XLIndicators.xla - 80+ Technical Analysis Indicators

As you probably know by now, having read this far, I gravitate towards the more esoteric forms of technical analysis. They just "resonate" better with me. However, no TA platform would be complete if it did not include a comprehensive collection of "standard" TA indicators. That is what XLIndicators.xla does. It has more than 80 of the most popular technical indicators that have ever been invented, many of which, I admit to having never even used.

I needed some indicators such as Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient (RCC) which gives a beautifully smooth measure of "momentum" and Al Gietzen's: Market Reactivity and Darly Guppy's multiple moving averages and a few other of the standards such as Stochastics and RSI. So I started programming an add-in that would integrate nicely with my HLC-Chart.xlt template. Then someone told me about the amazing TA-lib xll which is open source.

TA-Lib already had most of the indicators I wanted and planned to include and it was free! I remembered my college professor's advise: "work smart not hard". Instead of "reinventing the wheel" I changed directions and built a front-end to easily access the indicators in TA-Lib. But I did leave the work I had already completed intact so you get RCC and Bill William's Chaos Alligator and Guppy and a few other of the really good ones that arn't in TA-Lib.

All of the functions in XLIndicators are accessible from the XLTrader drop down menu. As with XLEhlers this brings up a form that lists all of the indicators organized by catagories.

Catagories include: Math Operator, Overlap Studies (plotted over price on the primary axis), Volatility Studies, Momentum indicators, Cycle indicators, Volume indicators, Statistics functions and Price Transforms.

A catagory is selected from the drop box on the upper left and the specific indicator is selected from a drop box on the upper right. A description of the indicator (if available) is shown in the text box below the drop boxes. Below that, there is an area where you specify which columns (on the data sheet of the HLC-Chart.xlt template which is included in the purchase price) contain the required inputs and the column where you want the output to go. Indicator arguments (time spans, exponents etc.) are specified in the boxes shown.

Once the calculate button is pressed, either the formula or the numeric output is placed in the column(s) you specified. Use the value option to avoid spreadsheet bloat. Use the formula option if you plan on changing inputs later. The form remains active (until you press the exit or close button) even after the calulations complete so you can easily add another indicator column to your spreadsheet.

Overlap Studies

There are 32 overlap indicators to choose from including popular favorites like: Bollinger bands (which can be based on a whopping 8 different types of moving averages), the 21 parameter associated with Drummond Geometry, Dayrl Guppy (TASC V16) multiple moving averages, envelopes, averages (including T3), pivot points, alligator, Parabolic stop and reverse, rainbow net… You name it, its likely there. A few of the of overlap studies are shown below.

Volatility Studies

You get Average True Range, True Range and Chaikin Volatility Oscillator.

Momentum Indicators

There are too many momentum oscilators to mention. Chances are the one you want is in there. What will happen is you will find the one(s) you like best and stick with it. It could be: Spearman' RCC (my fav.), Ulitimate oscilator, Directional movment, RSI, StochRSI, AROON… You name it; we've got it.

Cycle Indicators

The cycle indicators are some of the ones found in John Ehler's Rocket Science for Traders book and are mostly based on the Hilbert Transform (HT). You get the dominant period, phase, phasor and of course the sinewave indicator. But you also get Al Geitzen's Market Reactivity and the Detrended Price oscillator. If you are a cycle afficianado like I am, you will definitely want to check out both: XLEhlers and XLSSA

Volume Indicators

A handful of valuable volume indicators are included. You get Chiakin's Accumulation Distribution, AD oscillator, negative volume and positive volume indexes. You don't get OBV. I've since discovered TA-Lib was not calculating OBV correctly. If you want OBV, be sure to check out XLMidas.

Statistical Functions

These statistical functions are some of the very best IMHP. All technitions should be familiar with them. I say they are the best because, in essence, they use ALL of the available information. Where as, so often we find, when we do the inequality algebra, that an indicator is actually only using a small portion of the available time history data. By their very nature, statistical functions such as these, don't do that. They make maximum use of ALL available data. I can't go into specific detail here but check out out well they work. The endpoint moving average tracks price action like a laser beam. The oscillators are smooth and timely too.

Price Transforms

Lastly we have the price transforms. Honestly these are no-big-deal. You could easly write the spreadsheet formula to do the same thing. But they are convenient and perhaps you had not considered one of the available combinations. I tend to use SMARTMED as an input to the various Ehlers DSP Indicators. Get XLIndicators by joining XLTrader-Talk Google group today!

XLTrader Add-ins, Templates, etc. work together seamlessly turning Microsoft Excel^© into a powerful yet inexpensive Technical Analysis platform. All of the XLTrader add-ins together with the (HLC_Chart.xlt) template to make Technical Analysis as easy as pointing and clicking! You can get get XLTrader by joining XLTrader-Talk google group . The software is a group membership benefit.