TradeStation Help

About the Maximum Bars Back Setting

When formatting the properties of an analysis technique, you must specify the maximum number of bars the analysis technique will reference to perform its calculations.

For example, a one line moving average calculated over 9 bars, needs at least 9 bars of data before performing its first calculation. In this example, the Max number of bars study will reference should be at least 9. On the 10th bar, the indicator can evaluates the previous 9 bars of data and return a value.

There are two options for Max number of bars study will reference: Auto-Detect and User Specified. Auto-Detect determines the minimum number of bars necessary to perform the calculation required by the analysis technique and uses this value as the maximum number of bars the analysis technique will reference. User Specified enables you to specify the number of bars the analysis technique needs before beginning its calculation. If you select User Specified, it is recommended that you set the Max number of bars study will reference to 50 unless your analysis technique requires more than 50 bars of data to perform its calculations.