Access Two Timeframes In EasyLanguage

A Powerful Technique To Improve Your Trading System

In this guide Im going to show you how to use two timeframes within a single chart. I
will use a higher timeframe chart (daily) to filter trades on a 15-minute chart. By
utilizing these two timeframes I will turn an ugly looking equity curve.

into something that looks like this

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Introduction
I wrote this guide to help you better utilize your programming skill by creating more
powerful trading systems. This technique I'm going to show you is a technique that can
radically improve a trading. While I cant say it will improve every trading system you work
on, knowing this technique is a great tool for you to know. Ive personally seen the use of
utilizing multiple timeframes enhance the performance of many trading systems.
If you have any questions about system trading, youre invited to ask us
at:ebook@systemtradersuccess.com. Weve dedicated our business to educating the retail
trader just like you. Well be happy to help in everyway we can.

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The Multi Timeframe Advantage

A technique employed by many successful traders
A common technique used by traders is utilizing multiple timeframes. Often this is
done to filter trades. For example, a trader may be executing trades on a 30 minute chart, but
will utilize a daily chart to determine the overall bullishness or bearishness of the market.
The idea is to use the higher timeframes as a guide to which direction you should be trading
on the smaller timeframes. By doing this you are trading with the prevailing direction of
market on higher timeframes. Another common use of multiple timeframes is to locate a
specific trade setup on a daily chart yet use an intraday timeframe to help pinpoint an exact
entry point. Doing so often results in smaller stop loss values and potentially more profit.
Naturally for those of us who would like to build a trading system we would like to
take advantage of this multi- timeframe technique as well. In this brief guide I'm going to use
TradeStations EasyLanauge to show you how to access information on a higher timeframe
and use that information as a filter. In fact, we will be using the higher timeframe to both
filter trades in the direction of the overall market direction and locate trade setups. Its a
powerful concept and one you will want to use in your personal trading.
During this report Im going to refer to two different charts. First is our long-term
chart which will be our highest timeframe. In this case, that will be a daily chart of the S&P
E-mini. The second chart is the primary chart which is our 15-minute chart of the S&P Emini. Our long-term chart will be used to determine the overall bullishness or bearishness of
the market and to locate potential trading opportunities. The primary chart will be used to
pinpoint our trade entry.
To get started we will need a trading system. To keep things simple Im going to use a
trading concept that we explored before on the website, System Trader Success. The article is
called RSI and How To Profit From It. In that article we used a two-period RSI on a daily
chart as a foundation for our entry signal. More specifically, we are going to utilize the
Accumulation Method of RSI. All this means is we are going to add the RSI value over the past
three days. A trade is then triggered when that 3-day sum is below 45. The formula will loo
like this:

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RSI Total = RSI From Today Closing Price + RSI From Yesterdays Closing Price + RSI From
Two Days Ago Closing Price

Our Simple Trading Model

We will open a new position if the following rules are true:
1. The closing price on our primary timeframe must be above the 200-day simple moving
average of the long-term timeframe
2. The accumulated RSI Value is below 45 on our long-term chart
3. The accumulated RSI Value is below 45 on our primary chart
What are we doing here? Rule #1 ensures we are trading when price is trading above the 200
daily moving average. This means we are in an overall bullish market. Rules #2 says we want
to see a pull-back on the daily chart. Rule #3 says we want to see a pullback on our small
timeframe. Rules #2 and #3 are working together to find a pullback that is both appearing on
our higher timeframe and in our lower timeframe.

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How To Access A Higher Timeframe

Video Demonstration
Accessing different timeframes from within a single chart is simple to do, but difficult to
explain in words. Its much better to actually see the process. Thus, I created two short videos
to show you how to do it.

VIDEO #1

Watch these video

Demonstrations

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In the meantime, here is my brief written description.

