. make a strategy with no rules call "no rules", just run and stream data to chart. I have a fixed position of $5k. I will buy or sell without a prior balance. I must watch and learn live behavior before a back algorithm is contrived.
2. I add a tradable trend line and set properties
3. I activate the strategy for the symbol (QQQ) with 1 minute update
4. When streaming price crosses the trend line, I DO get a new LOUD sound, and NO alerts and NO email.

I have read your EXCELENT help doc many times, searched wiki and feel humbled I can not make this work. I am missing something obvious....

PART B:
I look thru the "drag and drop" rules and do not see a CONDITION that uses TT name as a parameter. I now fell humility squared.

TT allows me to name the TT object for Alert messages printing(output), is the TT name not useful for referencing (input) for decision by pre coded drag and drop rules? Or can TT name be references for decision by C# scripts?

I pre thank you for any assistance.

== Ed
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Eugene

#2
Hi Ed,

QUOTE:
4. When streaming price crosses the trend line, I DO get a new LOUD sound, and NO alerts and NO email.


The idea is not to generate an alert each time there's a streaming tick update. Imagine getting an alert on every tick crossing back and forth? The closing price has to cross above/below the tradable trendline to trigger an alert. Wealth-Lab is bar-based as suggested in this FAQ:

Is it necessary to have access to intra-bar tick data to daytrade with Wealth-Lab?
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Eugene

#3
QUOTE:
I look thru the "drag and drop" rules and do not see a CONDITION that uses TT name as a parameter. I now fell humility squared.


Right, there's no such condition (yet).

QUOTE:
Or can TT name be references for decision by C# scripts?


Sure it can. Check out TrendlineValue in the QuickRef, and you might also find this FAQ useful if you consider applying your new knowledge to a multi-symbol backtest:

TrendlineValue can't be accessed.
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Gostling

#4
Original Quiz:

When streaming price crosses the trend line, I DO get a new LOUD sound, and NO alerts and NO email.

=====
I did not expect the current incomplete minute bar to produce an alert. I think that is what the FAQ is stating.

The FAQ you referred me to states:
"1.A complete bar updates (can be 1-minute, 1-day, etc.)
"2.Your strategy executes over all the bars in the chart and determines if it wants to trade on the next bar."

When the streaming price "bar series" fully crosses the tradable trend line, I NEVER get an alert in the Alert Pane, just a sound.

See attached picture with purple TT. I feel this should have produced an alert. on the alert panel.

I agree, if the price bars were to stagger on top of the trend line it could be annoying to get a plethora of alerts.

If I get no alerts ever, the TT is useless, as it has no tradable capabilities as a pure graphic trade tool.

Your other answer says a C# method exists for TT, the most complex way may be the easiest for me.

I just want to see one alert, any alert from TT using a graphic only tool.

I am missing something, thanks for your patience.

..Ed
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Eugene

#5
You can not draw a TT past the current bar. The end point of that trendline in your PDF looks like it has been drawn after the fact. I would not expect an alert if this is true!

The presense of the Alerts tab in the chart window suggests that an alert could have been triggered before but now is absent (condition is false).

The absense of email can be explained by the incorrect email settings.

Also, make sure that "Round stock positions to nearest 100 shares" is inactive in Preferences > Slippage and Round Lots ($5K / ~$113 ~= 44 shares).
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Cone

#6
Re: Sound
I suspect the sound that you're hearing is the "New Bar Arrival in a Real-Time Strategy". Turn this OFF or change it to a more pleasant sound.




Re: Alerts
Alerts are those actions that occur on a future bar - one that does not yet exist in the chart. In other words, only expect an Alert after the close of the last complete bar in a chart.
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Eugene

#7
Ed,

I have implemented two new conditions in our Community.Rules library:

+ Price crosses above Tradable Trendline
+ Price crosses below Tradable Trendline

As always it can be downloaded from our Wiki:

Community.Rules

Note: these conditions are not compatible with multi-symbol backtests i.e. they can be used in single symbol mode. Trading with trendlines in MSB mode requires a code framework similar to the one in this FAQ: TrendlineValue can't be accessed.
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Gostling

#8
Hi Cone:

My initial forum issue is still not resolved. You state in your reply:

QUOTE:
"Re: Alerts
Alerts are those actions that occur on a future bar - one that does not yet exist in the chart. In other words, only expect an Alert after the close of the last complete bar in a chart."


Yes, if only sound is considered, I get a periodic sound at each new bar on a minute period., as you suggest.

In addition I get a DIFFERENT SOUND only when a tradable trend bar is crossed in the appropriate trend line crossing direction as we expect, it is not periodic on a minute period.

I do not mind hearing the sound, I do not need to mute it.

Once again, the trade able trend bar is crossed in the chosen direction and the close of the new bar is as selected in the TT properties above (or below) as Sell or (buy).

The PROBLEM is I hear a Trade able Trend line Sound but I see NO TEXT Alert on my screen in the Strategy Monitor ! !

