Charting ratios in ThinkorSwim

[Cyrix]

In ThinkorSwim can we chart the ratio of the price of two securities?
Is it in one of the Studies?

And more advanced, can we chart weight2*stock1-weight2*stock2 in order to visualize the payoff of a long short trade? (we can do that with combined contracts in IB.)

 

[rickf]

As in a pairs trade?

Type the pair into the chart box -- ie "/ES-/NQ" or "SPY-QQQQ" with the symbol you're buying as the first symbol and the one you're shorting for the second.

 

[Cyrix]

Can we specify the weights of the two?
Thanks.

 

[nfamousyoungest]

yeah you can do 2*/ES-3*/NQ, for example

 

[Cyrix]

It works!

How about ratios?

When I do SPY/QQQ it gave me an error message.

 

[trefoil]

Intriguing.
Anyway, division wouldn't work because they use '/' to indicate a future. You'd need a way of 'escaping' the character. I tried '\//', where the '\' indicates that the next character should be 'escaped', that is, used for its general purpose rather than as the first character of a futures symbol, but it didn't like that.

 

[rt5909]

put the symbols in parenthesis, so it would be: (SPY)/(QQQ)

 

[trefoil]

I get "Symbol cannot be a multiple of two symbols." Still thinks that slash is a start to a futures symbol, I think.

 

[Cyrix]

As an update I have found the way to do it which is (SPY/QQQ).


Can anyone help me with the other question on the board (Where to download generic xth futures contract price histories)?

Thanks a lot.

 

[tortoise]

Quote from Cyrix:

As an update I have found the way to do it which is (SPY/QQQ).


Can anyone help me with the other question on the board (Where to download generic xth futures contract price histories)?

Thanks a lot.

I just tried that. Got an error message. Thoughts, anyone?