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1. commands control the basic behavior of your thinkScript study Basic Command DECLARE The DECLARE keyword is a method for telling the chart something basic about the appearance of the study you are creating There are three current uses for declare declare upper This command places your study in the main chart window on top of the pricing bars You want an upper study if your study plot falls more or less within the same range as pricing SimpleMovingAverage for instance By default all studies created with thinkScript are upper studies and you don t have to make this declaration declare lower This statement places your study on a separate graph under the pricing bars You want a lower study if your study is some complex value in the range of 0 100 i e not directly related to the market values declare hide on intraday This command obscures your study for pre or post market non regular market hours data on intraday graphs This is useful if you use IMP_VOLATILITY where there is no implied volatility https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 3 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright outside of regular market hours because options do not trade then even though a stock may Basic Command PLOT The PLOT command actually renders the data you are working with on the chart Every study contains at least on plot declaration without one nothing would
2. 50 SELL SIDE Name myExit Body declare EXIT addOrder close gt 70 For now let s just take a look at the body of these definitions the name has more to do with how you save the strategy As you can see the script involved here is very simple First the strategy needs to declare if it is BUY entry or SELL exit side Then it uses a simple function addOrder which indicates that we want to set a trigger when the condition inside the parentheses is met In this case that condition is either close lt 50 or close gt 70 https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 17 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright Editing Stategies Using Functions In the previous example we used a simple function addOrder AddOrder takes one required parameter condition e g close lt 50 and one optional parameter price Price can be set using a variable like open or a value like 52 Definitions for all of the available functions can be found by holding your mouse over the function name in the edit page or in the sidebar on the right side of the New strategy editor There you ll find functions grouped by category Technical analysis Mathematical and Look amp Feel Click on a function name to see details of how that function works in the lower box on the right hand sidebar Clicking on Mathematical gt average fo
3. specific plots will be drawn if you input Mon or Tue and a third drawn if you input Wed Thu or Fri as defined by the default case At this point you should begin to see how you could use ENUM and SWITCH to use predefined data sets like the months of the year etc Accessing Data From Another Symbol To access data from another symbol in your code append the name of the symbol in quotes and parentheses to the data type you want to use For instance plot data close close GOOG will give you a line that is the difference between the closing price for the symbol that you have in the chart and the closing price for Google GOOG Using Historical Data To access a value from a previous bar of data you can use what is called offset syntax For https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 12 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright example close 1 will give you the closing price from one day ago close 2 will give you the close 2 days ago etc plot data close close 5 will display a line that is the difference between the current closing price and the closing price 5 days ago Please note in thinkScript a positive number is used to refer to data in the past Negative numbers will give you bars in the future when working from historical data Referencing Pre Defined Studies thinkScript allows you to reference studies that are already a
4. ack White or Metal You can also choose explicit colors plot diff close close 1 diff setDefaultColor Color Red Below the Functions section in the right sidebar you will see that the definitions of some Constants are also provided There you will find all of the standard colors you can use in conjunction with the Look amp Feel functions Lastly you can override plot main color using assignValueColor function plot diff close close 1 diff assignValueColor if diff gt 0 then Color UPTICK else Color DOWNTICK https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 14 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright Saving Your Study When you are done with your code you can save it and apply it to your chart At the top of the New Study editor is a field where you can name your study Once you ve provided the name click the Save button and your new study can be applied to any chart like any of the pre programmed studies If you want to change the code in your custom study return to the Edit Studies window by clicking the Studies button in the upper right hand corner of the Charts tab then clicking on Edit Studies Locate your study in the Available Studies list Custom studies are marked with the eb icon Click the blue bullet to the left of the name of the study and select Edit source That will return you to the study editor to make an
5. ata max close SMA displays the higher of either the closing price or the simple moving average min finds the smaller of two values and is the opposite of max For example def SMA reference simplemovingavg plot data min close SMA displays the lower of either the closing price or the simple moving average sqrt is a mathematical function that calculates the square root of a number plot data sqrt close will draw a graph of the square root of the closing price of a stock sum adds up the values of a set of data For example plot data sum close 20 will display a line that is the sum of the last 20 days closing prices plot data sum close 20 20 will display a line that is the sum of the last 20 days closing prices divided by 20 This actually gives you a 20 day moving average If you do not specify a length for the data set the default 12 bars of data is used totalsum adds up all the values that are available on the chart and lets you see a running https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 10 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright total of something For example plot data totalsum volume will show a line that is the total accumulated volume for the time frame that is on the chart If the chart displays one year of data totalsum will add up year If you are looking at one month of data totalsum will add up one mon
