EMA in EasyLanguage — TradeStation & MultiCharts

EasyLanguage calls the exponential moving average XAverage, and it’s the “X” you reach for whenever a strategy needs a faster-reacting average than the simple Average. Here’s the EMA from the explainer, the built-in way and from scratch.

What you’ll need

• TradeStation or MultiCharts
• The EasyLanguage / PowerLanguage Editor, new Indicator

The built-in version

{ AlgoGen EMA Crossover — TradeStation / MultiCharts }
inputs:
    Price( Close ),
    FastLen( 20 ),
    SlowLen( 50 );

variables:
    FastEMA( 0 ),
    SlowEMA( 0 );

FastEMA = XAverage( Price, FastLen );
SlowEMA = XAverage( Price, SlowLen );

Plot1( FastEMA, "Fast EMA" );
Plot2( SlowEMA, "Slow EMA" );

if FastEMA crosses over SlowEMA then
    Alert( "EMA bull cross" )
else if FastEMA crosses under SlowEMA then
    Alert( "EMA bear cross" );

XAverage( Price, Length ) is the exponential moving average with the standard α = 2/(Length+1). Apply it as an overlay and you get the orange/violet EMAs from the output chart.

The from-scratch version

To see the recurrence, EasyLanguage lets you reference a variable’s prior bar with [1]:

{ AlgoGen EMA (manual) }
inputs: Price( Close ), Length( 20 );
variables: Alpha( 0 ), EMAval( 0 );

Alpha = 2 / ( Length + 1 );

if CurrentBar = 1 then
    EMAval = Price                                  { seed }
else
    EMAval = Alpha * Price + ( 1 - Alpha ) * EMAval[1];

Plot1( EMAval, "EMA" );

A crossover strategy

{ AlgoGen EMA Cross — Strategy }
inputs: FastLen( 20 ), SlowLen( 50 );
variables: F( 0 ), S( 0 );
F = XAverage( Close, FastLen );
S = XAverage( Close, SlowLen );
if F crosses over S then Buy next bar at market
else if F crosses under S then Sell next bar at market;

Run the Strategy Performance Report to see whether the EMA cross actually earned its keep on your instrument.

Gotchas

• XAverage, not Average. Average is the simple (equal-weight) MA; XAverage is exponential. Mixing them up gives a completely different line.
• Seeding. XAverage seeds internally; the manual version seeds from the first price, so expect a tiny early-bar difference.
• next bar at market avoids look-ahead in the strategy.

Same indicator elsewhere: Python, MQL5, Pine Script, NinjaScript. Then backtest it in AlgoGen.

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This post is educational, not financial advice. Indicators describe the past; they don’t predict the future. Backtest anything before you risk real money on it.