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Volume Indicators - RESOLVED

Sun Jun 07, 2020 2:45 pm

Hi Gavin,

I'm not sure if this is a bug or something I'm perhaps doing wrong.

Is there any reason why some indicators don't actually show any data? Or, indeed, some begin to show data, but then just stop?

For example, I've got a 5 minute chart and the Accumulation/Distribution Volume indicator on. For the first 12 periods, it's plotting, but then suddenly stops. I've also got the Money Flow indicator (just taking a look at that one), but it's not plotted anything during the time.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

Re: Indicator

Mon Jun 08, 2020 2:39 pm

Hi,

Thanks for your question.

Most indicators are calculated from a certain number of periods of data, so will not show anything if the chart doesn't have enough data. For example, a SMA (simple moving average) might be set to show the average over the last 10 periods (10 x 5 second interval, for example if the chart time-frame is set to 5 second intervals), so it won't show any indicator line until at least 10 intervals have accumulated in the charts. The charts only start accumulating data from the moment you opened the market in the grid (or added it to Managed Markets), because Betfair don't provide historic chart data. So if you select a market and then immediately open a chart, you might have to wait a while for the data to build up to a meaningful level.

Even after the indicator line has begun to appear, it might subsequently appear to vanish. This could happen if the market goes so quiet and there are so few subsequent changes in the matched prices that the indicator becomes just a straight line (especially if it is equal to the value at the top or bottom of the graph) and can't be usefully represented.

It is also worth noting that the charts usually are based on matched trades (last traded price for example) rather than simply the prices offered in the market. So if there are no trades being matched, then the graph will continue to scroll but with empty periods in which there is no data. Eventually you could get a big blank space and so the indicators have no data to make a realistic calculation and will thus disappear to zero. Charts rely on the market being somewhat active, in order to show meaningful graphs. It would not have made sense to design the graphs to be based on the offered (unmatched) prices, they have to use the matched prices.

Kind regards,

Gavin

Re: Indicator

Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:53 pm

Thanks Gavin.

It's an interesting one, because like I say it was a five minute chart using a volume indicator. The blue volume bars thereafter indicated that plenty was being matched, but the indicator stopped.

So, don't know.

Re: Indicator

Wed Jun 10, 2020 1:14 pm

Thanks.

The money flow indicator looks OK at the moment, but the accumulation distribution indicator doesn't seem to be plotting anything sometimes, so the program code will need to be looked into in some depth. In the meantime, sorry for the inconvenience.

Re: Volume Indicators - RESOLVED

Thu Jun 11, 2020 10:28 pm

I have now investigated the Accumulation Distribution and some of the other volume based indicators. The nature of these indicators seems to be that they only provide a meaningful plot when its y-axis values fall in a certain range. For the Accumulation Distribution indicator, the y-axis range needs to be in the hundreds rather than single digits or thousands. So if you choose a timescale that suits that range of y-axis indicator values, then it is able to plot.

In my tests, I usually got success with the 30 seconds and 1 minute timescales, but I also noticed that it plotted nicely when in-play on the 5 second timescale, presumably because the traded volumes were big enough to make a meaningful calculation.
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