Parabolic SAR - that's all!

[dpaterso]

Tess??? Mmmmm???

Glad you're watching!!!

Scott:

I had a look at your chart and yes - you are quite right - there is a HUGE difference.

The only thing that could make a difference to the value of Parabolic SAR is the price (I think I posted the actual calculation of Parabolic SAR somewhere earlier) and I don't see enough of a price differences between your chart and mine to warrant such a discrepancy.

Tell you what - I'm going to set up a MANUAL calculation of Parabolic SAR so that we can compare the actual values - let's see what happens. Could THIS be the reason that we get more false signals than we should???

Regards,

Dale.

[Bocajunior]

Dale,

Thanks for taking the time to look. I noticed that on someones chart a few pages back, the MACD looked a bit different to mine despite the default settings.. Very strange, unless it has to do with the time of candles opening and closing at different brokers.??!

Have a look at this one. (EUR/CHF) It is from MT4 North Finance. It is almost identical to the Oanda one I posted before. So some are the same after all.

There may be differences but so far all my trades (taken using Oanda charts) are showing very nice profits.

I got to sleep now but I will review the last few pages of this thread as the posts are appearing faster than i can read.

Cheers all.

[dpaterso]

Sorry folks - this is going to take a while - I'm trying to construct an Excel Worksheet to do these calculations - but it's NOT that easy I can tell you - so just give me some time.

Just from doing some 'manual' calculations I can tell you that all three of my platforms are calculating the value of Parabolic SAR to a greater or lesser degree of 'accuracy' but trying to do this with a calculator is going to 'fry' my (already 'fried') brain. NONE of them are 'spot on' though which is alarming to say the least.

By the way - if you've EVER wondered about the 'weight' that the 'rule' of 'WAITING FOR A NEW PARABOLIC SAR DOT TO APPEAR SIGNALLING A REVERSAL OR A NEW ENTRY POINT' carries - then have a look at MY EUR/CHF!!! ('Just Joan' - I really hope that you are not enjoying this quite as much as I think you may be)!!!

Regards,

Dale.

[droesparky]

Your right Dale I have 3 different brokers using MT4 platform and they all have different timezones. all the indicators are a little different. I also notice that it can make a difference in parsar. ONe might put the dot today the other not until tomorrow. Thats with only a hour diffeence in there day start and close.

[dpaterso]

Hi,

No - I'm talking about the ACTUAL VALUE being calculated - regardless of when the PSAR dot is displayed. This can make a HUGE difference if the actual VALUE of PSAR is wrong. For one thing it could cause the difference between the price penetrating PSAR on a given day and NOT penetrating PSAR on a given day. I mean - just look at what's happened today with my EUR/CHF position. Parabolic SAR was penetrated on my chart BUT it seems that this has not happened on anybody elses charts (and sometimes it's been the other way around). What I'm saying is that EVEN IF you added an extra day (or timezone or PSAR dot or or or ...) to Bocajunior's chart his Parabolic SAR would STILL not have been penetrated as yet and I can only assume that there is NOW WAY that the prices differ by a substantial enough amount to cause this (if they do then one of these brokers is sucking the prices out of their thumb)!!!

Again - to state the obvious - remember that we are looking at a graphical representation of Parabolic SAR on our charts - and we are basing out trades on this graphical representation. Parabolic SAR is calculated (it is a 'fixed' formula and cannot change) and a dot is plotted or placed on the chart based on the result of this calculation. Now if this calculation is 'botched up' then the graphical representation of Parabolic SAR is also obviously wrong.

Does this make sense? Do you see what I'm getting at?

Regards,

Dale.

[cali_fx]

Hi Dale,

I have been following this post and am really excited about this system.

Question for you on the PSAR calculation, as I have also noticed the fact that different platforms show dots at different places. I have read somewhere that the calculations for PSAR is different when you are going long from when you are going short. Does this sound right? I was actually working on putting something together myself and just wanted to make sure that I am correct in assuming that you would have to calculate one number if the PSAR is trending up and another number if it is trending down.

[dpaterso]

Thanks for posting.

