Charting ratios in ThinkorSwim

Discussion in 'Trading Software' started by Cyrix, Aug 21, 2011.

  1. Cyrix

    Cyrix

    In ThinkorSwim can we chart the ratio of the price of two securities?
    Is it in one of the Studies?

    And more advanced, can we chart weight2*stock1-weight2*stock2 in order to visualize the payoff of a long short trade? (we can do that with combined contracts in IB.)
     
  2. rickf

    rickf

    As in a pairs trade?

    Type the pair into the chart box -- ie "/ES-/NQ" or "SPY-QQQQ" with the symbol you're buying as the first symbol and the one you're shorting for the second.
     
  3. Cyrix

    Cyrix

    Can we specify the weights of the two?
    Thanks.
     
  4. yeah you can do 2*/ES-3*/NQ, for example
     
  5. Cyrix

    Cyrix

    It works!

    How about ratios?

    When I do SPY/QQQ it gave me an error message.
     
  6. Intriguing.
    Anyway, division wouldn't work because they use '/' to indicate a future. You'd need a way of 'escaping' the character. I tried '\//', where the '\' indicates that the next character should be 'escaped', that is, used for its general purpose rather than as the first character of a futures symbol, but it didn't like that.
     
  7. rt5909

    rt5909

    put the symbols in parenthesis, so it would be: (SPY)/(QQQ)
     
  8. I get "Symbol cannot be a multiple of two symbols." Still thinks that slash is a start to a futures symbol, I think.
     
  9. Cyrix

    Cyrix

    As an update I have found the way to do it which is (SPY/QQQ).


    Can anyone help me with the other question on the board (Where to download generic xth futures contract price histories)?

    Thanks a lot.
     
  10. tortoise

    tortoise


    I just tried that. Got an error message. Thoughts, anyone?
     
    #10     Mar 13, 2012