Computers don't read price charts but prices themselves. How does it do that? How can you get it to feed into the computer?
(Pixabay)
How we read prices?
(Courtesy: Tradingview)
This is how we read prices. Why? Because trading is about the price historical movements. We spare ourselves from the interpretation process from digits by having a computer turn them into candlesticks.
How does a computer do it?
So, to entrust the computer the entire trading process, we should have it start from the very beginning -- we feed it with prices themselves.
Like this:
time,open,high,low,close,volume
2019-04-20 11:55:00,5327.47,5329.89,5325.89,5329.89,5.0
2019-04-20 12:00:00,5329.79,5329.89,5320.60,5321.10,26.0
2019-04-20 12:05:00,5321.10,5321.29,5315.89,5317.39,31.0
2019-04-20 12:10:00,5316.0,5317.5,5316.0,5317.5,0.0
It takes in the time the prices in a time range (5 mins) are recorded in the "time" column, the open price (price at the very first second), the high (max price), the low (min price), the close (end price), and the traded volume of the time range.
Install the programming software Python
If you don't have Python, follow my instructions to install Anaconda.
Anaconda is a great Python community that wraps up all the necessary steps and components you'll always need into a one-click solution.
Read data with Pandas
First, copy the example prices above to a folder and name it "prices.csv".
Open Anaconda Prompt from start menu > all programs > anaconda3 > Anaconda Prompt
Now, you can read the data using Pandas
- Note: If you haven't learned the basics, please go through my previous post for fundamentals. It shouldn't take very long to learn.
- Navigate to your data folder using "cd /d " following my example (attention: at the directory part, don't use "/", but "\".)
- Start Python by typing "python".
- Import Pandas with "import pandas as pd".
- Now, read the data with pd.read_csv('prices.csv')
That's how a computer reads prices.
Have some fun
Follow this tutorial and have some fun trying things, and you'll understand this better.
For example, the time column is still in str type:
Try to turn them into dates, like:
And also, check what data type the prices and volumes are in.
FEEL FREE TO ASK ME IN THE COMMENT SECTION IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, SUGGESTIONS, OR COMMENTS
I LOVE SHARING THIS TRADING STRATEGY WITH YOU. AND MY PASSION WILL KEEP GOING RATHER THAN ME MAKING PROFIT IN PRIVATE IF I SEE YOU UPVOTE, RESTEEM AND FOLLOW ME.
THANK YOU FOR READING