No - not according to 'the book' anyway i.e. there is only one calculation for Parabolic SAR. The only difference is that when you are in a long trade you are only interested in the 'new highs' or 'higher highs' for the calculation of Parabolic SAR and when you are in a short trade you are only interested in the 'new lows' or 'lower lows' for the calculation of Parabolic SAR.

Regards,

Dale.

[Ingot54]

Hi Dale .... just a bit more on your idea:

One thing I am going to investigate further this week is the 'tampering' with Parabolic SAR's default settings. The reason for this 'change of heart' is because I have noticed that RSI and Stochastics react far quicker than Parabolic SAR - SO - I'm thinking - would it not be nice to have a Parabolic SAR that reacts just 'a tad' quicker - and works 'hand in glove' with RSI and Stochastics??? I have played around with the default settings before and the problem is that you have to find a balance between getting even MORE false signals from Parabolic SAR AND getting it to accelerate faster (thus saving you PIP's and getting an earlier entry or stop and reverse signal). I do believe that once you start changing the default settings then you have to start taking the actual 'behaviour' or 'characteristics' of each pair into account and this COULD become quite a 'mammoth' task BUT it's worth looking at again I think.


This is the mark of a true scientist - willing to tweak!

One of the things that happen when optimising a system, is that something has to be sacrificed.

Sometimes the number of "available" trades drops because some get filtered out by defining rules.

And sometimes the quality of trades suffer through whipsaws - introduced when parameters are changed.

This is what may happen if altering the default settings on PSAR. There is nothing wrong with this by the way - as long as we can keep in mind the goal of having a working system that only needs a few minutes each day to manage. And who knows, tweaking the settings might achieve this as well.

I say this because sometimes default settings work well with short TF and not in longer TF. We will not know until we have a go. (Poetry is free!)

I am at work right now so unable to post charts, or do too much reading, but I will attempt to dig up some basics on PSAR settings to assist with our purposes.

Dream on this! (below ... the rum I mean)

[dpaterso]

'Screw' the rum (although the two would go very well together I must tell you)!!! I drink the dark one though - and you'd never find someone like THAT being used to advertise it either - it'd be more the likes of 'Ziggy Marley' or someone like that!!!

Anyway - thanks - that was really nice of you - I 'laughed my head off' when I saw that - and it's made my otherwise very 'rotten' day a bit more bearable i.e. my one and only forex trade in almost two weeks is going 'sour' on me and I'm disgusted!!! So much for RSI / Stochastics / ADX / ADXR!!!

Anyway - just to clarify - at the moment I'm not even concerned with 'tweaking' the default parameters - I'm concerned that the parameters (default or otherwise) are not even being applied correctly in the calculation of Parabolic SAR!!!

Actually Ingot54 - we have an ad running here on satellite to 'welcome' people to the Sunshine Coast - I don't know if you've seen it - at the end 'she' says 'so where the hell are you'. Man - I hope they all look like THAT in Australia!!! OK - so I am 'shallow'!!!

Regards,

Dale.

PS - By the way - are any of you feeling 'energetic' tonight (today). I need you to post your open, high, low, and close for the last 23 candlesticks or bars on EUR/CHF. I want to get to the bottom of these differing Parabolic SAR calculations / displays one and for all!!!

[dpaterso]

Well my friends - we have some 'sh1t' here!!!

Look at the attached picture of my Excel Worksheet.

It's the PROPER manual calculation of Parabolic SAR on EURCHF from one of my daily charts.

Have a look at the column titled 'DIFF IN PIPS' - that's the important one.

That my friends is the extent of the 'errors' in PIP's. The highest is 34 PIP's for crying out loud. That could make the difference between getting stopped out for nothing or not - or performing a stop and reverse too early or too late - or taking a new position when you should not have. Get the picture?

Now - this is my Delta chart - and - I think I can 'fix' it because with Delta you have access to the actual forumlae. If this is a problem at other brokers where the formulae (indicators) are hard coded into the software then you're going to have one big problem because you can't 'fix' it!!!

What it does not explain is why there are more Parabolic SAR dots on some platforms and not on others. I've already covered the 'Sunday' candle issue - have any of you checked for this?

Regards,

Dale.