can forex pairs be scanned for set ups with the help of advanced scan workbench tool?

francisxavier

hello, I noticed that the advanced scan workbench does not cater for forex pairs, or does it?

markd

I don't know. I don't use P&F or trade currencies. I would guess the built-in scans, if you are using those do NOT look commodities, bonds, currencies, etc., unless you specify that in your own scan, but I don't know that for sure.

You could make a list containing the symbols for all the pair indexes you can find and scan the list. But scan for all the P&F patterns to make it a valid test, since not all patterns are present at all times.

If you get hits, then you are all set. If you get none after testing every pattern, then you could ask support whether SC supports P&F for those indexes.

markd

You can make a list with this scan:

[symbol contains "$EUR"] // or "$JPY", or whatever the others are; note these are indexes based on pairs, not pair (:) symbols

Save the results to a new list

Then make a scan for that list looking for selected P&F patterns. For instance:

[FAVORITES LIST IS 174] // or whatever your list number turns out to be

AND
[
[PNF DOUBLE TOP BREAKOUT IS TRUE]
OR
[PNF DOUBLE BOTTOM BREAKOUT IS TRUE]
]

This gets 2 results this morning (10/24)

$EURHKD
$EURMXN

So, it can be done. But, the index updates are way behind, as noted (next business day).

lmkwin

Scanning on alternate scales would be a great feature on StockCharts.com. Right now, the only software, that I know of, that allows scanning on alternate scales is Updata Analytics software. It's complex and completely configurable, but I didn't like it. I tried a free trial and didn't really like it at all, due to the speed mostly.

Another nifty thing, that would be great on SC for point and figure charts, would be the availability of Price Objectives to be used in the scanning. As you may know, Price Objectives are something to be aware of, and are of particular interest, in the initial stages, in developing trend stocks. Bullish objectives tend to be generally obtained in bullish trends. Bearish objectives, in bearish trends. Dorsey Wright allows scanning on the Risk/Reward, but not the actual price objective. RR is fun but can be deceiving. RR is the value of current price to price objective, divided by the current price the the next sell signal level. Reverse it for bearish objectives. So a HIGH R/R would be a stock with a fair distance to the PO and a short distance to the next sell signal.
The Price Objectives appear to be only available on StockCharts for the Traditional scale, 3 box reversal charts.

lmkwin

I use a combination of several SMA's and the Volume by Price overlays on Point and Figure charts. I've detailed that on prior postings (one link below). I check off the Breakout objective and the Volume. I do my initial reviews on the Traditional 3 box reversal charts. I then review the 1 and 2 box reversal charts, usually using the % trend scale.

http://scan.stockcharts.com/discussion/comment/4525#Comment_4525

markd

Well, sort of.

There are symbols for currency pair indexes (not actual contracts, apparently) that begin with "$", such as $EUR..., $JPY..., etc. You can explore with other possible currency abbreviations in the symbol search window.

But they are all "NBD", meaning, it seems, they are updated (n)ext (b)usiness (d)ay. Not sure how useful that is, but it's something. Good for context, I suppose.

francisxavier

markd thank you for your attempt to answer my question. However I am not quite satisfied. The thing is if I scan for let's say a point and figure pattern like the bear trap in the advanced scan workbench the only results i can get are being pulled from ETFs and Indices that have the specific pattern. But forex pairs are not even considered in the scan, or are they?

lmkwin

Just a quick check, it doesn't appear that the SC system recognizes any PnF patterns on relational symbols. I have a list that is filled with nothing but relational symbols, like $symbol:RSP, for a plethora of market/sector/industry/country ETF's. Nothing comes up on the scan for PnF patterns. Also, on the PnF charts for the individual members of the list, there is a blank line where the "pattern name" would show normally. The price objectives are also blank.

In fact, no technical indicator that I scan the list against produces any results. I would imagine that a "pair" symbol would suffer the same fate.

On the Summary view of the list, it does show % change column results, so it can be sorted by performance over the preset time periods.

francisxavier

markd you are the best. thanks..about something you mentioned(indices).. these indices appear to be mirror images of the pairs. if so then it doesnt really matter if they are labelled indices and not pairs...also I wanted to ask:is it possible to make the scan even more specific where I can modify scaling(make it percentage instead of traditional), box reversal(leave it at the default 3), box size(change it to 0.01%)

markd

You can do that for charting but I don't think so for scanning, but @lmkwin is the PnF scanning expert. Maybe he'll stop back to comment.

francisxavier

@Imkwin I would appreciate it thanks

francisxavier

@Imkwin how if you dont mind me asking do you use the pnf charts tool on SC? For me right now am mostly using it for price objectives for forex majors(cable and euro) with alternate scaling of 3reversal and 0.1 percent boxsize... I only trade short term time frames therefore scanning for setups with the traditional scaling doesnt really suffice!