Major Function of AbleTrendTS

A. Major Functions

In this AT version, all trading signals of classic AbleTrend indicators or other commonly used indicators are integrated to one, and only one trading signal – the ATTS. All the chart interpretations, classic six trading rules and five confirmation rules are combined to one mechanical buy/sell signal which pinpoints the exact entry and exit points. There is no more confusion. It will cut your learning curve to one day or two even you are new to AbleTrend technology.

This section provides a basic introduction for ATTS functions and how to use these functions. You will get into "Format Trade Signal for Active Chart" dialog by clicking the icon from the toolbar of the software. You may quickly refer the following sections for how to format ATTS.

There are following functions in AbleTrendTS: (1) Input Parameters, (2) Mini Report, (3) Auto Select TSPC, (4) Scan DEV, (5) Best Interval, (6) Best DEV, (7) Entry at Bar Close, (8) Enable Alert, (9) Exit Rules, (10) Format Plot Style (Style, Color and Weight), (11) Reset AT Defaults, (12) Save as Custom Defaults, and (13) Reset to Custom Defaults.

If you are user of Professional version, please read "Advanced Functions for Professional Version" and the following sections.

B. Input Parameters

If you are a new user, ignore this part, just use all defaults.

There are 11 major input parameters.

TSPC – Trade Signal Performance Control is a key parameter to adapt different markets or time intervals. You may select any positive integer from 0 to 20, or above. A smaller number makes the system more sensitive and produces more trades. The default value is 10. ATTS can automatically select this parameter.

MONYRISK - In units of average 10-bar range. It is the same as used in AT 7.0 indicators. If the position profit is greater than the set MONYRISK, the software will start to tighten the protection stops accordingly. Default value is 2.0.

DEVIATION – (DEV) For a stop adjustment in % of the symbol value. Default value is 0.0. You may enlarge the stop size by setting it between –1.0 to 3.0. Negative value of DEV will reduce the stop size.

Nth Bar - The bar to exit using Nth bar exit rule or intelligent Nth bar exit rule. Default value is 3. Using Nth bar exit rule will help to increase system winning rate and overall AbleSys Index, but normally will reduce total net profits.

ProfitLevel % - Above this level, break-even and trailing stop exit rules become active,. The default is 5.0 (i.e. 5.0% of the symbol value).

Trailing % - The default value is 50 (i.e. 50% of the ProfitLevel from the Profit Floor). If you input 100 in this field, the exit becomes "Profit Target Exit".

ContractSize - # shares or futures contracts you trade. We suggest using 500 or 1000 shares for stock trading, or 1 contract for futures trading.

PointValues - Dollar amount per unit, for common stocks = 1, SP 500 futures = 250, NASDAQ 100 futures =100, T-Bonds futures = 1000, Crude Oil = 1000, Soybean futures = 50, etc.

CostPerTrade - Commission plus slippage cost per trade in Dollar amount. It is typically ($) 30 for trading 500 shares of stock or 1 futures contract in round trip,

ExitMA1 - Moving average period 1 for Moving Average exit rule.

ExitMA2 - Moving average period 2 for Moving Average exit rule

Settings of AbleTrendTS

Basic		Default	Function
Alert		ON	Trading signal alerts
TSPC	10		Signal sensitivity
MONEYRISK	2.0		Control Risk lor/high
DEVIATION	0.0		Signal sensitivity
EBC		OFF	Entry at Bar Close

Advanced
Auto TSPC	OFF	Auto set parameter
First Hour Rule	OFF	Special rules for 1^st hour
Trend2 Rule	OFF	System uses T2 stops

Sweet Spot (S/R) Alert			Sweet Spot Entry/Exit
S/R Alert ON/OFF		OFF	ON/OFF
S/R in %		ON	Deviation in %
S/R Value	0.5		It means 0.5%

