Line Drawing

Line Drawing

SSchart supports drawing of lines, fibonacci's, and regression channels in the price pane of charts. In order to draw lines, you must first enable the display of the drawing toolbar under {View | Drawing bar}.

The components of the drawing toolbar, from left to right, are:

  • line color selector
  • line style selector
  • drawing tool buttons:
    • normal cursor mode button (exits line draw mode)
    • horizontal line tool
    • vertical line tool
    • line segment tool
    • ray draw tool
    • infinite line draw tool
    • fibonacci tool
    • regression channel tool
    • parallel line tool

Drawing lines

To draw a line on the currently selected chart, you must first enter drawing mode, by selecting one of the drawing tool buttons. While in drawing mode the cursor will appear as a pencil anytime the cursor is in the drawing area of a chart. While in drawing mode, you can not move the quick alerts, or enter/modify orders via graphical trading. To exit drawing mode, hit <esc> or select the normal cursor mode button in the drawing toolbar.

Drawing horizontal or vertical lines
 
Horizontal and vertical lines require only the specification of a single point. Move the cursor (pencil) to the point to define the line and <click> the left mouse button once. This will draw the line in the "selected state", as indicated by the line being displayed in the feedback color with the "line handle" displayed.
horizontal line in "selected state"
 
The line is not yet permanently placed. To finish placing the line, move the cursor off the line slightly and <click> again. This will place the line, causing the "handle" to disappear, and the line to be redrawn in the selected line color and line style.
 
Moving a line
 
When the line is in selected mode it can be moved, by pointing at the line handle (white box on the line in illustration above) and dragging the line to the new location.
 
This is a "drag-and-drop" operation. Point at the handle, (the cursor changes to a hand when it is positioned to grasp the line), hold down the left mouse button, move the cursor to the new location, then release the mouse button.
 
Selecting an already placed line
 
You can reselect a line that has been placed, by pointing on the line (until cursor changes to hand) and then <click>ing once. Once selected the line can be replaced as before, or moved, or deleted (by hitting <delete> key).
 
Deleting lines
 
You can delete individual lines from a chart by selecting the line and hitting <delete>.
 
To delete all lines from a chart <click> on the line segment displayed in the lower right corner of the chart. (This segment appears the same as the one on the line segment button. This segment will be shown anytime there are lines drawn on the chart, even if they are not currently visible.
 
Drawing line segments, rays, and infinite lines
 
The line segments, rays, and infinite line tools require the two points to define the placement of the line, otherwise they work as the description for horizontal and vertical lines.
 
To define the two points for placing the line, point the cursor (pencil) at the first point, hold down the (left) mouse button, and while holding it down, move the cursor to the second point, then release the mouse button.
 
This will draw the line on the chart in the "selected" state as shown below:
ray in selected state
 
Notice there are three "handles" on these line types. You can move the line by grasping any of the three. If the middle handle is grasped the line will remain parallel to the original when it is moved. If you grasp either of the end handles, then you are moving one of the defining points and the direction of the line will change accordingly
 
Drawing fibonacci lines
 
The fibonacci tool draws a series of horizontal retracement lines as defined under drawing preferences. The tool requires two defining points which are the 0 and 100% levels for calculating the retracement lines. Placement functions as if you were drawing a line segment from the 0 to 100% points.
 
Linear regression channels
 
This tool will calculate and draw and linear regression line and channel lines as configured in the drawing preference dialog. The channel is defined by two points. The points you define with the drawing to only server to select the bars (candles) of the end points for the calculation. The regression calculation used the closing prices of every bar between the first and last selected. The actual value used is the closing price of the selected
 
Parallel lines
 
To draw a line parallel to an existing line (segment, ray, or infinite), first select the existing line, then <click> the parallel line toolbar button. You place the new line parallel to the existing one by defining one point on the chart.
 
Caveats
 
Rescaling of the chart is inhibited while a line is selected. The result if this is that if the price moves out of range of the current scale you will not see the chart updating. Do not leave lines in the selected state indefinitely.
 
You can not select a line if the defining points for the line are out of the current view of the chart. Either enlarge the view, scroll the chart, or delete all lines and redraw.

 

[Back To Contents]
SSChart is a trademark of Simian Savants LLC
Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Simian Savants LLC. All rights reserved
.