Study Functions

Study functions perform common technical analyses.

Study functions are not pointwise operations. For example, in

savg(ibm.close,5)

each element of the output series depends on the corresponding input element and the preceding four input elements. If the study function examined only the corresponding elements in the data series, the moving average would not be correct.

Consequently, study functions treat their two parameters differently. In the example above, the first parameter, ibm.close, is a true time-series object, that is, ibm.close is not pointwise. The second parameter, 5 periods, is taken as a single number for each bar in the series. SAVG() is pointwise to the number of periods: the output at a given bar depends only on the corresponding value of the second parameter’s series.

As a rule, a study function’s first parameter is a true time-series parameter, but any additional parameters are pointwise parameters.

For each study function, you will find the following information:

Category
Information
Definition
A brief definition of the function.

Syntax
The syntax of the function.

Formula
The formula for the technical study created by the function.

Parameters
A brief description of the parameters employed in the function.

Topics:

Bollinger Bands

Commidity Channel Index

Directional Functions

Relative Strength Index

Stochastics

Historical Volatility

Category	Information
Definition	A brief definition of the function.
Syntax	The syntax of the function.
Formula	The formula for the technical study created by the function.
Parameters	A brief description of the parameters employed in the function.