Here is this months selection of Traders Tips, contributed by various developers of technical analysis software to help readers more easily implement some of the strategies presented in this and other issues.

technical.traders.com/sub/sublogin.asp. Login requires your last name and subscription number (from mailing label). Once logged in, scroll down to beneath the Optimized trading systems area until you see Code from articles. From there, code can be copied and pasted into the appropriate technical analysis program so that no retyping of code is required for subscribers.

You can copy these formulas and programs for easy use in your spreadsheet or analysis software. Simply select the desired text by highlighting as you would in any word processing program, then use your standard key command for copy or choose copy from the browser menu. The copied text can then be pasted into any open spreadsheet or other software by selecting an insertion point and executing a paste command. By toggling back and forth between an application window and the open web page, data can be transferred with ease.

This months tips include formulas and programs for:

TRADESTATION: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

The article Volume-Weighted Macd Histogram by David Hawkins in this issue suggests a method of incorporating volume data in the moving average convergence/divergence ( Macd ) histogram.

The article compares the standard Macd difference histogram ( Macd _Diff) to a volume-weighted Macd difference histogram (VW_ Macd ). (See Figure 1.) Code for both is provided here. To display the VW_ Macd and signal line, change the input DisplayVW_ Macd to true .

Figure 1: TRADESTATION, volume-weighted MACD (VW_MACD) Vs. standard MACD. Here is an example of Hawkins volume-weighted moving average convergence/divergence indicator (VW_MACD) compared to the standard MACD display. The price history of Bedroom Bath & Beyond (BBBY) is displayed in subgraph 1 (top). BBBYs volume history is in subgraph2. The Hawkins MACD difference (MACD_Diff) is shown in subgraph 3, and his volume-weighted MACD (VW_MACD) is at the bottom, in subgraph 4.

To download the EasyLanguage code for this study, go to the TradeStation and EasyLanguage Support Forum (https://www.tradestation.com/Discussions/forum.aspx?Forum_ID=213 ). Search for the file VW_ Macd .eld.

This article is for informational purposes. No type of trading or investment recommendation, advice or strategy is being made, given or in any manner provided by TradeStation Securities or its affiliates.

Mark Mills

TradeStation Securities, Inc.

A subsidiary of TradeStation Group, Inc.

e SIGNAL: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

For this months Traders Tip, weve provided the formula, VolWeighted_ Macd Hist.efs, based on the formula code from David Hawkins article in this issue, Volume-Weighted Macd Histogram.

The formula plots the volume-weighted Macd histogram (Figure 2). It contains parameters that may be configured through the Edit Studies option to change the long, short, and smoothing periods.

To discuss this study or download complete copies of the formula code, please visit the Efs Library Discussion Board forum under the Forums link at www.esignalcentral.com or visit our Efs KnowledgeBase at www.esignalcentral.com/support/kb/efs/. The eSignal formula scripts ( Efs ) are also available for copying and pasting from the Stocks & Commodities website at Traders.com .

Jason Keck

eSignal, a division of Interactive Data Corp.

WEALTH-LAB: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

Weve added the Vmacdh indicator to the TascIndicator library to save you the trouble of typing in the few lines of code needed to recreate David Hawkins indicator, the volume-weighted Macd histogram, described in his article in this issue .

Our script is a study for Wealth-Lab 5 that demonstrates how to access and plot both the traditional and volume-weighted Macd histograms. It makes an attempt to quantify which Macd version sports the most frequent occurrences of one-bar wonders by tallying the indicator series that turned up on or just prior to a 10% trough bar. On the chart, this is indicated by the highlight in the Macd pane (frequently occurring for both indicators simultaneously). The total tallies are given in the upper-left corner. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: WEALTH-LAB, VMACDH Vs. traditional MACD. In our estimation, using VMACDH in this manner does not provide a statistically significant advantage over MACD.

Robert Sucher

AMIBROKER: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

In Volume-Weighted Macd Histogram in this issue, author David Hawkins presents an improved, volume-weighted version of the classic Macd histogram indicator.

Coding such an indicator is very straightforward. A ready-to-use AmiBroker formula for the indicator is presented in Listing 1. To use it, enter the formula in the Afl Editor, then select Insert indicator. The same formula can also be used in the Automatic Analysis feature to perform backtesting.

Figure 4: amibroker, VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM VS. TRADITIONAL MACD HISTOGRAM. Here is a comparison of the traditional MACD histogram (black) and the volume-weighted MACD histogram (green). The topmost pane shows a daily chart of BBBY. In this example, the volume-weighted MACD responds sooner than the classic one.

Tomasz Janeczko, AmiBroker.com

NEUROSHELL TRADER: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

The volume-weighted exponential moving average ( Vwema ) and the volume-weighted Macd histogram ( Vmacdh ) described by David Hawkins in his article in this issue can be easily implemented in NeuroShell Trader by combining a few of NeuroShell Traders 800+ indicators. To recreate the indicators, select New Indicator… from the Insert menu and use the Indicator Wizard to set up the following indicators (see Figure 5 for a sample):

Figure 5: NEUROSHELL TRADER, Volume-Weighted MACD Histogram. Here is a sample NeuroShell Trader chart of the volume-weighted MACD histogram chart.

Marge Sherald, Ward Systems Group, Inc.

WORDEN BROTHERS STOCKFINDER: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

Note: To use the indicators, rules, and charts in this article, you will need the StockFinder software. Go to www.StockFinder.com to download the software and get a free trial.

The volume-weighted Macd histogram from David Hawkins article in this issue has been added to the StockFinder indicator library.

You can add the indicator to your chart in StockFinder by clicking the Add indicator button or by simply typing / Macd and choosing it from the filtered list of available indicators.

The indicator plots both the volume-weighted Macd with its trigger line and the histogram, which makes it easier to spot crossovers. Weve added a condition-light column to the watchlist in Figure 6 so you can easily see the stocks where the histogram is crossing up through the zero line ( Macd is crossing up through its trigger line).

Figure 6: STOCKFINDER: Volume-Weighted MACD. Condition lights light up on stocks where the volume-weighted MACD histogram is crossing up through the zero line.

For more information or to start your free trial, visit www.StockFinder.com .

Bruce Loebrich and Patrick Argo

Worden Brothers, Inc.

AIQ: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

The Aiq code is given here for the volume-weighted Macd presented in David Hawkins article in this issue, Volume-Weighted Macd Histogram.

The coded version that I have supplied also includes two systems that can be used to test the indicator. The first system only uses the standard Macd indicator and the second system uses the Vwmacd. The rules for the system are to go long when the Macd histogram peaks above zero and then declines for one bar, and exit when the indicator is above zero and then declines for one bar or after holding for 10 bars.

To test the indicator, I used three different lists of stocks: the S&P 100, the Nasdaq 100, and the Russell 1000 over the period 3/14/2003 to 8/11/2009. In the table in Figure 7, I show the comparative metrics of the long side using the standard and volume-weighted Macd indicators. In each test, the volume-weighted Macd metrics were somewhat better than the standard Macd .

Figure 7: AIQ SYSTEMS, Standard vs. volume-weighted MACD histogram. This table shows the comparative metrics for the system using the standard and volume-weighted MACD histogram indicators.

Richard Denning

for AIQ Systems

TRADERSSTUDIO: VOLUME-WEIGHTED MACD HISTOGRAM

The TradersStudio code for the volume-weighted Macd from the article, Volume-Weighted Macd Histogram by David Hawkins, is shown here.