Setup Bar Prices tracks the prices of the bar where a BloodHound signal happened, and keeps plotting them until the next signal.
When a signal happens, the bar’s high and low (and its body high and body low) are plotted and carried forward on the chart until the next signal. You load a BloodHound template into the indicator and choose which Logic Template produces the signals.
It was made for systems that wait for a setup (or qualification) bar before the trade signal, then enter when price or an indicator breaks above or below that bar (the confirmation or signal bar). BlackBird can also use it to place a stop-loss at the setup bar’s low or high.
Never load a template that uses this indicator
The template you load into Setup Bar Prices must not use Setup Bar Prices itself. That makes a circular reference (a loop that refers to itself), which crashes NinjaTrader and can corrupt files.
It’s easy to do by accident. Say you build a moving-average crossover breakout system called “MA XO Breakout”. Its first Logic Template finds the crossover. The second finds the breakout, using a Crossover solver whose Input B is Setup Bar Prices, and you point Setup Bar Prices at the first Logic Template of… “MA XO Breakout”. The file now uses itself through this indicator.
Use a separate template file
Save the setup-bar logic as its own stand-alone template, and load that into Setup Bar Prices. It stops it being edited while it’s in use, and avoids loops. Don’t load the same template into BloodHound and this indicator at the same time.
Properties
System Template
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Template File | The BloodHound template that produces the setup bar signals. It must not use this indicator (see above). |
| Selected Logic Template | The Logic Template whose signals mark setup bars. Setup bar signals must come from a Logic Template. |
| Long Threshold | A long setup bar happens when the Long Confidence is at or above this value, the same way BloodHound’s own Long Threshold works. See BloodHound output. |
| Short Threshold | A short setup bar happens when the Short Confidence is at or above this value. See BloodHound output. |
| Compare L/S Confidence | Also requires the signal side to be larger than the other side, as in BloodHound. See BloodHound output. |
| Confidence Compare Ratio | How many times larger the signal side must be when Compare L/S Confidence is on. |
Parameters
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Prices from Bars Ago | Which bar’s prices to track, counted back from the setup bar. 0 tracks the setup bar itself, 1 the bar just before it, 3 the bar three bars before it. |
Signal Markers
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Racing Stripes | Colors the chart background on setup bars, like BloodHound’s racing stripes. |
| Racing Stripe Opacity | 1 to 99. Higher is brighter, lower is fainter. |
| Show Chart Markers | Draws a marker on setup bars, using the Setup Bar Chart Marker and the two Signal Alert Colors. |
| Setup Bar Chart Marker | The marker to draw, from NinjaTrader’s drawing tools. Markers can’t be set to global. |
| Marker Offset Distance | How far from the bar to draw the marker, in ticks: below the low for a long setup bar, above the high for a short one. |
| Long Signal Alert Color | The racing stripe and marker color for long setup bars. |
| Short Signal Alert Color | The racing stripe and marker color for short setup bars. |
Video
35:29
Introduction to the BloodHound Setup Bar Prices Indicator
From our weekly workshop: what the indicator does and how to use it in a system.