From the discussion of the parameter values, here: http://news.cqg.com/blogs/coding/2014/04/parameters-inside-cqg-code, I am guessing that the unique date and time specified in parameters are the usual POSIX values most computers use. Is there a way to extract unique date/time values from an event, like a peak or a cross? And can you define a date/time range, and a date/time difference, in a way that lets you use such ranges or difference in a formula or study? I saw the discussion of the TIMER function, here: http://news.cqg.com/blogs/coding/2013/09/timer-helper-and-cqgs-setreset-function
but I have not been able to figure out how to do similar things for periods that extend over multiple days.

Let me be more concrete. I would like to find programmatically, for each day in a specified date range, say June 15 to Aug 14, the difference between the opening price of a security and the closing price the day before. Can I do that? And if so how?

Second question: I’d like to return the dates and times when certain rare events occur. Say, for example, I want the dates and times when the 12 period moving average crosses the 144-period moving average in the first hour of the daytime trading session for a security. Can I get those date/time values? If so, how?

I have identified several functions, most recently High Low First (HiLo1) , which do not work when trading on Renko bricks. When I say “don’t work” I do not mean that they give the wrong answer, but rather, that they do not give any answer at all. I have sometimes spent a lot of time trying to understand why something isn’t working before finally trying in on candles instead.

I have not been able to identify any commonalty in these functions , functions that work on candles but not on Renkos. The High Low First function is a good example, in that there is no obvious conceptual incompatibility between Renko bricks and a function that inquires whether the high within the brick occurred before the low in the brick or, conversely.

Do you have a list of functions known not to work with Renko bricks? Alternatively, can you provide a rule of thumb, or some way that I could use to identify or predict which functions will fail in this setting?

To start, you will want to make use of the Hour(@) and Minute(@) functions to get the current time. You will multiply the Hour(@) by 60 and add it to the minute to get the current day's time integer. In a custom study, you will create four parameters for the example you propose, such as "hour1," "minute1," "hour2," and "minute2."

Then you might code the formula as follows:
a1:= Hour(@)*60 + Minute(@);
b1:= hour2 *60 + minute2;
c1:= hour1*60 + minute1;
d1:= (Close(@),D)[-1];
e1:= a1 xabove b1;
price:= IF(a1 >=b1, g1, f2);
f1:= a1 xabove c1;
f2:= IF(a1 >= c1, h1, d1) ;
g1:= Close(@) When e1;
h1:= Close(@) When f1;
price

I used variables because that usually makes my studies easier to follow, but in this case, it might have been easier to just write it as a large "nested if" statement. Basically, it checks to see if the current time is equal to or greater than the latest time parameter. If it is, then it returns "g1" which is the price of the instrument when that condition became true, and if not, checks for the earlier time parameter. Finally, if it is earlier in the day than either time parameter, I told it to give me the previous day's close ("d1").

To create a chart, left click on the ‘Chart’ toolbar button in the upper left corner of your CQG screen. A chart appears. In the lower left corner of the chart is a blinking cursor. This is the command line where the symbol and/or the time frame (Intraday and Historical) are entered. You can use the following Intraday time frames: 1 through 60 minutes (1, 10, 30, etc.). You can use the following Historical time frames: Daily (,D), Weekly (,W), Monthly (,M), Quarterly (,Q), and Annually (,A). CQG provides multiple chart types: Bar, Percent Bar, No Gap, Fill Gap, Equalize Sessions, Candlestick, Line, Constant Volume Bar, Tick, Point and Figure, Market Profile, Yield, and Spread Bar. For more information on charting, visit the CQG User Guide Web page and the CQG IC Quick Reference Card.