Indicator Calculator
The Indicator Calculator lets you compute technical indicators on your stored candle data and visualize them overlaid on the price chart. This is useful for exploring how an indicator behaves on a specific pair and timeframe before using it in a strategy.
What It Does
The calculator takes your stored candle data, applies a technical indicator formula, and displays the resulting values both as a line on the chart and in a data table. You can experiment with different indicator types and parameters without writing any strategy code.
Using the Calculator
Step 1: Select Your Data
Choose the inputs for the calculation:
| Setting | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Pair | The trading pair to analyze | XBTUSD, BTCUSDC, etc. |
| Timeframe | The candle resolution to use | 1h |
| Date range | The time window to calculate over | 2024-06-01 to 2024-09-01 |
Make sure you have downloaded data for the selected pair and date range. The calculator works on locally stored Arrow files -- it does not fetch data from the exchange.
Step 2: Choose an Indicator
Select the indicator type and configure its parameters:
| Indicator | Parameters | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SMA (Simple Moving Average) | Period (e.g., 20) | Average of the last N closing prices |
| EMA (Exponential Moving Average) | Period (e.g., 12, 26) | Weighted average giving more weight to recent prices |
| RSI (Relative Strength Index) | Period (e.g., 14) | Momentum oscillator measuring overbought/oversold conditions |
| Bollinger Bands | Period (e.g., 20), Std Dev (e.g., 2.0) | Price envelope based on standard deviations from SMA |
| MACD | Fast (12), Slow (26), Signal (9) | Trend-following momentum indicator using EMA differences |
If you are new to indicators, start with SMA(20) or EMA(20) -- they are the simplest to interpret. The line follows the price trend, smoothing out noise. When price crosses above the line, it may signal an uptrend; when it crosses below, a downtrend.
Step 3: View the Results
After clicking calculate, the results appear in two forms:
Chart Overlay
The indicator is drawn directly on the price chart (or in a separate pane below the chart for oscillators like RSI and MACD):
- SMA and EMA appear as lines overlaid on the candlestick chart.
- Bollinger Bands appear as three lines (upper band, middle SMA, lower band) with the area between them shaded.
- RSI appears in a separate pane below the price chart with horizontal reference lines at 30 and 70.
- MACD appears in a separate pane with the MACD line, signal line, and histogram bars.
Data Table
A table shows the calculated indicator values alongside the candle data:
| Timestamp | Close | SMA(20) |
|---|---|---|
| 2024-08-15 14:00 | 58,420.50 | 58,195.30 |
| 2024-08-15 15:00 | 58,510.00 | 58,210.75 |
| ... | ... | ... |
Indicators require a warm-up period before producing meaningful values. For example, SMA(20) needs at least 20 candles of data before it can output its first value. The first N-1 rows will show blank or null values for the indicator -- this is expected behavior, not a bug.
Practical Examples
Exploring EMA Crossovers
To see how a golden cross / death cross strategy might work:
- Select a pair and timeframe (e.g., XBTUSD 1h).
- Add EMA(12) -- this is the fast line.
- Add EMA(26) -- this is the slow line.
- Look for points where the fast EMA crosses above the slow EMA (potential buy signals) or below it (potential sell signals).
Finding RSI Extremes
To identify oversold and overbought zones:
- Select a pair and timeframe.
- Add RSI(14).
- Look for periods where RSI drops below 30 (oversold -- potential buy opportunity) or rises above 70 (overbought -- potential sell opportunity).
Evaluating Bollinger Band Squeezes
To spot potential breakout setups:
- Select a pair and timeframe.
- Add Bollinger Bands(20, 2.0).
- Look for periods where the bands narrow significantly (a "squeeze"), which often precedes a large price move.