DCA across timeframes: how margin splits by weight

Key takeaways

1. 1DCA across timeframes splits one position into legs on different chart timeframes.
2. 2Each leg’s weight is 1 / (distance from base + 1), normalized to 100%.
3. 3Every leg is an alert; keep only legs that pay for their fees.

What DCA means here

Dollar-cost averaging usually means buying a fixed amount on a schedule. In TensorTrader it means something related: splitting one position into legs that fire on different chart timeframes. The same strategy on the 15-minute, 1-hour and 4-hour charts enters at different moments for different reasons, so the position builds gradually instead of all at once. It is on by default in the extension's Batch Create, TrendSpider and GoCharting panels, and required for TT-Autotune batches.

The controls

Base timeframe

The anchor leg; it gets the largest share of margin

TF spectrum

The timeframes legs may use, default 1, 5, 15, 60, 240, 720, 1440 minutes

Extra pyramids

How many legs beyond the base; they alternate above and below the base

Total margin USD

Default 100, split across legs by weight

How the weights are computed

Each leg's weight is 1 / (distance from the base + 1), and the weights are then normalized to add up to 100%. With a 60-minute base and two extra pyramids (240 and 15), the base is at distance 0 and each neighbour is at distance 1, so the raw weights are 1, 0.5 and 0.5, which normalize to 50%, 25% and 25%. With 100 USD total margin, that is 50 USD on the 1-hour leg and 25 USD on each of the others.

weight(leg) = 1 / (distance_from_base + 1)
normalized  = weight / sum(weights)
margin(leg) = total_margin * normalized

Editing legs

The leg table shows timeframe, weight and an editable USD margin for each leg. Edit a leg and the panel warns you if the legs no longer add up: "Per-leg margins total $X while Total margin is $Y." Badges show how many alerts the plan creates, how many TradingView alert slots remain, and "N tokens × N TF legs". Extra pyramids are capped by both the spectrum length and your remaining quota, so a plan never exceeds what TradingView allows.

When DCA across timeframes helps, and when it hurts

1. 1Helps: smoothing entries when you are unsure which timeframe carries the signal.
2. 2Helps: letting a slow timeframe carry most of the position while a fast one fine-tunes it.
3. 3Hurts: when fast legs trade so often that fees exceed their edge.
4. 4Hurts: when the alert quota is tight and legs crowd out more tokens.
5. 5Measure: compare net ROI per leg on paper and remove legs that do not pay.

A second worked example

With a 4-hour base and three extra pyramids on the default spectrum, the legs land on 4 hours, 12 hours, 1 hour and 1 day. The two nearest legs sit at distance 1 and the farthest at distance 2, so raw weights are 1, 0.5, 0.5 and 0.33, normalizing to about 43%, 21%, 21% and 14%. On 200 USD of total margin that is roughly 86, 43, 43 and 29 USD. The spread keeps most exposure on the timeframe you trust most while still letting faster and slower views contribute.

Where the legs show up

Each leg is its own alert, so the Alerts tab lists one row per leg and the Intelligence tab ranks each leg's settings separately. That is exactly what you need to judge whether a leg earns its keep.

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as averaging down?

No. Legs fire on their own timeframe signals, not because price moved against you.

Can I turn DCA off?

Yes, in Batch Create; the plan then uses one timeframe. TT-Autotune batches require it.

How many legs should I use?

Start with the base plus one or two, and add only legs that earn after fees.

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