Exit Rules
TS Stop Exit		OFF	Hit stops then exit
Nth Bar	3		Nth bar since entry
Nth Bar Exit		OFF	Nth bar then exit
Intelligent Nth Bar Exit		OFF	Auto setup Nth bar
Profit Target Exit		OFF	Hit profit target then exit
Profit Traget %	5		It means 5% profit
MA Exit		OFF	Moving Average cross exit
MA 1 Length	5		MA1
MA 2 Length	9		MA2
Green Bar Exit		OFF	Green bar then exit
Break Even Exit		OFF	Hit 5% profit break even exit
Trailing Stop Exit		OFF	Trend stop trailing exit
Intelligent Trailing Stop Exit		OFF	Auto trailing
Trailing APL Exit		OFF	Auto Profit Level Exit
Trailing EBC Exit		OFF	Trailing exit at bar close
Trailing Re-Enter		OFF	Allow re-enter positions
EOD Exit		OFF	End of Day, day trading only
STARC Exit		OFF	Hit STARC bands exit
Risk Control Exit		OFF	AOE -for sudden big up/down
Extreme Control Exit		OFF	AOE -for sudden market crash

*AOE - Auto Order Execution

C. Mini Report

Mini Report gives you a quick way to back testing your idea on input parameters without leaving the dialog window of "Format Indicator: AbleTrendTS"

Clicking button of "Back Test Report"

display key system performance results in the Mini Report: It gives Net Profit, Trade Number, Winning Rate, Max Draw Down, Profit Factor, AbleSys Index and Real Time Signal Accuracy etc. You may change input parameters, such TSPC, MONYRISK, DEV etc., then click Mini Report icon to see the results without leaving the dialog window.

D. Auto Select TSPC

Clicking "$" icon will start an automatic routine to suggest TSPC, Time Interval (Deluxe version) or Deviation (DEV) for the most profitable results. You need to check "Best DEV" if you want the software to suggest the best combination of TSPC/DEV. Options of Best Interval and Best Dev are mutually exclusive. You cannot choose both. You can only choose one of them. You also need to input values for "Contract Size ", "Point Value " and "Cost Per Trade " to run Auto Select TSPC. You may also check/uncheck "Entry at Bar Close" to see what parameters might be better in that case.

First, you may select chart time interval manually, such as 5-min, 15-min, 30-min or daily chart etc. Typically, the smaller time intervals, the more trades will be. It is all depending on your preference. For intraday trading, the interval can be from 5 minutes to 60 minutes. Some people like and can trade more, but some people don’t like or cannot. You should exam the trade number to decide what time interval should be used for yourself trading style.

From dialog "Format Trading Signal for Active Chart", click "Reset to AT 7.0 Defaults" button. In this case TSPC is set to 4 and Deviation to 0.0.

Input ContractSize (such as 1 contract for futures or 1000 shares for stocks), PointValue (such as 250 for the S&P futures or 1 for stocks) and CostPerTrade (such as commission plus slippages, $100 etc). Don’t leave this item to be zero.

Now you are ready to run Auto Select TSPC. Click "$" icon - Auto Select TSPC, the program will automatically calculate what the most profitable TSPC might be. After calculations the software will also input the suggested TSPC value automatically for you.

Result summary can be viewed in the Mini Report.

E. Scan DEV

Clicking this Target icon will start an automatic routine to suggest a DEVIATION (DEV) value for the best real time signal accuracy (RTSA). Signal Accuracy is calculated by the ratio of real trade signals to the total signals trigged in real time. If you wait till the bar close, the Signal Accuracy should be 100%. With quantified real time Signal Accuracy value, traders should have the confidence of using the stop value of the previous bar to place stop order in advance to minimize the slippage caused by delay of order execution or end of bar order execution. The risk of presetting stop order to take the real time signal is manageable if traders can set certain threshold to undo the false actions. If you check option "Entry at Bar Close", the RTSA is 100%. This routine will pick the DEV for the most profitable results. You need to set up "Start", "End" and "Step" values or simply accept the defaults.

The guideline for selecting Deviation parameter is that the larger TSPS normally associate with smaller Deviation, and the smaller TSPC associate with larger Deviation. For example, if TSPC = 8, then you might use DEV = -0.1. Inversely, if TSPC = 1, then you might use DEV = 0.5… The purpose of doing so is to avoid choppy markets, and not to over trade.

When to use Scan DEV: (a) Select DEV for the best RTSA under fixed TSPC if you want to use "Stop Order Entry" or "Dynamic Entry" execution method. (b) Find the best DEV for the most profitable results when you use option of EBC and fixed TSPC.