6. be displayed on the chart For it to work you must give the data you are trying to plot a name and then define what that data will represent For example if you want to plot the closing price of a stock you can t simply write plot close That won t work You have to provide both the name and the data plot price close The name for what you are plotting can be anything that makes sense to you such as plot median open close 2 This script will display a line that adds the opening and closing price of each bar of data and divides the sum by two You can make multiple plot declarations to show more than one line on the chart such as plot median open close 2 plot ohlc open high low close 4 As you can see the plot command uses the basic information of open high low close volume and implied volatility in mathematical formulas and displays the result on the chart https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 4 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright Basic Command DEF The DEF command defines a variable you d like to work with For example you can define something called MyClosingPrice as def MyClosingPrice Close By using the def command you can create a variable that can be used in another formula in the study This let s you construct complex formulas from simpler elements For example if you wanted to divide the ra
7. e and imp_ volatility in conjunction with some basic functions will constitute the building blocks of your thinkScript studies Like building blocks each element of thinkScript is in itself fairly simple but combining them together can yield some complex and powerful results To begin using the thinkScript editor for studies go to the Charts tab click Studies in the upper right corner of the page and select Edit Studies This will open the Edit Studies window To use thinkScript to make a study of your own you now have two choices e To create a new study by fine tuning an existing study first find a study in the Available studies list marked by the icon These studies are available for copying Next click on the Blue Bullet next to the chosen study and click Copy This will open the New study editor with the chosen study s definition preloaded e To create your own study from scratch simply click the New study button in the bottom left corner of the Edit Studies window Doing so will open a blank New study editor https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 2 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright PLEASE NOTE Every line of thinkScript code must end with a semi colon Also thinkScript code is not case sensitive Basic Commands thinkScript supports five simple commands DECLARE PLOT DEF INPUT and REC These
8. f the New Strategy editor is a field where you can name the strategy You can name your new strategy the way you like it or leave the pre defined NewStrategyXX name Once you ve provided the name click Save and your new strategy will be available for drawing over any chart To do so add it to the list of Added strategies from the Edit Strategies window and click OK or Apply to keep working in the window If you need to make changes to your custom strategy return to the Edit Strategies window by clicking Studies in the upper right corner of the TOS Charts tab Locate your strategy in the Available strategies list Custom strategies are marked with the ie icon Double click the strategy or click the Blue Bullet to the left of the strategy and select Edit source This will https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 20 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright return you to the strategy editor to make any necessary changes https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 21 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM
9. https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright thinkScript User Manual Need more help Email us at support thinkorswim com You may also find it helpful to join this online discussion group started by existing thinkScript users thinkScript discussion group thinkScript Introduction thinkScript Advanced amp Saving thinkScript and Strategies Basic Commands e DECLARE e PLOT e DEF e INPUT e REC Using Functions Function Definitions NEW Limiting input data ENUM Adding Strategies amp SWITCH Editing Strategies Accessing Data From Another e ASimple Example Symbol e Using Functions Using Historical Data e Creating Input Referencing Pre Defined Studies Parameters Choosing Colors e Referencing Historical Saving Your Study Bars e Accessing External Price Data e Choosing Colors https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 1 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright Saving Your Strategy Introduction thinkScript is a basic editing tool used for fine tuning an existing study or implementing your own study on the Charts tab Put simply thinkScript is a way to manipulate the closing opening high and low price of a stock or index as well as the trading volume and volatility of a stock or index with a formula and then display the results on a chart One or all of those data types open high low close volum
10. ly if can be used in conjunction with else to create more complex conditions rec upper https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 8 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright if open close then upper upper 1 2 yelse upper upper 1 1 Obviously this example could be extended to perform even more calculations for each condition simply by adding additional lines inside each Please note the placement of the brackets in this example Also note that when evaluating equality in an if statement two equal signs must be used Like between the if function will most likely be used as a test for a larger study isNan stands for is Not a Number and generates a true value if you try to take the square root of a negative number or divide by 0 For example data assignValueColor if isnan sqrt 20 then color white else color red data assignValueColor if isnan 0 0 then color white else color red log is a mathematical function that calculates the natural log of a number plot data log close will draw a graph of the log of the closing price of a stock max finds the greater of two values For example https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 9 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright def SMA reference simplemovingavg plot d
