Taking the sign on a indicator signal

[SkullTech]

How can I create an indicator in the __init__ of my strategy which just outputs the sign (positive or negative, +1 or -1) of another indicator?

[Robin Dhillon]

Well, technically you can do that pretty easy. Make a custom indicator that follows the same formulation as your target one, and normalize it to output +1, if it goes above a certain threshold value and vice-versa for the -1. Take a look at the indicator reference and see how you can go about doing this.

[ab_trader]

try

    def __init__(self):
        self.l.indicator_2 = (indicator_1 > 0) - (indicator_1 < 0)

[SkullTech]

Thanks for the help @Robin-Dhillon @ab_trader !!!

You're right, it was as simple as declaring

self.indicator3 = indicator1 > indicator2

I was getting confused because it wasn't showing up in the plot, and because of that I was thinking that I was doing something wrong. I had to do this for the plot to show up.

[backtrader]

Individual operations (i.e.: dynamic lines created through operations) are NOT indicators and only indicators do plot.

You should properly wrap things in the proper structure if you want them plotted. See Docs - Plotting