It’s All in a Name
Who doesn’t love public radio? Independent information, no corporate sponsors biasing topics of conversation, and it just feels organic. We like indicators that just report the news…or in our case, the signals without prejudice, partiality, or partisanship. While we chuckled at the different acronym definitions, it actually does stand for something.
Contributory Community
We look high and low across dozens of sites and forums for indicators. Some come from well known, highly publicized and long-standing “experts” and others from regular citizens of the trading world. As far as we could tell, this below chart, two lines cross indicator, called the WPR_ma, which is not a very sexy name, was originally coded for TradingView a few years ago and then adapted for MT4 in 2023. The name is a contraction for Williams Percent Range — Moving Average.
Bones
So, what are the inner workings of this indicator? The original was from one of our heroes, Larry Williams. He developed the Williams Percent Range (%R) indicator way back in 1973, and it strove to display how quickly price moves by comparing the current closing price to the highest high and lowest low over a specific number of periods.
This and That
This indicator is what you get if you load up the MT4 Williams %R and put a moving average over it…almost. VP did a little something awhile back on the Williams %R; however, by itself, was not great.
Go Play
We’ll also shed some light on a concept of “playing well together”. VP referred to the phenomenon of when multiple indicators compliment each other; making each other better. The same thing can happen on a micro level as well. Instead of BL, C1, and C2 playing well together, we have two indicators in the same sandbox playing well together. Micro, macro. Hey now, you’re an all star…get your game on, go play!
OG and Then Some
For those who are not into acronyms, “OG” stands for Original Gangster…so, Williams %R. The “some” is naturally, the moving average. We left it alone in the default image, except for brightening up the images for easier viewing.
What you see here are the two indicators with a center line, an overbought (upper) line, and an oversold (lower) line. Since we’re using this indicator as a two lines cross, we’ll get rid of the levels and clean up the indicator window…like this.
Now that we’ve got it right where we want it, let’s take a look at the settings.
Settings
We looked at both the WPR menu and our new and improved indicator side by side and noted that we have a more control over the latter…which naturally gives us better signals. Check it out.
Now, we’ll take a look at what the alternate version looks like.
Wpr period: The number of periods for the overall WPR calculation. The default value is 35. Also note, that this settings affects the red moving average line.
Signal moving average type: The data set used to create the moving average line. The default value is “Smoothed MA”.
Wpr signal MA period: The number of periods for just the moving average line. The default value is 21.
Main Line Width
This optional settings change the thickness of the blue WPR line. Of course, you can change it in the colors’ menu up to a thickness of “5”, but this particular setting appears to have no upper limit. Just for giggles, we changed it to 1000…and the entire window turned blue. It’s definitely a first for us.
Other Fodder
The other optional settings accommodate whatever alerts you’d like to have, visual, audible, or sent to your phone. Simple enough.
Looky Looky
Now that we’ve gone through the history, background and settings, let’s see what happens when the rubber meets the road.
Very interesting. There are three very clear signals and a few lumpy areas. Naturally, a slower C2 indicator (and baseline) will weed out most of those false starts where the WPR signal line (blue) goes sideways, but there are some definite possibilities, even in the “congested” areas.
Hunting For Profits
Shabby, I Think Not
Okay…better results than in recent history, specifically for the EURUSD and the SPX500. Those, have been in the crapper. But of course BTC and XAU are the shining stars and deserve to be adored. Are you testing these on other pairs? We hope so. Remember, just because one pair is not performing well, doesn’t mean the other thirty-five aren’t. Be flexible, open, and receptive. Your bottom line depends on it.
Resources
You can get this modern adaptation of a 50-year old original from the on-line library for free. When you’re ready to get it, click HERE. Also, be sure to subscribe to the Stonehill Forex YouTube channel for the technical analysis videos. Sign up for the Advanced NNFX Course HERE.
Our only goal is to make you a better trader.
*Our published testing results are based on money management strategies employed by the NNFX system and depend on varying external factors, which may be different between individuals and their specific broker conditions. No guarantee, trading recommendations, or other market suggestions are implied. Your results and subsequent trading activities are solely your own responsibility.
BTW — Any information communicated by Stonehill Forex Limited is solely for educational purposes. The information contained within the courses and on the website neither constitutes investment advice nor a general recommendation on investments. It is not intended to be and should not be interpreted as investment advice or a general recommendation on investment. Any person who places trades, orders or makes other types of trades and investments etc. is responsible for their own investment decisions and does so at their own risk. It is recommended that any person taking investment decisions consults with an independent financial advisor. Stonehill Forex Limited training courses and blogs are for educational purposes only, not a financial advisory service, and does not give financial advice or make general recommendations on investment.