11. mmand lets you reference a historical value of a variable that you are calculating in the study itself Rec is short for recursion For example def mystudy mystudy 1 5 won t work because you are trying to use a previous value of the variable mystudy in the formula rec mystudy mystudy 1 5 will work because the rec command allows you to use previous values of the variable in the formula Using Functions https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 6 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright thinkScript has 12 mathematical and logic functions AbsValue average between ceil if isNaN log max min sqrt sum and totalsum that can be performed on the price data to generate the desired study For example plot CloseAvg average close 12 displays an average of the last 12 days closing prices Each function has required parameters Average for example requires data open close etc and length number of bars You can specify these parameters in any order For example plot SMA average data close length 50 and plot SMA average length 50 data close will show the same result on the chart Function Definitions AbsValue calculates the absolute value of some value For example plot Absolute AbsValue low high will plot the absolute value of the difference between the low and high price which by defi
12. nge of a stock price by the closing price you could create a variable for the range def range high low then create another variable def percentrange range close Doing it this way lets you re use variables and gives you the power to combine complex variables in your formulas more easily By defining a variable such as def SMA average close 20 you can use that variable sma in your code as part of another calculation For instance plot doubleSMA SMA 2 plot tripleSMA SMA 3 This will display lines that are 2 and 3 times the SMA variable In this case SMA itself is not displayed on the chart because there is no plot declaration to do so Basic Command INPUT https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 5 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright Most studies are adjustable in terms of length bounds or levels You can create an adjustable parameter for your thinkScript study using the INPUT command An input is like a def that can be adjusted in the Edit Studies window or in the Format Study dialog found by right clicking on a study line right on the graph For instance input length 12 input price close plot SMA average data price length length Here 12 and close are default values which you can override on the preferences panel the way you adjust any pre defined studies Basic Command REC The REC co
13. nition is a negative number average calculates the average of a set of data For example plot SMA average close 20 https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 7 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright will display a moving average of the last 20 closing prices If you do not specify a length for the data set the default number of bars is 12 between is a logic function that gives a value of 1 true if the data is between two parameter values and 0 false if the data is outside of the two parameter values The first parameter is the data type to compare on For example plot center between close 140 160 will display a 1 if the closing price is between 140 and 160 and 0 if the closing price is below 140 or above 160 Between is mainly used as part of a test within a larger study ceil rounds a value up to the nearest integer For example plot data ceil close displays a line that finds the integer whole number no fractions that is equal to or next higher than the close price if can be used in two ways First it can be used on the right side of an equation bu using 3 parameters a condition a true value and a false value For example plot resistance if close gt 150 150 100 will draw a line that is at a value of 150 if the closing price is 150 or higher and a value of 100 if the closing price is less than 150 Second
14. r instance reveals that this function returns the average value of a dataset No surprise there In every respect using functions in strategies behaves the same as using them when editing studies See Using Functions for details Editing Stategies Creating Input Parameters Most of the time you ll want to create strategies that allow you to easily adjust the boundaries of the strategy You can do this by creating an input and its default value in the thinkScript definition These inputs can be adjusted in the Edit Strategies window HINT You can also open the Edit Strategies window by left clicking on the strategy from a chart If you want to create an adjustable parameter for your thinkScript strategy you use the input keyword input parameter name default value for instance https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 18 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright input length 12 input price close def delta price price length Here 12 and close are default values which you can override on the preferences panel the way you adjust pre defined strategies Editing Stategies Referencing Historical Bars In the example above you see a construct that looks like this price length Given our default values for price and length this would actually resolve to close 12 What you see here is a reference to a bar other than current bar using off
