Counting number of ticks in parabolic SAR

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Hi, I'm fairly new to mql4, so please forgive me if this question is blatantly obvious.. I'm wondering whether or not it is possible to count the number of ticks in a parabolic SAR (i.e. if the SAR is > price and previousSAR < currentSAR then it is a 'downtrend' with 2 ticks [at least], but I would like to count them all). My ultimate goal is to take an average of the number of ticks in an uptrend and the number of ticks in a downtrend. I tried using a loop that keeps going while (for instance) previousSAR < currentSAR (changing the period from 0,1,2,....) until previousSAR > currentSAR and thus that is the number of ticks. However, when I print this, it keeps printing repeatedly so the data is practically useless. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 

If by ticks you mean the dots that get plotted at each bar, then I would look to take a time when the Psar signal swaps and then use https://docs.mql4.com/series/iBarShift to count the bars back to your reference time. There is only 1 dot per bar. so it's the same thing. If you do mean ticks as per volume... then that's a different ball game.

Anyway, hope that helps

V

 

Yes! That's exactly what I'm talking about (the number of dots). I'll give that a shot and will post back if I have trouble.

Thanks!

 
Viffer:

If by ticks you mean the dots that get plotted at each bar, then I would look to take a time when the Psar signal swaps and then use https://docs.mql4.com/series/iBarShift to count the bars back to your reference time. There is only 1 dot per bar. so it's the same thing. If you do mean ticks as per volume... then that's a different ball game.

Anyway, hope that helps

V


Ok, could you please provide a suggestion how I could incorporate the iBarShift function to count the 'dots'.. I'm not sure how to combine it with the other functions. Thanks
 

I haven't tested it, but something like this should do it. There may be a cleaner way and I'm sure if there are better methods, people will chime in.

Anyway, hope this helps

V

  int    uptrend_length,downtrend_length;    
  static datetime uptrend_time,downtrend_time;      
  double psar=iSAR(NULL,0,0.02,0.2,0);
  
if (psar<Bid)           // take the time that bid is above psar. Variable will stop updating when condition swaps
   {
   uptrend_time=Time[0];
   }
  
if (psar>Bid)           // take the time that bid is below psar. Variable will stop updating when condition swaps
   {
   downtrend_time=Time[0];
   }
  
if (uptrend_time >downtrend_time) // we are on an up trend which started at the last downtrend time
   {
   uptrend_length=iBarShift(NULL,0,downtrend_time);
   }
   
if (uptrend_time <downtrend_time) // we are on a down trend which started at the last uptrend time
   {
   downtrend_length=iBarShift(NULL,0,uptrend_time);
   }  
 
Awesome. Thanks a lot!
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