Click the "Target" icon, it will run auto selection DEV routine. Result can be viewed in the Mini Report.

Normally, higher RTSA will sacrifice profits. Therefore, you might not want to adjust the DEV for the highest RTSA. RTSA between 60% to 80% is practical. See following section about how to enter trades under such RTSA conditions.

F. Entry at Bar Close

"Entry at Bar Close" ( EBC ) option will give you a 100% mechanical trading system and the most conservative performance results. If you don’t check this box, all the back testing results will use real time trigged prices to calculate. However, if you check this option, a trading time interval becomes an entry/exit point. The back testing results will be calculated by the bar close prices only under this option. You may select this option to run "$" icon (Auto TSPC) routine or to run "Target" icon (Auto DEV) routine.

Comparing the results with EBC and without EBC, it clearly tells the advantage of using real time signals. For daily charts, the results using End-of-Day (EOD) signals could be sometimes reduced to one half of results using real time signals.

For 5, 10 or 15-minute charts, the EBC results should be close to the results without EBC. This is due to the reason that bar ranges in such charts are much smaller than that of the 60-min charts or daily charts.

G. Enable TS Alert

Enable Alert

This option is enable (check) buy/sell signals with sound alerts and alert window popping-up.

H. Plot Style

Format Style: Color, Style or Weight

You may change plot color, style or weight from AT 7.0 defaults to your preferences.

Defaults for Buy is a blue dot, Sell a red dot, Exit a cross.

Please note: For the "BarUp", "BarDn" of AbleTrendTS, and "High", "Low" of AbleTrend1, the style must be "Bar" due to the paint-bar nature.

I. TS Exit Rules

Format AbleTrendTS: Exit rules. Default: No any exit rule box is checked. Follow Buy/Sell signals of ATTS and have position all the time.

The ATTS default setting is to have no exit rule box checked. With no exit rules selected, you may simply follow the buy/sell signals of ATTS and always have a position.

If you check some of the exit rules, the Auto Select functions will include the exit rules in the calculations.

Because ATTS has been designed to be a universal trading system, all of the following exit rules are included. You may find that only one or a few of the exit rules may be useful according to the characteristics of the market you are trading. You can select exit rules for non-symmetric entry and exit. If you select certain exit rules, you may not hold a position all the time. Using exit rules may reduce your risk; however, it may also sacrifice your profits.

Nth Bar: Exit on the Nth bar after entering a buy/sell position. Use the Nth bar exit mainly for choppy markets, such as the S&P futures daily chart. You need to input the appropriate "Nth bar" number in the input parameter window mentioned above. Bar close execution.

Intelligent Nth Bar: Exit on the Nth bar for a choppy market and stay on the trend for a trending market (for mix of choppy/trending market). Bar close execution.

Green Bar: Exit on the Green bar under certain conditions. Bar close execution.

AbleTrend Stop: Exit at the AbleTrend Stop hit. You can either place a limit order with the stop value (via info window/AbleTrend13—BuyStop/SellStop) of the previous bar (last closed bar/limit order needs an update whenever a change is made in stop value) or exit the position when you see the exit alert if you don’t like to place/update the limit order in advance. Real-time execution.

Moving Average: Exit on the cross of MA1 and MA2. Bar close execution.

Break Even: Exit when the price returns to the Entry Price, having first reached the

Trailing Profit Level Price (Entry Price plus Profit Level). Real-time execution.

Trailing Stop: This is usually a real time feature depending on the options checked. It has the potential benefit of capturing more profit in a quick move market by risking a small percentage of the position gain. The algorithm will be triggered once the Trailing Profit Level Price (TPLP) has been reached. The real time position gain is the difference between the latest Profit Peak and Enter Price. If you check this exit option, an exit alert will be issued when the price retraces a certain percentage (20% of the position gain if trailing is set at 80%) from the Profit Peak.

