2.1 The Basics
2.1.2 Modifying Charts
Anything that is located on a Multi-Pane chart is referred to as an
"element" in the MarketDelta® software.
To edit a chart element's properties, click the edit Chart Element icon on the chart toolbar. If not present, right click chart and choose Show
Toolbar. Select the chart element to be edited from the list. When modifications are complete, save the chart using File | Save or press CRTL+S.
You may also edit a chart element's properties by right-clicking on the chart element in the chart window. For example, if you wish to change the properties of a moving average, aim the tip of the mouse pointer at the moving average and right-click. Usually, the property settings
window for the chart element appears. If you right-click in the chart and
"miss" the element, MarketDelta® will provide a list of elements from which to choose.
Another method is to simply click on the element. If MarketDelta®
recognizes which element you clicked on, the line will become
highlighted to indicate it is selected. Press the Delete key to delete the
2.1.2.1 Accessing Preferences
Accessing Individual Chart Preferences
1. Double click the time scale at the bottom of the multi-pane chart 2. or Right click the chart and choose Preferences | Chart.
Accessing Global Chart Preferences
These are the preferences that will be inherited by newly created Multi-Pane Charts when using "File | New | Chart". They can be adjusted under Setup | Preferences | Chart | General Chart Preferences.
There are 6 tab menus for multi-pane charts. Each pane has various settings and menus that can be adjusted.
Style - Choices are Bar, Candlestick, Connected Line, Continuous Line, Histogram, Invisible, % Change Bar, % Change Candles, % Change Line , Wickless Candles, Bi-color Line, Day Change Candles, Day % Change Bars, High Low Bars, Point and Figure, Volume Profile, Footprint®.
Periodicity - Used to change the time frame of the chart. See the tutorial called Periodicity.
Chart Name - Can change the name of the chart by retyping a new name. This will be the name that shows up in the "Open Chart" menu.
Height and Width - Sets the actual dimensions of the chart.
Periodicity - Used to change the time frame of the chart. See the tutorial called Periodicity.
Tick: Last - sets the default amount of time to load into the chart when this periodicity is chosen. Ex. Load 1 day of tick data when viewing charts that require tick data, such as the Footprint® chart.
Minute: Last -sets the default amount of time to load into the chart when this periodicity is chosen.
Daily: Last - sets the default amount of time to load into the chart when this periodicity is chosen.
Weekly: Last - sets the default amount of time to load into the chart when this periodicity is chosen.
Monthly: Last - sets the default amount of time to load into the chart when this periodicity is chosen.
Right Margin - set the default number of pixels for the right margin on charts.
Background Color - sets the default background color of all new charts created. Click the color to select.
Background Color | Gradient - when "checked", Up color would be the color at top of chart, Dn would be color at bottom of chart and both colors would be "gradiated" in between to give a nice smooth look to the chart background. Some suggestions might be using light colors that are slightly different from one another.
Scale Color - color of the price scale lines and price scale numbers.
This does not change the Footprint® text color. Footprint® text color can be changed here.
Title Bar Background - sets the pane title bar background color.
Title Text color - sets the text and number color in the pane title bars.
Grid Lines - sets the color of the grid lines throughout the chart area.
Candle Colors - sets the color of the body of candlestick bars for when they are "Up" bars and "Down" bars.
Candle/Bar Border - sets the border of candlestick bodies.
Bar Colors - sets the color of the body of bars for when they are "Up"
bars and "Down" bars.
Line/Histogram - sets the color of lines that might be applied to the chart.
Hollow Up-Candles - Check mark the "Hollow Up-Candles" if you wish candlestick charts to be drawn with hollow candles for the up candles. If this box is left unchecked, the up candles are drawn solid. The hollow format is recommended for printing since the hollow up candles can easily be distinguished from the solid down candles on
monochrome printers.
Grid Lines - The "Draw Grid Lines..." section is used to specify when grid lines are drawn in chart windows. Some users prefer to see the grid lines in intra-day charts but not in daily/weekly/monthly charts. Check the boxes to indicate which periods should be charted with gridlines.
Draw Border - This is used to draw borders on selected chart types.
Draw Hollow Histograms - If this checkbox is checked, histogram chart types will be drawn with hollow, as opposed to solid, histograms.
Pane Titles - This checkbox allows you to specify whether or not to show the title bars in each window pane when the chart is first created.
Mouse Feedback - When mouse feed back is on for a particular traditional chart, moving the mouse inside that chart window, shows feedback messages in the status message area of the main toolbar. The messages show the current date/time and the current price value at the tip of the mouse pointer. Note that the price values shown are
Highlight Price in Vertical Scale - When selected the current price will be displayed on the vertical price scale on the right of the chart.
Default chart size - You may also specify the default size of the simple chart by entering the width and height of the window in pixels (there are approximately 72 pixels per inch on screen).
Crosshairs - when selected cross hairs will be ON by default. A
shortcut to view cross hairs without having the enabled all the time is to hold the CTRL+SHIFT key down and move mouse.
Scale Font - Controls the general size of the price scale font.