15. roperties click OK or Apply to keep working in the window to draw them on your chart Editing Stategies More than likely you will want to create strategies of your own rather than use predefined strategies To do so you have two choices e Tocreate a new strategy by fine tuning an existing strategy first find a strategy in the Available strategies list Next click on the Blue Bullet next to the chosen strategy and click Copy This will open the New strategy editor with the chosen strategy s definition preloaded e To create your own strategy from scratch simply click the New strategy button in the bottom left corner of the Edit Strategies window Doing so will open a blank New strategy editor It is important to remember that most strategies are based on movement in an underlying study If you haven t done so it might be good to familiarize yourself with how thinkScript https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 16 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright handles studies above Editing Stategies A Simple Example Here are examples of the buy and sell sides of a very simple strategy In this example the user simply wants to be able to set a buy entry trigger when the closing price drops below 50 and a sell exit trigger when the price exceeds 70 BUY SIDE Name myEntry Body declare ENTRY addOrder close lt
16. set syntax In this case close 12 would give you the close price on the bar 12 bars in the past It s important to remember that positive values are bars BACK and negative numbers are bars FORWARD def diff close close 1 In this example diff equals the difference in the current and the next value Editing Stategies Accessing External Price Data For comparison strategies you can access external symbol market data like this def diffGoog close close GOOG Editing Stategies Choosing Colors Each strategy can be assigned a color using the setColor function https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 19 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright setColor getColor 4 In this example the 4th color of a dynamic look amp feel palette was used These colors will always be part of the Color Scheme you chose to run thinkDesktop with Black White or Metal You can also choose explicit colors setColor Color Red Below the Functions section in the right sidebar you will see that the definitions of some Constants are also provided There you will find all of the standard colors you can use in conjunction with the Look amp Feel functions Saving Your Strategy Once you are done editing the strategy you can save it so that it will be available to add to the charting package from the Edit Strategies window At the top o
17. th Limiting Input Data ENUM amp SWITCH Let s say you wanted to create an input editable from the Edit Studies window but for ease of use you wanted to limit the possible answers for that input to a predetermined set for instance the trading days of the week In an application or software such an input is called a select box You can create a select box in thinkScript by using a construction known as an enum This is simply a predefined set of data and the code looks like this input day default Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Please notice that one of the elements in the set must be defined as the default value In this case it s Mon The value generated for Mon by the select box is actually 0 and each succeeding value is 1 greater Tue 1 Wed 2 Fri 4 In order to do something more powerful with the results of your select box rather than simply operate on the numeric value 0 1 2 you can use a SWITCH statement A SWITCH allows you to define a discreet action for each case For example input day default Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri plot vertical_ line https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 11 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright switch day case Mon vertical line average close length 8 case Tue vertical line average close length 13 default vertical_line average high In this case
18. vailable on the Charts tab in your code You use the reference keyword to do this plot SMA reference simplemovingavg or plot SMA simplemovingavg will plot a simple moving average with the default parameters of that study So long as the study name is followed by parentheses you don t need to include the word reference You can change the parameters of the study within reference by inputting them between parentheses plot SMA simplemovingavg price volume length 20 will plot a 20 day moving average of the volume To see the input parameters of a particular study click on that study in the Edit Studies section of the Charts tab You will see the available parameters listed in the study properties section https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 13 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright By default the first plot of a study is always referenced However you can specify the plot you want to reference as well plot bear reference ElderRay BearPower plot bear ElderRay length 6 BearPower Choosing Colors Each plot has its main color which you can change using the setDefaultColor function plot diff close close 1 diff setDefaultColor getcolor 5 In this example the 5th color of a dynamic look amp feel palette was used These colors will always be part of the Color Scheme you chose to run thinkDesktop with Bl
19. y changes thinkScript and Strategies Just like with studies thinkScript can be used for fine tuning pre defined strategies or creating strategies of your own in the TOS Charts charting package When strategies are drawn on a chart buy and sell triggers appear in response to the conditions defined in the strategy To begin using the thinkScript editor for strategies go to the TOS Charts tab click Studies in the upper right corner of the page and select Edit Strategies This will open the Edit Strategies window Adding Strategies On the Edit Strategies window you ll see a list of predefined strategies under Available https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright 15 of 21 12 18 2008 2 25 10 PM https www thinkorswim com tos thinkScriptHelp jsp laf bright strategies hese strategies are actually based on studies and render buy and sell triggers when their underlying study meets a certain condition If you simply want to draw predefined strategies on the chart right click the Blue Bullet and select Add Strategy This will cause the strategy to appear in the Added strategies box and any of its customizable inputs to appear under Strategy properties PLEASE NOTE in order to render strategies on your chart you must select BOTH the buy and sell ends These are indicated by the letters SE Short End and LE Long End in the strategy name Once you ve added your strategies and adjusted their p

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