Why does my indicator plot horizontally at 0.00 on the chart?

[_abdul_hameed]

Hi All

My first indicator, in which I attempted to plot a triangle on a bar where the low of current bar is > than the high of the previous bar. Unfortunately I am getting a series of triangles plotted along the bottom of the chart at 0.00 price level. If anyone could help, I would appreciate it.

Here is the code:

public class PriceAction : Indicator
{
#region Variables
// Wizard generated variables
// User defined variables (add any user defined variables below)
#endregion

/// <summary>
/// This method is used to configure the indicator and is called once before any bar data is loaded.
/// </summary>
protected override void Initialize()
{
Add(new Plot(Color.FromKnownColor(KnownColor.RoyalBlue), PlotStyle.TriangleUp, "Plot0"));
Overlay = true;
}

/// <summary>
/// Called on each bar update event (incoming tick)
/// </summary>
protected override void OnBarUpdate()
{
// Use this method for calculating your indicator values. Assign a value to each
// plot below by replacing 'Close[0]' with your own formula.
Plot0.Set(Low[0] > High[-1] ? 1 : 0);
}

#region Properties
[Browsable(false)] // this line prevents the data series from being displayed in the indicator properties dialog, do not remove
[XmlIgnore()] // this line ensures that the indicator can be saved/recovered as part of a chart template, do not remove
public DataSeries Plot0
{
get { return Values[0]; }
}

#endregion
}
}

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello _abdul_hameed,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the NinjaTrader forums!

The code in the Plot0.Set() says to plot either at the value of 0 or 1 depending on the logic condition. On every OnBarUpdate() the logic is evaluated and will print a triangle either at the value of 0 or at the value of 1.

The reference to a [-1] bars ago index is incorrect, a -1 would refer to a future bar. To refer to a previous bar use [1]

If your goal is to plot a triangle only when the condition Low[0] > High[1] is true then you would want to write your condition as:

if (Low[0] > High[1])
{
Plot0.Set(Low[0]); // plot a triangle on the low of the current bar
}

If you want to offset the triangle from the low of the bar you could change to Plot0.Set(Low[0] - 3 * TickSize); // plot triangle 3 ticks below low of the bar.