RE: Moving Averages

[Bob Fulks <bfulks@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 9:08 AM -0700 9/15/02, Gary Funck wrote:
>
>Something else to watch out for - the use of indicators or functions that
>need to be called on every bar, but that are not, because of the way that
>the logic of the system is constructed. If I recall correctly, xaverage is
>one of those functions.
>
>for example,
>   if xaverage(C, L1) crosses above xaverage(C, L2) then begin
>     if C > xaverage(C, L3) then buy at market;
>   end;
>
>the inner calculation of xaverage(C, L3) will not be executed on every bar,
>and therefore will not yield the expected result.
>
>PS: Bob/others, if I got this wrong, please correct the record. <g>

There are different versions of XAverage in different versions of
TradeStation so it can be confusing.

But you are correct that series functions are executed on every bar
no matter what, but simple functions are executed only when called.
So in your example above the statement:

   if C > xaverage(C, L3) then buy at market;

would not be executed on every bar (if your XAverage is a simple function).

But the behavior would be the same in both the system and the
indicator so is not likely to be the cause of the original problem.

Bob Fulks