ATR Trailing Stop Alerts

Ok, the reason this study does not appear in the Study Alerts is because the code is to complex for that tool to evaluate. We can do this very simply on a Chart based study. But the only way you are going to get text/email alerts using this study is to build a custom scan. They recently added functionality to the scan engine that enables it to send text/email alerts when symbols are added to the results. (for a 15 minute chart you could get text/email alerts every 15 minutes. You can also set this up to run daily or hourly and just send you a list of symbols in the results.

You can read more about this in the release notes: http://toslc.thinkorswim.com/center/release/rel-09-10-2016.html#section_1

So I have two versions of the code for you. One to run scans (you will need to configure the scan to create alerts as instructed in the link above). The other is to place on a live chart, with audible and visual alerts added.

Note: Let me know if there are issues copying this code and I will update this post to include a couple of text files.

Don’t forget to up-vote this answer if it solves your question! Thanks.

Here is the code for the Scan:

#
# TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. (c) 2009-2016
#
input trailType = {default modified, unmodified};
input ATRPeriod = 5;
input ATRFactor = 3.5;
input firstTrade = {default long, short};
input averageType = AverageType.WILDERS;
Assert(ATRFactor > 0, "'atr factor' must be positive: " + ATRFactor);
def HiLo = Min(high - low, 1.5 * Average(high - low, ATRPeriod));
def HRef = if low <= high[1] then high - close[1] else (high - close[1]) - 0.5 * (low - high[1]); def LRef = if high >= low[1]
then close[1] - low
else (close[1] - low) - 0.5 * (low[1] - high);
def trueRange;
switch (trailType) {
case modified:
trueRange = Max(HiLo, Max(HRef, LRef));
case unmodified:
trueRange = TrueRange(high, close, low);
}
def loss = ATRFactor * MovingAverage(averageType, trueRange, ATRPeriod);
def state = {default init, long, short};
def trail;
switch (state[1]) {
case init:
if (!IsNaN(loss)) {
switch (firstTrade) {
case long:
state = state.long;
trail = close - loss;
case short:
state = state.short;
trail = close + loss;
}
} else {
state = state.init;
trail = Double.NaN;
}
case long:
if (close > trail[1]) {
state = state.long;
trail = Max(trail[1], close - loss);
} else {
state = state.short;
trail = close + loss;
}
case short:
if (close < trail[1]) {
state = state.short;
trail = Min(trail[1], close + loss);
} else {
state = state.long;
trail = close - loss;
}
}
def BuySignal = Crosses(state == state.long, 0, CrossingDirection.ABOVE);
def SellSignal = Crosses(state == state.short, 0, CrossingDirection.ABOVE);
# move comment markers dependin on which of these two you want to run
plot scan = BuySignal;
#plot scan = SellSignal;


Here is the code for the chart study with alerts:
#
# TD Ameritrade IP Company, Inc. (c) 2009-2016
#
input trailType = {default modified, unmodified};
input ATRPeriod = 5;
input ATRFactor = 3.5;
input firstTrade = {default long, short};
input averageType = AverageType.WILDERS;
Assert(ATRFactor > 0, "'atr factor' must be positive: " + ATRFactor);
def HiLo = Min(high - low, 1.5 * Average(high - low, ATRPeriod));
def HRef = if low <= high[1] then high - close[1] else (high - close[1]) - 0.5 * (low - high[1]); def LRef = if high >= low[1]
then close[1] - low
else (close[1] - low) - 0.5 * (low[1] - high);
def trueRange;
switch (trailType) {
case modified:
trueRange = Max(HiLo, Max(HRef, LRef));
case unmodified:
trueRange = TrueRange(high, close, low);
}
def loss = ATRFactor * MovingAverage(averageType, trueRange, ATRPeriod);
def state = {default init, long, short};
def trail;
switch (state[1]) {
case init:
if (!IsNaN(loss)) {
switch (firstTrade) {
case long:
state = state.long;
trail = close - loss;
case short:
state = state.short;
trail = close + loss;
}
} else {
state = state.init;
trail = Double.NaN;
}
case long:
if (close > trail[1]) {
state = state.long;
trail = Max(trail[1], close - loss);
} else {
state = state.short;
trail = close + loss;
}
case short:
if (close < trail[1]) {
state = state.short;
trail = Min(trail[1], close + loss);
} else {
state = state.long;
trail = close - loss;
}
}
plot BuySignal = if Crosses(state == state.long, 0, CrossingDirection.ABOVE) then low else Double.NaN;
BuySignal.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.BOOLEAN_ARROW_UP);
plot SellSignal = if Crosses(state == state.short, 0, CrossingDirection.ABOVE) then high else Double.NaN;
SellSignal.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.BOOLEAN_ARROW_DOWN);
plot TrailingStop = trail;
TrailingStop.SetPaintingStrategy(PaintingStrategy.POINTS);
TrailingStop.DefineColor("Buy", GetColor(0));
TrailingStop.DefineColor("Sell", GetColor(1));
TrailingStop.AssignValueColor(if state == state.long
then TrailingStop.Color("Sell")
else TrailingStop.Color("Buy"));
Alert(BuySignal, "Trail Stop Long Entry", Alert.BAR, Sound.RING);
Alert(SellSignal, "Trail Stop Short Entry", Alert.BAR, Sound.RING);