Intraday Horz Scale Marks Every - If checked, it will determine how frequent horizontal scale lines are applied.
The FP data column only applies to Footprint® charts. The Footprint® chart is designed to track price, volume and order flow in a variety of ways: volume at each price, breakdown the volume at each price (bid vs. ask), ticks at each price, and quantify and display the actual transacted trades at each price. Buy volume is defined as volume that occurred at the offer/ask. Sell volume is defined as volume that occurred at the bid. The difference between these two values (Buy volume minus Sell volume) is the delta and can be a good indicator of buying or selling pressure.
Chart VOLUME At Price - This is by far the most popular. It will plot the volume, a breakdown of volume, or the delta for each particular price.
Chart TIME (SECONDS) At Price - This plots the number of seconds traded at each price. Probably one of the most interesting views for this setting is the Footprint® Profile which would essentially plot a "time" distribution for a given bar.
Chart TRADES At Price - This plots the number of trades (ticks or transactions) at a particular price. It does not pay attention to volume, just the number of transactions occurring at each price. Probably one of the most interesting views for this setting is the Footprint® Profile which would essentially plot a "transaction" distribution for a given bar.
Breakdown by ASK vs BID Delta - This is by far the most popular. It takes the
volume and breaks it down to create the bid ask chart, sums it to create the volume and Footprint® Profile, or does some other math to create the delta or other types of
Footprints®.
Breakdown by BIG vs SMALL - Volume and the # of trades can optionally be broken down by "Big vs Small" trade volumes or "Up vs Down Tick" volumes (as opposed to Buy vs Sell Volumes). However, "Buy vs Sell Vol" is the most common choice and generally regarded as the most informative. More specifically, "Big vs Small" shows the volume of trades that exceed the level you specify to the right of 'x' and all other volume to the left of 'x'. For instance, if 100 was specified as "Big Volume", then trades >= 100 in volume would be placed to the right of 'x' and trades with volume < 100 would be placed to the left of 'x'. It may be best to use this option as "trades" instead of "volume".
It may be more useful this way.
Volume Filter - Consider Only Trades w/ Size - This is a volume filter, sometimes called an institutional volume filter, that can be used to filter trades of a certain size.
Price Range of Each Row - Automatic will display the symbol however the default instrument display format is setup. Custom Range will display the price scale based upon what is input here and not on the default price increment of the symbol being displayed.
Footprint® Style (Types) - See this chapter.
Divider - used with the bid x ask vol Footprint® type as an option to change the character between the volumes displayed on the Footprint®.
Shade Text Only - shades the actual text shown in the Footprint®
instead of the background.
Shade Dominant Side - shades only the side (bid or ask) that
experienced more volume. Only used with the bid x ask vol Footprint®.
Open/Close Box - adds a small bar directly adjacent to the Footprints® indicating whether the bar closed higher or lower.
Draw Borders - draws a border around each Footprint® cell.
Text Color - controls the color of the text within the Footprint®.
Shading (Automatic) - preferred. Lets MarketDelta® auto-shade each Footprint® according to the shading algorithm.
Shading (Manual) - shades the Footprint® according to the delta values entered. Essentially creates 4 shades of "buy" colors and 4 shades of "sell" colors.
Ask Volume Color - controls the color of the Footprints® with more trading at the Ask price.
Bid Volume Color - controls the color of the Footprints® with more trading at the Bid price.
Total Volume Color - controls the color of the volume style (type) Footprints® and the color of the FPPS indicator graphics that get displayed if added to the chart.
2.1.2.2 Vertical Scaling
Much of the price scaling is controlled by how the instrument is initially setup. When viewing a chart press ALT+A on the keyboard to open the Setup Instruments window. Set the display format to match that of your symbol, press OK. If the chart does not immediately adjust, change the time frame on the chart to force a complete "redraw" of the chart.
How to Adjust the Price Scale
MarketDelta® contains 3 different primary chart types: Footprint®
Classic, Market Profile®, and Multi-pane (includes Footprint®). Each offers a slightly different method to adjust the price scaling.
1) Footprint® & MULTI-PANE CHARTS - There are many more advanced options for multi-pane charts as described below. This 1 minute video give a quick overview.
Vertical Scaling Overview
Switching Quickly Between Scaling Methods
The current scaling method can be seen at any time in each panes scale in the upper right corner. To change between them click the letter.
Another way is to double left click the price scale. The following characters represent the following states:
A – Automatic based on all data values O – Automatic based on Instrument Only M – Manual Scaling
RA – Automatic Range-Based RM – Manual Range-Based
Adjusting scale by Dragging or Clicking
Vertical scaling by default is “Automatic”. The scale minimum and
maximum price values are obtained automatically by examining the price values of the instrument(s) in each chart pane as well as associated indicators. Manual scaling can set by right-clicking in the vertical scale area to access the Vertical Scale Setup window. A faster way to adjust the scale values and turn on manual scaling is to mouse down and drag the mouse up or down in the vertical scale area of the chart pane.