For example, if you enter at $100 and Profit Level is 4%, the TPLP will be $104. When the market reaches a new Profit Peak at 110, the difference between the latest Profit Peak and Entry Price is $110-$100 = $10. If the Trailing % is set to 80%, the exit alert will be issued when the market pulls back to $108 (110-10*0.2). This price ($108) is called Trailing Exit Price (TEP). If 100 are used for the trailing %, the alert will be issued right on TPLP. You should exit your position in real time when you see the exit alert. Or you can place a limit order in advance with the TPLP value in the info window in order to avoid the slippage (see Info Window on page 6). Otherwise, whether you exit in real time or at the end of bar close depends on which of the following options are checked.

APL: Exit based on a computer-generated Automatic Profit Level. Profit Level in Parameters window is ignored. Execute in real time.

ATE: Exit based on a computer-generated Automatic Trailing Exit. Trailing % in Parameters window is ignored. Execute at bar close.

EBC: Back testing with bar close price for trailing stop exit. Execute at bar close for trailing exits. Exit at the bar close.

Re-enter: This option will issue a re-enter alert. Execute at bar close.

½ Position: Exit ½ position and hold the other half until the position reverses.

Day Trading Only will automatically exit all positions at market close. You will not hold any position overnight. The system will re-enter positions when market conditions remain at the opening of next day.

Intra Trade Risk Control Exit and Re-enter reduces the intra-trade drawdown in some markets. This exit should be executed at the end of the bar.

Extreme Intra Bar Risk Control exits a losing trade when extreme market conditions are detected during the creation of a bar. This exit should be executed in real time.

Note: Back testing reports for all real-time features are for reference only. Data feed vendors do not offer real time price fluctuation information in the historic data. Real-time features cannot be simulated accurately with back testing.

J. Trailing Stop Exit

% Trailing Stop Exit (TSE): Exit when the price returns to a point between the Entry Price and the Profit Floor (determined by the Trailing %) having first reached the Profit Floor. You must input ProfitLevel and Trailing values to use this exit rule. Market must first reach your set profit level to activate this trailing exit rule. Trailing exit provides dynamic exit prices for taking advantage of fast moving market conditions. Now your pre-set profit level becomes dynamic.

For example, if you are trading a stock, buy at price 100.00. The ProfitLevel is set as 3.00(%), Trailing 80(%). After market price reached 103.00 (i.e. 3.00% profit), the Trailing Stop exit rule becomes active. However, you will not exit your buy position if the market price is above 102.40 (80% the profit level). Here 103.00 are called Profit Floor, and 102.40 are called Trailing Level. After market price below 102.40, then Trailing Stop rule will exit the buy position to take profit. This trailing stop exit also gave you a chance to exit at much higher price if the market went up to 110.00 without pulling back more than 20%.

When "Trailing" is set to "100", the exit rule becomes Profit Target Exit.

APL: Auto Profit Level must working with Trailing Stop exit rule. When you select this option, AT 7.0 will automatically calculate the ProfitLevel and Trailing values based on market conditions. The software will ignore any settings you manually input for ProfitLevel and Trailing under this automatic routine.

ATE: Auto Trailing Exit must working with Trailing Stop exit rule. When you select this option, After market price reached the ProfitLevel, ATE will be active. AbleTrend will automatically calculate the exit points after position profit reached the ProfitLevel. You may manually input the ProfitLevel or use APL and let the automatic routine to decide.

Here, EBC means Exit at Bar Close. It is a very conservative exit. In most cases EBC gives worse results than taking profits in real time without waiting for the bar close. Normally, it is not used.

RE-ENTER means allowing to re-enter positions in the same direction after the trailing stop exits.

Trailing Stop Exit (TSE) rule can be used with APL, ATE and Exit 1/2 Position (EHP) rules. There are many different combinations:

TSE alone: Manually input ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters, then use TSE.

TSE + EHP: Manually input ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters, then use TSE to exit 1/2 position, keep another 1/2 position with normal buy/sell signals.

TSE + APL: Using TSE with automatic ProfitLevel and Trailing calculations.

TSE + APL + EHP: Automatically calculate the ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters by APL, then use TSE to exit 1/2 position, keep another 1/2 position with normal buy/sell signals.

TSE + ATE: Manually input ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters, then automatically calculate exit points after the market reached the ProfitLevel.

TSE + ATE + EHP: Manually input ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters, then automatically calculate exit points after the market reached the ProfitLevel. Exit 1/2 position when above conditions are met, keep another 1/2 position with normal buy/sell signals.

TSE + APL + ATE: Automatically calculate the ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters by APL, and automatically calculate exit points after the market reached the ProfitLevel.

TSE + APL + ATE + EHP: Automatically calculate the ProfitLevel and Trailing parameters by APL, and automatically calculate exit points after the market reached the ProfitLevel. Exit 1/2 position when above conditions are met, keep another 1/2 position with normal buy/sell signals.

K. Profit Target Exit

Profit Target is the profit level in percentage (%), which you want to exit at the profit level. As soon as the market price reached the profit level, then system would exit the current buy/sell positions to take profit.

This exit option is sharing the same check box with "Trailing Stop". You may check the Trailing Stop box when you format ATTS. You must input "ProfitLevel" and Trailing "100" (%) for choosing the Profit Target exit.

For example, if your entry price for a long position is 100.00, and you want to take profit when profit level reaches 5% (i.e. price reaches 105.00), then you input 5.0 for ProfitLevel, and 100 for Tailing, and check the box of Trailing Stop. You may select "RE-ENTER" if you want to re-enter after your profit target exit.

Profit Target Exit is totally different from the Trailing Stop Exit. It is a static pre-fixed exit target price. Because markets keep changing, an arbitrary pre-set target price cannot work for a long run. Trailing Stop exit gives dynamic price in the profit taking process. It allows taking advantage of fast moving market condition to reach much higher profits. Your may refer Trailing Stop Exit for more information.

L. APL

APL means Automatic Profit Level. It is an option of using % Trailing Stop exit rule. You may either manually setup the ProfitLevel and Trailing, or use APL and let AT 7.0 software to setup automatically with an intelligent way based on current market conditions. As long as you select APL option then AT 7.0 will ignore any settings manually input for ProfitLevel and Trailing.

Related Topics: % Trailing Stop Exit, ATE, and Exit 1/2 Position at Trailing Stop

M. ATE

ATE means Automatic Trailing Exit. It is an option of using % Trailing Stop exit rule. You may either manually setup the ProfitLevel and Trailing, or use APL and let AT 7.0 software to setup automatically with an intelligent way based on current market conditions. If you select ATE option, and if the % Trailing Stop exit conditions are met, then AT 7.0 software will exit your position (note, NOT reverse your position) when other intelligent conditions are also met.

% Trailing Stop Exit, APL, ATE and Exit 1/2 Position at Trailing Stop can be used simultaneously for a more smooth account equity line or lower maximum draw down.

N. Exit 1/2 Position

Intelligent Exit (IT) rule will exit one half (1/2) position when current position reaches certain profits, and keeps another one half (1/2) position till next reversed signal. You need set "ContractSize" to an even number, such as 400 shares, or 2 contracts. An odd number for ContractSize will not be practical. You could see more smooth account equity and higher winning rate with this exit rule.

The Intelligent Exit rule works together with "% Trailing Stop" exit. When you choose the Intelligent Exit rule, you must also choose "% Trailing Stop" exit rule. ProfitLevel and Trailing are needed to setup. A typical ProfitLevel 3(%) for stocks and 0.5(%) for futures is commonly used. The Trailing is typically set as 95.0(%).

IT exit prices use the bar close price and assume all exiting at the bar closing time. This will make the IT rule as 100% mechanical.

If you check the "APL", Auto ProfitLevel, it means you will use the system’s auto intelligent set ProfitLevel and Trailing Level. You may omit any inputs in the field of ProfitLevel and in the field of Trailing. These values would not affect the auto intelligent settings.

If you check the "ATE", it means you will use auto intelligent exit with ATSig signals. When the market conditions meet, you will exit one half (1/2) position at the exit points.

O. Save as Custom Defaults

After you finish formatting ATTS, you may click "Save As Custom Defaults" icon (the second icon below) to save as your custom defaults.

P. Reset to Custom Defaults

Clicking "Reset To Custom Defaults" icon (the third icon below), it will restore all settings to your custom defaults.

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