BarChart will plot the Heikin-Ashi Smoothed indicator with four types of MAs: Simple, Weighted, Exponential, or Hull, with the default type being just ‘MA’. Each MA type gives a different view of price action, HMA markedly so. SMA seems to give the most smoothed view (for reasons of its underlying mathematics).
If you’re going to base your investing/trading decisions on the indicator, you should explore all four MA types --plus the default-- and make a choice for this reason. As the Buddhist proverb says, “A way of seeing is also a way of not seeing.”
The indicator also allows the choice of the lookback period for the MAs, with the default being ‘10’. (The lower the value --hence, the shorter the period-- the less smoothed the price bars will be. (The opposite obtains.)
To see which which MA type and which lookback period you’d prefer to use, reset the indicator to its default values, clone it, and then start changing the variables for one of them. Also, apply the variations to a lot of stocks.
I think the default value for the MA type is plenty good enough. But the lookback period should be shortened from the default value of ‘10’ to something in the ‘3’ to ‘5’ range.
Arindam
PS. This, belatedly, is why my HA Smoohie charts have been looking different from those others have been constructing. We weren’t using the same lookback periods for the indicator even though our lookbacks for the whole chart might have been the same. My bad for not realizing this sooner.