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Momentum Bars
By: Danton Long
Momentum Bars are a completely new and unique adaptation of the standard bar charting technique used to record price transactions of stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, options and indexes.
Standard Bar charts, which display the high and the low price of recorded transactions in a vertical bar format over a time period selected by the person doing the charting. Typically, one trading day is the time period chosen, but time periods can be varied from seconds to year depending on the frequency, which a person chooses to trade or participate in a particular instrument under study. This can either be recorded on a sheet of paper or electronic representation (computer display) of a sheet of paper with a price scale on the vertical axis, a vertical line is drawn in an individual column that indicates the high to the low of prices for a particular period. Succeeding time periods are recorded in succeeding individual vertical bars drawn to the right of the initial bar, each representing a succeeding time period with ends of each bar marking the high and the low of each period.
In a more sophisticated variation of bar charting, the opening price for a selected time period is represented on a display as a horizontal line drawn perpendicularly to the left of the vertical price bar and connected to it. The closing price of the period is drawn as a horizontal line drawn perpendicularly to the right of the vertical price bar and connected to it. Each price bar with its open, high, low and close is distinct and separate from the previous price bar and from the succeeding price bar, because each price bar represents a distinct, separate, and unique period of time for which price transactions were recorded.
Another method of recording bar charts uses so-called ticks instead of time units. A tick represents a specific price event, which is each time a buyer and a seller effect a transaction recorded in the price series. This transaction can represent a single unit being traded or many units traded but in either case, a tick charts represents a distinct transaction. Thus, tick charts represent price transaction activity, not time. However, if 1, 2, 20 or any other number of units of value are traded at that price, the tick chart represents only the price at which a unit or units traded. If, for example, there are succeeding transactions at the same price, a tick stream of data records all of the transactions, and a tick chart will record each tick as a separate event even if all of the ticks occur at the same price.
Momentum Bars differ from both these bar charting methods because the factor driving the creation of a new bar is neither a specific period of time nor a specific number of ticks. Momentum Bars represent a specific price range that can be varied by the person doing the charting; just as specific lengths of time or number of ticks can be varied by the user to create bar charts and tick bar charts.
Price driven charting methods are not new to the field of technical analysis. They have been tried in many variations with limited acceptance. Market Profile, a patented charting method records price fluctuations in specific units of time. Typically in thirty minute intervals. Thus, the first half-hour of a trading day in labeled A; the second is labeled B and so on. Each different price in the first half-hour is record on a price chart by the letter A in a single vertical column. Prices in the second half-hour period are labeled B and posted in the next vertical column to the right, and so on throughout the day.
The purpose of Market Profile is to create a chart that describes the total price action of a day. Market Profile assumes that each day has a âprofileâ of price action that can be interpreted by the skilled user to define areas of âvalue.â In short, by defining relative levels of value the analyst or trader has a means to better anticipate future price moves. Market Profile does not resemble Momentum Bars at all.
Another price-driven charting system is point and figure charting which records a rising trend in prices with a series of Xâs placed one on top of the other in the same vertical column. It records a falling market with a series of Oâs in a succeeding vertical column. Each X and each O represent a fixed number of price units. No X and no O will be marked on a chart until there is a significant change in price. Point and figure charts do not have specifically defined opening and closing prices as bar charts and Momentum Bars do. Thus, they do not lend themselves readily to some of the 80 different charting tools described in Perry J. Kaufmanâs Trading Systems and Methods (Third Edition), John Wiley & Sons, 1998, 703 pages.
Other price driven charting methods include: Kagi charts, which defines a price trend in a series of connecting vertical lines where the thickness and direction of the line are dependent on the price movement without reference to any particular time intervals. Three-Line break charts which display price trends as series of vertical boxes in varying heights defined by the changes in price movement without reference to any particular time intervals. And Renko charts, which display price trends as a series of fixed vertical box sizes without reference to any particular time intervals. Renko charts are similar to a Three-Line Break charts except that in a Renko chart, a line is drawn in the direction of the prior move only if a fixed amount (i.e., the box size) has been exceeded.
The usefulness of these charting techniques however, is limited in four ways. First, existing techniques configure data and provide study capabilities in relation to streams of data organized in minutes, days, weeks or monthly segments of time. Such techniques, unlike Momentum Bars, do not enable a user to configure and summarize data without reference to a pre-set time segment. Second, existing techniques that configure and display data without reference to a particular segment of time use abstract methods to display such data, or stack displayed data in continuous vertical segments to denote sustained price movements, or exclude opening and closing price information in their calculations. Such techniques, unlike Momentum Bars, do not enable a user to apply typical statistical and technical analysis studies i.e., moving averages and oscillators. Third, existing techniques that configure data in relation to streams of data organized in segments of time display accumulated data without regard to distribution. Such techniques, unlike Momentum Bars, consider every fragment of transaction data as relevant and meaningful information in the measurement and calculation of typical analysis studies and in a markets overall development. Fourth, no existing technique provides the capability to manage data streams where they can be organized to discount price distribution patterns that evidence little change, or systematize those that evidence relatively large changes and display them in a simplified, uniformly-formatted visual summary with the necessary data points typical statistical and technical analysis studies demand
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