All of the charts options can be accessed by right clicking on the Daily Chart. This opens up a menu, from which sub menus and chart settings can be accessed.
Information is divided into these sections
To chart another stock:
A dialog box labeled "New Stock" will appear.
The data for this stock will be downloaded from the Stockwatch database and the chart will redraw.
The five most recently charted stocks are displayed on the Stocks menu. To chart one of these stocks, select it from the Stocks menu.
To display more than 1 day of trading:
The Daily chart will download previous days trading activity and redraw the chart
To chart the trading activity of a stock on another exchange select the "Exchange" on the Stocks menu and pick an exchange from the sub-menu shown. The sub-menu diplays the exchanges this stock is listed on. Note, that some exchanges may not trade a stock even though it is listed.
To view a stock's trading history from another day:
The Date dialog will be displayed. This dialog shows the date and exchange this stock was listed on going back one year.
The chart will load the day's trading and then redraw the chart.
To return to today's chart, either select its symbol on the Stocks menu, or using the Date dialog click Get Date with today's date entered.
If no trades have been made in the stock you are interested in, the Chart applet will not display a chart. This can happen if you select a secondary exchange for a stock on which no trades have been made today.
You can also select a previous day's trading by choosing "New Stock" from the Stocks menu, and entering the date in date field.
To review 5 prior days of trading, click on "Five Days" and follow the procedure for "Changing Dates".
Stock prices are displayed in the top half of the of the Intra-day applet.
Prices can be displayed in four different ways:
The chart can be zoomed in and out by using the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons. The keys "i" and "o" are shortcuts that zoom the display as well. The chart zooms in the time axis only. To adjust the vertical axis stretch the window by dragging its border.
The time interval plotted on the chart can be adjusted from 1 minute to 30 minutes. Click on the drop down list marked 1 min to change the interval.
Moving the cursor displays summary information for the selected time interval. This information includes the time, the number of trades in this period, the high, low and last price traded at, the moving average value if one is selected and the value of the indicators being used.
Besides the information cursor, you can choose 2 cursors for drawing lines, and another type of information cursor.
To draw a line segment:
A line will rubber-band from this point to your mouse
pointer as you move the mouse
To draw a horizontal line:
A horizontal line will move with the mouse around the price display area.
To erase a line: Select "Erase last line" from the Prices menu or select "Clear Lines" to remove all of your lines.
Lines are not saved with your charts, if you'd line a record of your chart with lines you can print the chart.
To use the cross hair cursor, select it from the drop down cursor list. As you move your mouse, the chart coordinates ( time and price ) will be displayed in the summary line.
Three moving averages can be added to the price display by checking Moving Average 1, 2 or 3 on the Prices menu. By default these are 12, 24 and 36 period simple moving averages. The setting for these moving averages can be changed by selecting "Moving Average Options" from the Options menu.
Bollinger Bands can be added to price display by selecting Bollinger Bands from the Prices menu. Bollinger Bands are two lines drawn 2 standard deviations on either side of a simple moving average of the stock price. The moving average and standard deviations are calculated over the same period. The default period is 20 which can be changed from the Options menu.
Parabolic Stop and Reverse (SAR) is used to set stops in a trending market, and to indicate when you should be going long or short. Parabolic does not work properly when the market is fairly flat.
Tommorrow's Stop = Today's Stop + AF * ( ExtremePoint - Today's Stop)
AF - is the acceleration factor
ExtremePoint - is the extreme point reached by the
market in the current trade. If long the Extreme Point is the highest
high, if short it is the lowest low.
Acceleration factor increases each time the market reaches a new extreme point up to a maximum. By default the acceleration factor starts at 0.02 and increases by that amount to a maximum of 0.2. The starting acceleration factor and its maximum may be adjusted from the chart menu Options > Parabolic options.
Darvas Boxes were developed by Nicolas Darvas, and described in his book “How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market”.
A five step state machine is used to calculate the values for the boxes. First you set the top of a box to today’s high. Looking at the next day if it is higher you set a new box top. Once you get a value that is lower you can set the bottom of a box. When the top and bottom have been established, you break out of a box if the stock makes a high or low outside of your box.
Buy signals are generated when the price goes above the top of the box. Sell signals are generated when the closing price goes below the bottom of a box.
Keltner channels are calculated using moving average and price ranges. The middle line is an exponential moving average, default period is 20. The true range for each point is the maximum of: high – low, yesterday’s close – low, or high – yesterday’s close. The true ranges are also averaged and then the upper band is draw at 2 times true range above the center and the lower band is 2 times true range below the center.
