April 2001

Globex Tip:
Globex Currency Symbols
by Howard Arrington

On 03-25-2001 Globex started using these symbols for currencies. The Globex currency symbol trades side-by-side with the regular CME symbol. The Globex symbols typically use the first letter of the CME symbol, preceded by a digit 6. There is also an e-mini contract for the Japanese Yen and Euro Forex that uses a digit 7.

6B    British Pound
6C    Canadian Dollar
6J     Japanese Yen
7J     mini Japanese Yen
6S    Swiss Franc
6A    Australian Dollar
6E    Euro Forex 7E    mini Euro Forex
6F    French Franc
6M   Mexican Peso
6N    New Zealand Dollar
6R    Russian Rubble
6Z    South African Zulu
6L    Brazilian Real

Example:   6B M1   is the Globex British Pound, June 2001 contract.

The Globex currency symbols trade in the same price range and decimal placement as their CME counterparts.

Trading Tip:
Pyrapoint Update
by Howard Arrington

The January 2001 issue of Trading Tips had an article on the Pyrapoint tool. The example used in that article was the JNPR daily chart. I thought you would like an update on how JNPR has continued to walk the Pyrapoint framework of diagonal trend channels, horizontal support and resistance levels, and turns occurring on vertical lines at the end of squares. The summary statement given in the January article is repeated here. The more you study the example, the more impressed I think you will be with this tool.

Our January example was through the end of the 5th square marked by the 62 to 59 vertical blue line. I was amazed at how JNPR walked down the red diagonal lines to turn on the -1800 horizontal (tenth rotation of 180 degrees) and at the end of the 12th square marked by the 119-116 vertical line on April 3rd. The actual low day was April 4th. Amazing indeed! (Sorry the closeness of the bar spacing causes the 120 label to overwrite the 116 label which is below the low turning point.) Please reread and review the material about Pyrapoint in the January 2001 issue.

Study Tip:
Color Band Tool
by Howard Arrington

Ensign Windows has a flexible Color Band tool whose primary use is to indicate bar relationships. Several examples will be shown to open your mind to the possibilities that this tool might serve in your technical analysis.

Color Band is the last entry on the bottom of the drop down study list.

The parameter form has three combo boxes: Study, Location, and Style.

The Study list has 21 predefined color band studies, and the ability to implement additional studies in the ESPL programming language. (Examples follow).

The study can be plotted in 14 different locations using 10 different styles. This gives the tool extreme flexibility.

As has been shown, the available studies, locations and styles allows one to add a wide variety of visual effects to the chart. The ability to implement proprietary logic for the Color Band tool will be illustrated next.

When Study is set to the top choice of ESPL Study, the ESPL Who = edit box appears so a value can be assigned to the global Who variable. This variable is used to parse execution to the appropriate procedure that will set the color for each bar position on the chart. The user sets the color value, and Ensign Windows will draw the color band using the color, location, and style settings. Setting a color value of zero will tell Ensign Windows to do nothing at this bar position. Assign a color value of 1, 2, 3, or 4 to use one of the 4 colors set on the Color Band parameter form. Any color can be assigned, and one could use the predefined color constants such as clRed and clYellow.

var j: integer; begin if who=61 then for j:=BarBegin to BarEnd do if High(j)>High(pred(j)) then SetStudy(0,0,1,j) else SetStudy(0,0,2,j); if who=62 then for j:=BarBegin to BarEnd do if Low(j)>Low(pred(j)) then SetStudy(0,0,1,j) else SetStudy(0,0,2,j); end;

This script implements two very simple Color Band tests. For one of the color bands, the ESPL Who = parameter is set to 61. For the 2nd color band tool, the ESPL Who = parameter is set to 62. Thus, both tools can call the same ESPL script and yet be routed to separate logic that implements each tool.

The code loops through all bars for the chart which made the call to ESPL. Arrays hold the chart bar values and these can be used in formulas. The Who = 61 tool tests to see if a bar's High is higher than the preceding bar's high, and if so, sets the color band to use the 1st color. If the test is not true, the color band uses the 2nd color.

The Who = 62 tool tests to see if a bar's Low is higher than the preceding bar's low. If true, the 1st color is used, otherwise the 2nd color is used. This is the visual effect for these two Color Band studies applied to a chart using the Top Row 1 and Top Row 3 locations, and the Band Double style.

When both bands are blue, the bar has a higher high and a higher low and is ascending. When both bands are red, the bar has a lower high and a lower low and is descending. A blue top with a red bottom indicate an outside range bar. A red top with a blue bottom indicate an inside range bar.

Color Bands are a great tool for marking bar relationships. Because it can be programmed with proprietary rules, there is no limit to the creative possibilities for indicating formations and relationships with a flexible and pleasing visual presentation. Enjoy it, and be sure to use it.