I do not know something you take for granted that I need to do, that is obvious to you and not me.

Thanks for any advice....ED

once again I am attaching a picture, not a re-creation this time. The TT sound did happen multiple times and NO text message ever appeared in the monitor window . see attached Pix

ED
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Eugene

#9
QUOTE:
The PROBLEM is I hear a Trade able Trend line Sound but I see NO TEXT Alert on my screen in the Strategy Monitor ! !

It's not a problem. If you tell us what part of the manual (or forum) have created the wrong impression that you should get any alert in the Strategy Monitor by a tradable trendline, we'll fix it. There's no such feature. The SM is for systematic trading, not for discretionary alerts from TTs. You get alerts in the streaming window for the next bar and that's it.
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Gostling

#10
Hi Eugene

you said above "It's not a problem. If you tell us what part of the manual (or forum) have created the wrong impression that you should get any alert in the Strategy Monitor by a tradable trendline, we'll fix it. There's no such feature"

Ok, well here is a direct quote from "Wealthlab User Guide", (press F1, index tab search, "Trendline" then "tradeable")
========
section title in bold ==>"Tradable Trendline Tool"

"The Tradable Trendline (TT) tool as an extension of the basic Trendline tool with the added ability to generate Alerts based on the most-recent closing price crossing above or below the line. "

========
triggered alerts are defined and illustrated in "Wealthlab User Guide" (press F1, index tab search, "Alerts" then "triggering")

section title in bold ==> "Alerts Pane"

"The Quotes window is divided in upper and lower panes. The lower Alerts Pane accumulates Price Triggers that have met their target prices and are ready to be Place or Staged in the Orders window."

========

I might suggest putting the following paragraph in the conclusion of "tradable trendline section":

The tradeable trendline (TT) can generate a special sound and place a message in the lower left status bar when the trigger conditions are met.. You must be vigilent to watch the message. However, the TT does not record the price alert in the price "alert pane" of the strategy monitor NOR does it send an email from a properly configured email account.

Alerts are those actions that occur on a future bar - one that does not yet exist in the chart. In other words, only expect an Alert after the close of the last complete bar in a chart.

========

Eugene, I suppose that my common sense has me in trouble again. WLP is a powerful tool and one critical component is called "Tradeable Trendline" and it would be logical that with a name like that, it could generate an alert that could ultimate be connected to a machine trade or as minimum generate an email. A more representative name by function would be "Trendline Sound". I would have to sit in my office at PC waiting for a sound.

So you may ask why does Ed care so much about this? I am a trend trade on all timescales. Before full automation and back testing it is a fantasy. I want to take a small step forward. The standard tigger conditions for the stack exchanges are to simple, the fidelity OCO, OTOCO, etc are better but to simple. a pulse or flash crash is deadly. I would like to prototype a few ETF exits only on algorithms that mimic more human like exits.

Thank you setting up the latest version of community.rules so I can experiment. Yes, paper "trade exits" for now.

I can be persistent to annoying, this topic is important to me, thank you for understanding and excellent support.

ED




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Eugene

#11
Ed,

The manual you're quoting from does not imply that Alerts from one part of the program, such as a chart window, Strategy Monitor, or Quotes window are collected in one central sink. (Alerts that made its way into orders are being collected by the Orders tool as orders, though). Only the Strategy Monitor collects alerts from the latest bar for all participating systems.

Like already suggested in my post #5, Alerts from TTs appear on the Alert tab of the Streaming chart window and also give a sound. I confirm that for some reason they are not being emailed; I believe the reason is good - something like to tell systematic trading from discretionary. As a workaround, you could build a Rule-based system with the help of the recently added TT conditions in Community.Rules. This Alert should be emailed.
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Cone

#12
I'm somewhat surprised that TT Alerts don't get pushed to email by default, but I agree that it seems to be an unnecessary notification.

Nonetheless, if someone wants to draw a line in the morning and leave the Wealth-Lab running to get a remote email alert every time that price crosses the line in the specified direction, so be it. Let's call it a bug.

Now that it's a bug, just be aware that this bug will exist for some time to come (potentially forever). If an email notification is a requirement, you'll have to use a different method to generate the Alert.

To that end, here's a code-based method to generating an Alert for a named manually-drawn trend line. And, because it actually works by saving the line's data to a file, it even works in the Strategy Monitor.

p.s.
Note that the second script (the one that reads the trendline data and creates the alert) is programmed to create a SellAtStop signal always at the trendline value. If you want to use this method to generate a market order after the trendline is crossed, that script has to be modified.
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Gostling

#13
correction to last post:

remove:

"The tradeable trendline (TT) can generate a special sound and place a message in the lower left status bar when the trigger conditions are met.. You must be vigilent to watch the message."

replace with:

The tradeable trendline (TT) can generate a special sound when the trigger conditions are met.. no alert text and no alert email.
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