Breadth Engine: Percent of stocks below a date

[Louis]

Hi guys,

I want to use the breadth engine to determine the percentage of S&P 500 stocks below their March 8th close.  I will spare you the details of my attempts. Sorry I cannot figure this seemingly simple script out.

Attached is the chart I would like to duplicate. Please advise.

thank you

• This topic was modified 1 year ago by Louis Spector.

[Matthew]

Hi,

I would use the STRDATE() function to mark the specific date I was after, then use VALUEWHEN() to find the Closing price for that date which can be used to compare the current close with.

The final script would look like this:

V1 = STRDATE(DATE=2022-03-08) ; V2 = BARDATE() ; V3 = VALUEWHEN(V1 == V2) ; CLOSE() < V3

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V1 = STRDATE(DATE=2022-03-08) ; V2 = BARDATE() ; V3 = VALUEWHEN(V1 == V2) ; CLOSE() < V3

When setup in the Breadth module, the value from Tuesday May 3rd matches your chart example of 44.84.

[Louis]

Thank you Matthew! Perfect! I am trying to figure out why your script works and how to apply that understanding to future scripting.

V1 = STRDATE(DATE=2022-03-08) ; V2 = BARDATE() ; V3 = VALUEWHEN(V1 == V2) ; CLOSE() < V3

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V1 = STRDATE(DATE=2022-03-08) ; V2 = BARDATE() ; V3 = VALUEWHEN(V1 == V2) ; CLOSE() < V3

VALUEWHEN returns a value when a criteria is met. Okay. Why does the BARDATE function not have V1 imbedded? What is V3 in words? Find the value when 03/08/2022 is equal to what? I am missing something. Thank you.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Louis Spector.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Thomas

[Matthew]

BARDATE() returns an index value. So March 8 for example returns a value of 44,628.  Rather than having to know and find that index value, STRDATE() converts that into a standard format of yyyy-mm-dd.

So V1 you select the date you are after.
V2 sets a BARINDEX value for all bars.
V3 says, when the BARINDEX value matches the selected date (March 8) show us the Closing value for that bar.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Thomas

[Louis]

Thank you for laying that out. Does the BARINDEX value change over time? When I do a SHOWPLOT the value it returns 44,689, but it is a straight line, so I don’t see a value of 44,628 at all. What value is V2 actually setting? Does it change? What is the BARINDEX value for all bars?  I don’t understand in V3 what the selected date of 3/8 is actually matching.

[Matthew]

If you add a Show View to your chart and setup the script to:

BARDATE()

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BARDATE()

You should see a line sloping up, with each date having its own value.

That is what V2 is setting, it is showing the value for each bar (which is the format bars show a date as by default in Optuma scripting). For March 8 the date value is 44,628

V1 takes a standard date format and converts it to the value scripts can reference.  This allows us to mark a specific date on the chart, without having to work out what the date in number / index format is.

V1 == V2 then marks the bar that matches our date selection.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Matthew.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Thomas

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