Dorschden Swing Trend Solver

The Dorschden Swing Trend solver reads the trend from price action: higher lows and higher highs give a Long output, lower highs and lower lows a Short output.

Swing points come from the Swings Highs & Lows indicator, built into the solver. Its output is the indicator’s OverallTrend series, the same as reading Swings Highs & Lows » OverallTrend with a Threshold solver.

After an extreme move, such as a higher high followed straight away by a lower low, the trend is unknown and the output is zero until the next swing point completes.

Properties tab

The essential settings for the node.

Modifiers

Buttons for the most common output modifiers. They change only the selected instance of a node on a Logic Board, so they appear only when a node is selected there, not when a solver is selected in the Solvers panel. That keeps the solver’s original output unchanged everywhere else it’s used, much like changing an SMA’s plot color on one chart leaves it unchanged on your other charts.

Button	What it does
Enable	Turns the node on or off. When it’s off, the node is left out of the system’s calculations. It still looks connected on the Logic Board, but it’s ignored.
Invert	Inverts the node’s output. The same calculation as the Inverter function node, without its extra options.
Swap	Swaps the outputs: Long becomes Short and Short becomes Long. The same as the Long/Short Modifier function node with Mode: Swap.

Global Properties

These settings apply to every instance of the solver: change one instance and they all change. To change just one, make a copy of the solver. The copy is a separate solver, with a number added to the end of its name.

Behavior

Turns off the Long or the Short output.

Setting	What it does
Evaluate	Which outputs the solver calculates. Both: Long and Short. Long only: only Long; the Short output is removed. Short only: only Short; the Long output is removed.

SwingTrend Parameters

Setting	What it does
Swing type	The formula that detects swing points: Standard, Gann, Ticks or Percent. These come from the original author (Dorschden), who didn’t document them.
Swing strength	How sensitive swing detection is. 1 is very sensitive (many small swings), 7 (the default) suits most intraday charts, 14 finds larger swings. Practical values: 1 to 15 intraday and 15 to 25 on daily charts for Standard, Gann and Ticks; for Percent, 0.15 to 0.4 intraday and 2 to 20 daily.
Double Top/Bottom strength	How close (in price) two swing highs or two swing lows must be to count as a double top or bottom, as a percentage of the 14-period ATR: ATR(14) × (value ÷ 100).
Use Close prices	Detect swings from the Close only, instead of the High and Low.

Trend Selection

Trend type chooses how the trend is defined. Each gives +1 for an up trend, -1 for a down trend, and 0 for none.

Trend type	How the trend is defined
Overall Trend	Up after: a higher low and then a break above the previous swing high; a double bottom and then a break above the previous swing high; or a lower low, a higher high, then a higher low. It ends when price breaks below the previous swing low. Down is the mirror image. Neutral when a higher high is followed by a lower low (or the reverse): without a higher low or lower high to confirm it, there is no trend.
Quick Trend	Up when price breaks above the previous swing high or a higher low forms; down when price breaks below the previous swing low or a lower high forms. There is always a direction, except at the start of the chart before the first one is found.
BreakOut Trend	Changes only when price breaks the previous swing high (up) or swing low (down). There is always a direction, except at the start of the chart.

Options tab

Secondary settings shared by all nodes.

Weight

Changes the node’s final output value. Only needed when designing a fuzzy logic system, or a fuzzy logic part of a system.

How Weight works

Weight changes only the selected instance of a node on a Logic Board. So the controls appear only when a node is selected there, not when a solver is selected in the Solvers panel: a solver’s original output can’t be changed globally.

Control	What it does
Multiply Output	Multiplies the node’s internal Long and Short values (set by the Output Rules on the Properties tab) by this number. The final output still can’t go above 1 (see Slider).
Slider	Limits the final output to between 0 and 1. The left handle sets a minimum output, given whether or not the condition is true. The right handle sets the maximum; the output is capped there.
Hedge Operation	Applies a formula to the internal value. None: unchanged. Very: squares it (value²). Somewhat: takes the square root (√value).

Example: two out of three

Three solvers check three indicator conditions, but only two need to be true. Connect them to an Additive logic node and set each solver’s maximum (the slider’s right handle) to 0.5. When any two are true, the Additive node adds 0.5 + 0.5 + 0 = 1, which means the two-out-of-three condition is met.

Description

Free text for describing what the node does or what it’s for. The Description is shared by every instance of the node, unlike Weight, which is set per instance.

Help tab

Shows this page for the selected node, inside BloodHound. Click the node’s image at the top of the page to open it in a bigger window. The built-in web viewer needs NinjaTrader 8.0.26.0 or newer.

Tutorial video

From the weekly workshop “Solvers 12-13”, September 2012. It shows BloodHound v1, but the settings and how they work are the same. This solver is covered from 27:18.