The period of the center line moving average, and the true range moving average can be set from the Prices menu “Kelter Channel Options”.
Volume is grouped into 12 price ranges and horizontal bars are drawn to represent the relative volume at each price level. The bars are drawn at the left edge of the chart.
Indicators are plotted beneath the price display. Indicators are calculated from the price and volume of a stock. You can view one or more indicators at a time. To view more than one indicator check Multiple Indicators on the Indicator menu. To view only one indicator un-check Multiple Indicators.
Selecting an indicator puts a check mark beside it on the Indicator menu. In Multiple Indicator mode, clicking on an indicator again will remove it from the chart. You display a chart with no indicators by un-checking each one.
Most indicators have default starting parameters. To change these parameters select Indicator Options under the Options menu and select the Indicator whose parameters you would like to change.
Indicator values for a specific time interval are displayed on the summary line when the cursor is moved. If several indicators have been selected, some of the values may not fit on this line.
Simply the volume of shares traded in a period. Shown as a vertical bar. If share prices are in thousands the scale abbreviation is "m", if prices are in millions the abbreviation is "M".
On Balance Volume is a running total of volume where the positive interval's volume is added and the negative interval's volume is subtracted. It was developed by Joseph Granville. If a intervals close is higher than the previous interval, the volume is added to the total, if it is less it is subtracted.
Moving Averages Convergence Divergence was originally developed by Gerald Appel. Two curves are generated. The primary series is the difference between two exponential moving averages of different periods. This difference oscillates around the zero line.
The secondary series is an exponential moving average of the primary series. This curve trails the first one. Trades are signaled when the two series cross each other.
The MACD Histogram is formed by subtracting the secondary or trigger line from the primary MACD line. The difference is plotted as a histogram. The default moving average periods are 12 and 25.
Two curves are plotted for stochastics. The %K, or raw stochastic is the position of a day's close as a % of the range established by the high and low of the time period we are using. This curve is then exponentially smoothed to give the %D curve.
The formula is %K = 100 ( ( Close - Low of period ) / ( High of period - Low of period ) )
Then %D = 100 x ( Sum of n( Close - Low of period ) ) / ( Sum of n( High of period - Low of period ) )
The default starting parameters are 5 for the %K period and 7 for the %D period.
Similar to Stochastics but with smoothing.
Ctod - today's close
Ln - lowest point for n days
Hn - highest point for n days
n - selected by trader ( default n is 5 )
Ctod - Ln * 100
%K= ----------
Hn - Ln
%D = %K smoothed usually over 3 days
The default starting parameters are for Slow Stochastic are 5 and 3.
The Relative Strength Indicator measures the strength of a stock against itself. It is a type of momentum indicator. RSI is not the same as Relative Strength which measures a stock against some market index.
RSI was developed by J. Welles Wilder.
The formula is: RSI = 100 - 100/(1 + RS)
Where RS is the ratio of the exponential moving averages of Gains over Loses. Gains and Loses are measured from one day's close to the previous day's close.
Momentum is the difference between two prices subtracting the second price from the first. The prices are a constant number of intervals apart. This interval can be changed, the default is 7 intervals.
Rate of Change is related to momentum. Rate of Change is the close price of the first interval divided by the price of a second interval. The prices are a constant number of intervals apart. This interval can be changed, the default is 13 intervals.
Directional Movement indicator is based on formulas given in "Trading for a Living" by Alexander Elder. Calculating Directional Movement is a multi-step process.
1) DM is the largest part of today's range outside of yesterday's range. DM can be positive or negative. Make both +DM and -DM positive.
2)
3) Calculate +DI = DI/TR or -DI = DI/TR.
4) Smooth +DI and -DI with a moving average, using a default 13 day period.
5) Calculate DX using this formula.
+DI - (-DI)
DX = -------------- * 100
+DI + (-DI)
6) Smooth DX to get ADX with a 13 day moving average.
Money Flow Index gives an indication of whether or not money is moving into or out of a stock.
First calculate the minute, or period's Money Flow.
Typical Price = (hi + lo + close)
Money Flow = (hi + lo + close) * volume / 3
If the current Typical Price is greater than the previous Typical Price then Money Flow is positive, otherwise it is negative.
We create the positive Money Flow by summing positive values over a period. We sum the negative values to get the negative Money Flow.
The Money Ratio is Positive Money Flow divided by Negative Money Flow.
Money Flow Index = 100 - (100/(1 + Money Ratio)
Money Flow Index varies from 0 to 100. The period used when summing up positive and negative money flow values can be set from the menu by choosing: Indicator > Options > Money Flow.
