Nadaraya-Watson: Rational Quadratic Kernel (Non-Repainting)

What is Nadaraya–Watson Regression?
Nadaraya–Watson Regression is a type of Kernel Regression, which is a non-parametric method for estimating the curve of best fit for a dataset. Unlike Linear Regression or Polynomial Regression, Kernel Regression does not assume any underlying distribution of the data. For estimation, it uses a kernel function, which is a weighting function that assigns a weight to each data point based on how close it is to the current point. The computed weights are then used to calculate the weighted average of the data points.

How is this different from using a Moving Average?
A Simple Moving Average is actually a special type of Kernel Regression that uses a Uniform (Retangular) Kernel function. This means that all data points in the specified lookback window are weighted equally. In contrast, the Rational Quadratic Kernel function used in this indicator assigns a higher weight to data points that are closer to the current point. This means that the indicator will react more quickly to changes in the data.

Why use the Rational Quadratic Kernel over the Gaussian Kernel?
The Gaussian Kernel is one of the most commonly used Kernel functions and is used extensively in many Machine Learning algorithms due to its general applicability across a wide variety of datasets. The Rational Quadratic Kernel can be thought of as a Gaussian Kernel on steroids; it is equivalent to adding together many Gaussian Kernels of differing length scales. This allows the user even more freedom to tune the indicator to their specific needs.
The formula for the Rational Quadratic function is:
K(x, x') = (1 + ||x - x'||^2 / (2 * alpha * h^2))^(-alpha)
where x and x' data are points, alpha is a hyperparameter that controls the smoothness (i.e. overall "wiggle") of the curve, and h is the band length of the kernel.

Does this Indicator Repaint?
No, this indicator has been intentionally designed to NOT repaint. This means that once a bar has closed, the indicator will never change the values in its plot. This is useful for backtesting and for trading strategies that require a non-repainting indicator.

Settings:

• Bandwidth. This is the number of bars that the indicator will use as a lookback window.
  
• Relative Weighting Parameter. The alpha parameter for the Rational Quadratic Kernel function. This is a hyperparameter that controls the smoothness of the curve. A lower value of alpha will result in a smoother, more stretched-out curve, while a lower value will result in a more wiggly curve with a tighter fit to the data. As this parameter approaches 0, the longer time frames will exert more influence on the estimation, and as it approaches infinity, the curve will become identical to the one produced by the Gaussian Kernel.
  
• Color Smoothing. Toggles the mechanism for coloring the estimation plot between rate of change and cross over modes.
  

Versionshinweise:

Added paper for those that may be interested in reading more.

Versionshinweise:

• Added alarms for color changes due to popular request
  
• Added option to specify starting index of regression
  
• Added additional reading reference regarding the Rational Quadratic Kernel for those that are interested
  
• Minor refactoring to make code more readable
  

Versionshinweise:

• Further code simplifications and minor refactoring for clarity
  

Versionshinweise:

Added an alert stream for those wishing to backtest by feeding the source into another indicator (e.g., Zendog v3). Use -1 value for Bearish Signal and 1 for Bullish Signal.