Breakout

Overview

on balance is an aggregate measure of value which is added or subtracted based on whether some other indicator is positive or negative. The standard on balance indicator is the on balance volume., which calculates a running sum of volume, where todays volume is added if the price change is positive, and todays volume is subtracted if todays price change is negative.

Adding on Balance

The on balance indicator takes two inputs from the dataset. The first input is used to determine whether the second input is added or subtracted from the aggregate. Therefore, on balance requires two fields specified in order to be used. In the on balance volume case, the first input is the price, and the second input is the volume.

After selecting the two fields, you need to specify a size, which is the number of records in include in the calculation. That is, the on balance calculation is a rolling calculation where values added or subtracted from the total drop off after the given number of records. Specifying a size greater than the dataset size will effectively remove the effect of values dropping out of the calculation.