Larry Williams developed Williams %R to measure the capacity of bulls and bears to close a stock near the edge of recent range.
Williams measures the location of each closing price in the recent high-low trading range.
Expressed as a precentage: Williams = 100 * ( RangeHi - Close )/(RangeHi - RangeLo)
The indicator defaults to a 7 period range. This can be set from the menu by choosing Indicator > Options > Williams %R.
Accumulation/Distribution is a measure of how close a stock closes to its high or low. To calculate subtract a portion of the day's volume from a running total of volume.
A/D = sum of [ (close - low) - (high - close) / (high - low) * volume ]
If the stock closes close to its high A/D increases, if the close is closer to the low it decreases.
Chaikin Money Flow is closely related to Accumulation/Distribution. It is calculated by summing the Accumulation/Distribution values over a period and dividing the sum by the sum of trading volume over the same period.
sum of [ (close - low) - (high - close) / (high -
low) * volume ]
------------------------------------------------------
sum of [
volume ]
The default period is five.
CCI measures the variation of a stock's price from its average price. A high CCI means that the stock is priced high compared to the average, low values indicate unusually low prices.
CCI = ( (Typical Price) - (SMATP) ) / ( (0.015) * (Mean Deviation) )
Calculated by:
Typical Price = ( H + L + C ) /
3 , H = high, L = low, and C = close
SMATP -- Simple Moving Average of the Typical Price during
period m_iPeriod
Mean Deviation -- Mean Deviation in period m_iPeriod
Percentage Price Oscillator is based on the difference between 2 moving averages of different periods. The result is divided by the faster moving average to normalize the values.
PPO = (Fast_EMA - Slow_EMA) /
Fast_EMA
Volume can also be displayed for each Broker. To display the prices at which a broker traded select Prices by Broker.
To display Volume by Broker select Volume by Broker from the Indicator menu. If Prices by Broker has been selected, selecting Volume by Broker will bring up the broker volume display for the current broker. If Prices by Broker has not been selected, a dialog box will display the list of brokers that have traded today and allow you to select one.
The volume display will show the volume of each trade made by the broker as well as a the cumulative buy and sell positions of this broker.
In the Volume display buying volume is shown as a blue bar descending from
the center and selling volume is a red bar ascending from the center. The
blue connected line is a running total of buying volume and the red connected
line is a running total of selling volume. Note: The total volumes
are not plotted in the same scale as individual trade volumes. The value
of the volume totals is shown on the summary line at the top of the chart.
The details of each individual trade are listed in the bottom panel of the Intra-day chart. The time range is shown followed by the number of trades, the high and low prices of this period and the volume of shares.
For each trade the chart lists: the time it occurred, the price, the change from yesterday's close, the number of shares, the buying broker and the selling broker. Stocks traded on the NASDAQ and NYSE do not have broker information.
For some fast trading stocks, trades will be summaried. In this case the format will be: time of trades, high and low prices for this range, change from the low price, volume and number of trades that make up this trading range.
Price by Broker shows the prices of trades made by a broker today. To display the volume that each broker traded select Volume by Broker from the Indicator menu.
To display broker prices select "Prices by Broker" from the Prices menu. A dialog will be displayed showing the brokers who have traded this stock today sorted by total volume. Select a broker from the list and press Ok. The Price display will show each trade made by the broker. If you have already selected "Volume by Broker" it will skip the dialog and use the broker you selected for the volume.
Buys are shown as blue squares, sells are shown as red squares and cross trades are shown as black squares.
The chart summary is a collection of information about the trading range the cursor is positioned on. To turn this display check the Show Summary menu item from the Options sub-menu. Left click the mouse on the chart to select the time period you would like to display summary information for. The chart summary displays trading range and indicator values. To turn it off un-check the Show Summary menu item.
To turn on the scale grid check Show Grid on the Options menu. To turn it off un-check Show Grid.
Sometimes it is useful to use a logarithmic scale for stocks that have an order of magnitude or more price fluctuation. To turn on log scale check Log Scale on the Options menu. To turn if off un-check it.
American stocks usually trade in fractional increments such as 1/8s or 1/16s. By default NASDAQ and NYSE stock prices will be printed using these fractions. To display decimal prices un-check Fractions. To switch back check Fractions.
The trade list is the area underneath the indicators that displays a list of trades for an interval as you move the cursor around. To reduce the size of the chart you can hide this list by un-checking Show Trade List. Checking it will bring back the list.
Stock splits and adjustments are automatically included when displaying a chart. To view the price history without the effect of these adjustments un-check Adjust for Splits. To include them again check Adjust for Splits.
Last modified: June 13, 2001