I prefer to see bars in a simpler fashion that is more logical.
An UP BAR is a bar when the market makes a high that is higher AND when the low is higher than the bar before.
A DOWN BAR is when the market makes a lower low AND a lower high.
The UP or DOWN BAR is not based on the close-to-close movement which is also called NET CHANGE for the bar AND it also disregards the open-close movement as well, which can be misleading more often than not.
This allows you to easily see periods of INDECISION when the bars are painted black because if the bar isn't RED or GREEN, it will be painted black.
INSIDE bars and OUTSIDE bars are INDECISION days.
INSIDE BARS: The market wants to wait for news or has exhausted itself on an INSIDE bar. The market makes neither a higher high or a lower low. Instead, the market trades in a tighter range inside the high and low of the bar before. Hence the name "inside bar".
OUTSIDE BARS: The market exhausts one side of the market after a new high or new low, then reverses and stops out anyone outside the range of the bar prior. Essentially, neither side of the market is strong on an OUTSIDE bar. Outside bars can cause sharp losses for trend traders and if you see many of them near each other, the market is preparing itself for a large move one way or the other.
UDIO = Up Down Inside Outside and I think it is a tool you all will want to use to make your charts tell a story and alert you to important price levels.
After a long trend of green and red bars, you may find that there are many black bars starting to appear and that can be a sign the trend is ending and is ready to reverse.
Tim -any way you are willing to share the EPS/OPS/ UDIO scripts with me? I was an early subscriber to the Hidden Signals and would love to get back to using them.
study(title = "UDIO Bars", overlay = true)
len = input(2)
//An up bar is a "higher high & a higher low"
is_upbar = high == highest(high, len) and low == highest(low, len)
//A down bar is a "lower high & a lower low"
is_downbar = high == lowest(high, len) and low == lowest(low, len)
bar_color = is_upbar ? green : is_downbar ? red: black
barcolor(bar_color)
study(title = "UDIO Bars", overlay = true)
len = input(2)
//An up bar is a "higher high & a higher low"
is_upbar = high == highest(high, len) and low == highest(low, len)
//A down bar is a "lower high & a lower low"
is_downbar = high == lowest(high, len) and low == lowest(low, len)
bar_color = is_upbar ? green : is_downbar ? red: black
barcolor(bar_color)