You create bar patterns by clicking and dragging the various opens, high, lows, and closes into the desired relationships. You then highlight areas and click the Add Condition, Add Percent Condition or Add Range Condition button for each condition. (This is an Add Conditions dialog box.) Any part of a bar can be moved, and you can move entire bars by clicking and dragging on the center of the bar. When you drag individual areas of a bar, that area will turn red. When you drag entire bars, the bar turns blue.
You can view the bars as candlesticks by checking the Candlesticks checkbox. The body of the bars will change to their proper candlestick color and the relationship for each bar’s open and close will be shown in the condition list. If you drag the open or close for a bar to a new position, the condition for that bar will automatically change in the condition list. Note that if the candlestick option is checked, you cannot delete the open / close condition from the conditions list. You cannot also select the Point-And-Figure option.
You can view the bars as Point and Figure bars by checking the Point and Figure checkbox. You will be asked whether you want the current bar (bar 0) to be an X bar or an O bar. After making your selection, the bars will appear in the appropriate colors and the appropriate Point and Figure conditions will appear in the condition list. Note that you can only click the Add Condition button. See adding a comparison condition below. After you have entered your conditions, you will be asked to confirm or change the box range or increments or the number of box reversals. Finally, note that you cannot check the candlesticks checkbox if Point-And-Figure is checked.
There are various bar conditions that you can add to your bar pattern. Note that the bar on the right in the visual editor represents the most current bar of the pattern, while the bars towards the left represent bars further back in time, just the same way that bars appear on a bar chart. The bars are numbered to help you. If you have more than 5 bars in the pattern, a scroll bar will appear under the bars so you can scroll back to previous bars. Below are 3 examples of how to enter conditions.
Adding a comparison condition
For bar and Candlestick patterns:
Comparison conditions are added by highlighting two areas. For example, let’s say that you want to see if the current bar’s close is higher than the previous bar’s close. You would click on the right most bar’s close and drag the bar higher up that the second from the right bar’s close. You would then click on the second from the right bar’s close. Both closes should be in red. You would then click the Add Condition button and the condition would appear in the condition box on the right.
For Point and Figure patterns:
The only difference between Point and Figure patterns and bar and Candlestick patterns is that when you click the Add condition button, a dialog box will appear asking you to enter the number of boxes that you want your condition to be between. For example, if you want a low to be less than a high, Investigator will ask you for the minimum and maximum number of boxes that you want the low to be less than the high. If you want it to be just one box, enter one in both the “by at least” and “but no more than” edit boxes. If you don’t need to be this exact, Investigator gives you the flexibility to have a range, so you can have the low, for example, less than the high by a least one box, but no more than 5 boxes.
Adding a percent condition
Percent conditions are added by highlighting one or two areas. For example, let’s say that you want to see if the current bar’s low is higher than the previous bar’s high by 5%. You would click on the right most bar’s low and drag the bar higher up that the second from the right bar’s high. (Remember that you can move entire bars by clicking on the center of the bar.) You would then click on the second from the right bar’s high. Both areas should be in red. You would then click the Add Percent Condition button. The Percent edit box appears asking for the percent that you want the today’s low greater than yesterday’ high. You would enter 5 in the edit box, click OK, and the condition would appear in the condition box on the right.
As another example, let’s say that you want to see if the current bar’s close is in the upper third of the bar’s range. You would click on the right most bar’s close and drag it above the half way point of the length of the bar. You would then click on the Add Percent condition button while making sure that just the close of the right most bar is red. The Percent edit box appears asking for a percent value. You would enter 33 in the edit box, click OK, and the condition would appear in the condition box on the right.
Adding a range condition
Range conditions are added by clicking the Add Range Condition button. You do not have to highlight any bar areas. Once you click the Add Range Condition button, you must enter the number of the bars that you want to compare. The current (or today’s bar) is bar 0. The previous (or yesterday’s bar) is one. The bar two periods ago is 2, etc. You then must specify if you want to compare the open / close or high / low range for each bar. Clicking OK will add this condition to your conditions list.
Once you click OK you will progress to the Bar Pattern Name Dialog Box dialog box.