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Quick-tip 5 | My indicator works fine on a chart but not on RadarScreen

Why isn’t my study working correctly on RadarScreen?

If you have created a study and it works perfectly on a chart but when you apply it to RadarScreen it doesn’t perform as expected, it may be something to do with the number of bars that have been loaded. For example, if you wished to calculate a simple 100 period moving average then you need 100 bars of data before the calculation is correct.

Chart

On a chart you will probably have the “Maximum number of bars that the study will reference” set to Auto-detect (this setting can be found by going to Format-Analysis Techniques, select the analysis technique you are interested in and click format. Then select the General tab and you will see this setting about a third of the way down. In this way, the program knows not to start calculating until it has the minimum number of bars.

RadarScreen

This process is handled differently in RadarScreen. You need to make sure that you clicked “Load Additional Data for Accumulative Calculations.” Also set “additional Bars to Load.”

To get there you right click the column header of the study and select “Format for All Symbols“. Click the General Tab. A little over half way down, check the box “Load additional data for accumulative calculations“.

The number of additional bars to load can be a little confusing, especially for accumulative calculations, so you can try a larger number than you may need and then try to reduce it (checking the accuracy of the calculations or triggers against the same calculation on a chart.