Within TradeStation we will first create our primary chart by simply opening a new
chart and loading the S&P on a 15-minute interval. Next, we will need to add an
additional S&P symbol to our chart to represent our long-term chart. We can do this
right within our current chart. By inserting another symbol within the same chart we
can tell TradeStation to place the symbol on subgraph two. Once its on subgraph two
we can easily access the price data on that chart from our primary chart. Here is how.
They key to accessing our higher timeframe chart is to use the keyword data2. This
keyword tells TradeStation to use the trading symbol located on subgraph two. In other
words, our daily chart. Its important to properly declare all variables associated with
data from subgraph two. Lets declare two variables:. One will hold the RSI value from
our primary chart while the second will hold the RSI value from our long-term chart.
Here is the variable declaration:.
RSI_Primary(0),
RSI_LT(0,data2);
Notice we initialize both variables to the value of zero. However, notice the extra
parameter on the RSI_LT variable. This is telling TradeStation that we plan to use this
variable to hold values from our subgraph (our long-term chart).
From this point we can use the following code to populate the variables with the correct
data:
RSI_Primary = RSI( Close, 2 );
RSI_LT = RSI( Close data2, 2 );
In the example above we are filling RSI_Primary with data from our primary chart.
More specifically, we are passing in the closing price of the bar that just closed on our
primary chart. On the other hand, for our RSI_LT variable we are are passing in the closing
price from data2.
Its that easy to access data on our higher timeframe chart.

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Building A Better Trading Model

Taking Trade In Direction Of Major Market
Below is the code used to compare the current closing price on the primary chart
with the 200-period moving average on the daily chart. We are setting a boolean flag to
true if we are in a bullish market. This is done to ensure we are only going to take
trades when the closing price is above the 200-period moving average.
BullishFlag = Close > ( Average( Close data2, 200 ) );
Filtering Trades On The Daily Chart
Here is the code used to filter trades on the daily chart. In this case, we wish to
use the same RSI accumulation method to locate a strong pullback on the daily chart.
By combining this filter with our bullish-market filter (above) we are following a basic
trading principle of the S&P E-mini futures market. That is, we are buying pullbacks
within a bullish market.
RSI_LT = RSI( Close data2, 2 ) + RSI( Close[1] data2, 2 ) + RSI( Close[2] data2, 2 );

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Final Code

The final code looks like this:

Variables:
BullishFlag( False ),
RSI_LT(0, data2),
RSI_Primary(0);
RSI_Primary = RSI( Close, 2 ) + RSI( Close[1], 2 ) + RSI( Close[2], 2 );
RSI_LT = RSI( Close data2, 2 ) + RSI( Close[1] data2, 2 ) + RSI( Close[2] data2, 2 );
BullishFlag = Close > ( Average( Close data2, 200 ) );
If ( BullishFlag ) And ( RSI_Primary < 45 ) And ( RSI_LT < 45 ) And ( EntriesToday(Date) <= 0 )
Then Buy next bar at market;
Setexitonclose;
Setstoploss(250);

There you have it. A simple trading strategy built upon RSI that utilizes two
timeframes. The video below shows this process and the trading system in much more detail,
so I encourage you to watch it. The code used in this strategy is available as a download from
the resource section below.
You have just learned a very valuable technique that you can put to use in building
more profitable trading systems. Try this technique on some of your existing systems and see
if it improves them. Sometime a simple filter on a larger timeframe will produce great results.

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How To Build Profitable Trading Systems

Do you know the proper steps at building profitable trading systems? It's great that you
learned how to use two timeframes, but there is much more to successful system
development. If you liked this technique of using two timeframes, you'll love my ebook on
building profitable trading systems.
It's a complete step-by-step guide or blueprint on the
very steps I use to create profitable trading systems.
If you would like to learn the steps I use to avoid
curve fitting, proper testing and help ensure your
system will work well into the future check out this
link.

Learn More

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Resources
Video Demonstration #1
Video Demonstration #2
TradeStation EasyLanguage Code
TradeStation WorkSpace

For more information on building profitable trading systems visit our website,

System Trader Success

You will find content rich articles on all aspects of successful system development.

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