Custom OHLC bars and candles¶

You may define your own custom bars and candles in Pine Scripts. There are functions plotbar and plotcandle for that purpose. Here is a small example:

study("Example 1")
plotbar(open, high, low, close)

../_images/Custom_ohlc_bars_and_candles_1.png

The script Example 1 simply replicates bars of the current symbol. Nothing outstanding. We can paint them with green and red colors:

study("Example 2")
palette = close >= open ? lime : red
plotbar(open, high, low, close, color=palette)

../_images/Custom_ohlc_bars_and_candles_2.png

The Example 2 illustrates color argument, which could be given constant values as red, lime, "#FF9090", as well as expressions that calculate color (palette variable in the example above) at runtime.

Function plotcandle is similar to plotbar, it just plots candles instead of bars and have optional argument wickcolor.

Both plotbar and plotcandle need four series arguments that will be used as bar/candle OHLC prices correspondingly. If, for example, one of the OHLC variables at some bar have a na value, then the whole bar is not plotted. Example:

study("Example 3")
c = close > open ? na : close
plotcandle(open, high, low, c)

../_images/Custom_ohlc_bars_and_candles_3.png

Of course you may calculate OHLC values without using the available open, high, low and close values. For example you can calculate and plot some sort of a smoothed candles:

study("Example 4")
len = input(9)
smooth(x) =>
    sma(x, len)
o = smooth(open)
h = smooth(high)
l = smooth(low)
c = smooth(close)
plotcandle(o, h, l, c)

../_images/Custom_ohlc_bars_and_candles_4.png

You may get an interesting effect, if you plot OHLC values taken from a higher timeframe. Let’s say you want to plot daily bars on 60 minute chart:

// NOTE: add this script on intraday chart
study("Example 5")
higherRes = input("D", type=resolution)
is_newbar(res) =>
    t = time(res)
    not na(t) and (na(t[1]) or t > t[1])
o = security(tickerid, higherRes, open)
h = security(tickerid, higherRes, high)
l = security(tickerid, higherRes, low)
c = security(tickerid, higherRes, close)
plotbar(is_newbar(higherRes) ? o : na, h, l, c, color=c >= o ? lime : red)

../_images/Custom_ohlc_bars_and_candles_5.png

Functions plotbar and plotcandle also have a title argument, so user can distinguish them in Styles tab of Format dialog.

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Custom OHLC bars and candles¶