Time and Calendar Functions

year (int offset): int

month (int offset): int

week (int offset): int

day (int offset): int

date (int offset): int

dom (int offset): int

tdm (int offset): int

tom (int offset): int

dow (int offset): int

ldow (int zone,int offset): int

hour (int offset): int

lhour (int zone, int offset): int

minute (int offset): int

tod (int offset): int

ltod (int zone, int offset): int

tow (int offset): int

ltow (int zone, int offset): int

second (): var

wdate(int offset): var

minutesAgo (int offset): int

minutesWithin (int offset): var

workday (int offset): bool

market (int zone, int offset): bool

dst (int zone, int offset): int

Parameters:

Usage:

strdate (string Format, int offset): string

strdate (string Format, var Date): string

wdatef (string Format, string DateTime): var

Parameters:

Usage:

timeOffset (int zone, int days, int hour, int minute): int

Parameters:

Usage:

Remarks:

• If not stated otherwise, all dates and times are UTC (Greenwich mean time without daylight saving time).
• Date and time functions return 0 at the initial run of the strategy when the bars are not set up yet.
• When offset is omitted, the time of the current bar is returned. When offset is set to NOW, the current time is returned.
• The offset parameter is affected by TimeFrame. F.i. when TimeFrame is 6 and offset is 3, the time of 3*6 = 18 bars ago is returned.
• The time functions require a LookBack period of at least the highest used or returned offset.
• Most date and time functions return int, but some return var - take care of that when using the functions in a printf statement (see example).
• In live trading the time reflects the server time.  !!  Do not rely on 100% precision when using time conditions for trade entry. A typical trap is checking the weekday (dow()) exactly at midnight. If the server time is a second slower than your PC time, you might get a tick with a 23:59:59 time stamp, while your PC clock has already the next day at 00:00:00. When using daily bars, check the whole time and not only the day, or set the bar offset so that the bars do not change exactly at midnight.

Examples:

// buy at UTC midday at the last day of the month, 
// sell 2 trading days later
function run()
{
  BarPeriod = 60;
  algo("Monthly");
  if(NumOpenLong == 0) { // not yet bought this month
    if((tom(0) == tdm(0)) && hour() >= 12)
      enterLong();
  } else if(tdm(0) >= 2)
      exitLong();
}

// helper function in default.c for printing the date
string datetime()
{
	return strf("%02d.%02d.%02d %02d:%02d:%02d",
		day(),month(),year()-2000,hour(),minute(),(int)second());
}

See also: