A special version of the On-Balance Volume (OBV) indicator based on pseudo-real volumes emulated from tick volumes. The indicator calculates an approximate estimate of real volumes for Forex instruments (for which real volumes are not available) and then builds OBV using the standard formula.

There is a version of onbalancevolumesurrogate for MetaTrader 4.

• mafast – the period of the fast moving average EMA, by default 3; if set to 0, the average is not displayed;
• Maslow – the period of the slow moving average EMA, by default 7; if set to 0, the average is not displayed;
• alertonmacross-enables the alert output mode when crossing averages, by default false (disabled); the signal is issued only once on each bar; message format: “obvsurrogate [Symbol] [timeframe] UP/DOWN cross @ [Time]”;
• CompletedBars – a flag that determines whether to validate the crossing of moving averages (for Alpine) on the last bar or penultimate bar completed (CompletedBars true); the default value is true, the alert occurs at the opening of the bar; if false, alerts can appear in an arbitrary time bar; it should be noted that after the signal crossing down does not necessarily follow the signal on the intersection of up (or Vice versa) – in some cases, when the average range next to each other, you may see several alerts unidirectional (but different bars) – it should be seen as a confirmation signal;
• accumulationdistribution-flag, if true, the indicator is calculated according to the Accumulation/Distribution formula; by default-false (OBV is used); depending on the flag, the name of the indicator in the subwindow changes – OBV Surrogate or A/D Surrogate.

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The indicator displays three lines:

• green thick – cumulative volumes according to the formula OBV;
• red thin-fast moving average;
• yellow thin-moving average is slow.

At the intersection of moving averages, indicator arrows are displayed in the direction of movement. It is important that when completedbarsis set to false, the signals on the incomplete bar that appeared during its formation may contradict the final position of the lines, in particular in the case when their intersection disappears.

The screenshot shows onbalancevolumesurrogate and truevolumesurrogate side by side.

This indicator should be used in trading similar to the standard OBV:

• by moving average crossing signals;
• by the convergence/divergence of the OBV line with the price chart; when their directions do not coincide, a change in the current trend is expected (a reversal);
• by unidirectional movement of the OBV line and the price chart; this serves as a confirmation of the current trend.

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