Where the mouse down (left mouse button) occurs affects the action when you drag the mouse. If you mouse down in the left hand side of the vertical scale area, the "Hand" cursor appears. Dragging the hand adjusts either the minimum or maximum scale value. Mouse down in the upper half of the pane to adjust the maximum scale value, in the lower half of the pane to adjust the minimum scale value. Mouse down in the right hand side of the vertical scale area displays the "Vertical Resize"
cursor. Dragging the resize cursor adjusts both minimum and maximum values, increasing both values in tandem as you drag upward,
decreasing both value in tandem was you drag downward. Note that after dragging, the scale is set to manual mode-scale adjustments will be required to observe price action outside the newly set minimum and maximum scale values.
* Vertical Scale Preferences * Scaling Methods
* Switching Quickly Between Scaling Methods * Adjusting scale by dragging/clicking
* Multiple Scaling
Vertical Scale Preferences
Traditional charts can have one or multiple window panes. Each window pane can contain one or multiple elements. Each element may be either an instrument or a technical indicator. Each window pane has its own set of preferences that control the behavior of the vertical scale of that pane. The vertical scale preference window for each window pane can be accessed by either right-clicking, or double-clicking anywhere in that scales vertical pane.
Scaling Methods
The “Scaling Method” groupbox in the vertical scale preferences dictates the method that will be used to determine the “range” of the vertical scale of that pane. The “range” represents the span between the maximum and minimum values that will be displayed in the vertical scale. A detailed description of each method follows...
o Automatic based on all data values
This is the most common, and therefore the default method. All new chart window panes will inherit this method by default. This method considers all the values in the window pane, and computes the range based on the highest high and lowest low actual values. The scale is automatically adjusted to reflect the data that is visible in the chart pane. If multiple elements exist in the pane, it considers the values of all elements when determining the maximum and minimum scaled values (assuming all elements are sharing the same scale – see
“Multiple Scaling” for more information). The scale range can change as new bars come in (and fall off), or as the chart is scrolled left or right, or as the chart is resized horizontally (causing the number of visible bars to change).
o Automatic based on instrument only
This method is similar to the first method (Automated based on all data values), except it only considers the instrument values when computing the scale range. This option can be useful when a long term
(200-period) moving average also exist in the window pane, having extreme values that might be well outside the extreme values of the instrument.
This method forces the scale range to consider only the instrument values. In this case, the instrument will then use the full range of the scale, while the long term moving average may go off the top and/or bottom of the scale.
o Manual Scaling from X to Y
This method allows the user to manually specify the maximum (Y) and minimum (X) values in the scaling range. The range will stay constant, regardless of new bars coming in, scrolling, or vertical resizing. The scale range will not be automatically adjusted to reflect the actual data values in the pane.
o Range-Based Scaling
[Automatic/Manual] scaling based on fixed [Range, Pixels/Unit, % of Price, % of Pane, Slope] of Z
The primary motivation behind range-based scaling is to provide a method to keep the vertical height of price, vertical relationships between prices, and even price/time relationships, constant. Range-Based scaling gives the user 5 different options of controlling the range of the vertical scale. Each of the 5 options can be set to automatic of manual. The automatic option will center the specified range on the
“actual” range of values in the chart pane. The manual option gives the user the ability to drag the range up or down as needed provide the picture desired. If the automatic option is selected, dragging the pane up or down will reset the scale to manual mode and allow the user to position his range accordingly. It is recommended to begin with
automated, and then position the range manually by dragging.
Some of the following range-based values are hard for the user to compute. By simply entering a value of “0”, or leaving the value blank, MarketDelta® will automatically compute the best-fit value that will cause the computed range to equal the actual range. This computed value can then be adjusted manually by dragging if desired, or by re-opening the preference window and adjusting directly.
Range
This option allows the user to specify a fixed range of values for the vertical scale. The spread between the maximum and minimum scaled values will remain constant. For instance, if the user specified an
automated range of 4, and the actual range was 5 to 7, then the visible range shown by the vertical scale would be 4 to 8. If the user pans or scrolls the pane vertically, the minimum and maximum values will change, but the range (difference between them) will remain constant.
Pixels/Unit
This option essentially gives the user control over the vertical resolution of the window pane. It is the vertical equivalent of the horizontal “pixels per bar” preference available in the chart
preferences. It dictates the number of pixels that will be used to represent each one price unit (dollar, pound, etc.). If a value of 100 is specified on a chart of MSFT for instance, the each 100 pixels
% of Price
This option allows the user to specify the range as a percentage of the actual price. The maximum value in the actual range will be used for the price. For instance, if a value of 5 % is specified, and the maximum actual value in the chart pane is $100, then the price range would be $5 (5% of $100). This option may be helpful when
frequently switching symbols.
% of Pane
This option allows the user to specify the range as a percentage of the actual range. For instance, a value of 80%, on a pane with an actual range of $10 (max $100, min $90) would result in a range of
$8 (showing $91 to $99 in automatic mode). Similarly, a value of 120%would result in a range of $12 ($89 to $101 in automatic
$8 (showing $91 to $99 in automatic mode). Similarly, a value of 120%would result in a range of $12 ($89 to $101 in automatic