Tutorial: Using the Interface
Displaying Charts
Displaying Charts
i Tutorial Task
Learn how to display and manipulate charts.
Charts are the most common way for people to view historical data. This task will show you common ways to display charts and manipulate them once they are displayed.
Step-by-step Instructions
1. Click on Amgen in the Portfolio View to select it.
Ä Note: You can perform this task with any stock. However, it should have calculations and a Primary Signal defined for it.
Figure 1. Selecting Amgen.
2. Press the Chart button in the Information View. This will display the default chart.
Figure 2. Location of the Chart button.
3. The default chart will display the closing price, the Primary Signal, and the volume.
Ä Note: To change the fields included in the default chart, select Options from the Tools menu. Then, select the Charting tab.
Ä Note: The meaning of the signal symbols was covered in a previous tutorial. For a review of what these symbols mean, see the Notes.
Figure 3. The default chart for Amgen.
4. Let’s add an indicator to the chart. Right-click on the chart and select Add/Change Fields in Chart…. This will display the Display Chart Dialog.
Figure 4. Selecting "Add/Change Fields in Chart"
5. Expand the Calculations category and select Mass Index (H,L,22), but do not add it yet.
Ä Note: If you are using another stock or cannot locate this field, you can use any calculation for this example.
6. Most indicators have values which are in different range from the underlying prices. Because of this, you will typically want to display them in their own sub-chart. To do this, select Display added field in a new sub-chart.
Figure 5. Location of "Display added field in a new sub-chart."
7. Press Add Selected Fields. The Mass Index will now be listed in the currently selected fields.
8. Press OK. The chart will be updated to display the Mass Index in a sub-chart beneath the other fields.
Figure 6. Chart with Mass Index added.
9. Let’s change the chart to display only the last three months of data. Right-click on the date axis to see a context-menu specific to date actions.
Figure 7. Context menu for date axis.
10. Click on Display Data at End, then select Last Quarter from the submenu.
Figure 8. Selecting to display the last quarter.
11. Let’s return to the previous chart size. Right-click on the chart and select Undo Last Scaling.
Figure 9. Selecting "Undo Last Scaling".
12. You can also zoom-in on a section of the chart. Drag your mouse across a section of the chart with the left mouse button held down.
Figure 10. Selecting a chart region to zoom.
13. Close this chart window by clicking on the x in the upper right corner of the chart window.
Ä Note: Do not click the x in the upper right corner of the program at this time. That would close the entire program.
14. For one final example, let’s see how you can display custom charts. Right-click on Amgen in the Portfolio View and select Display in Chart…. This will display the Display Chart Dialog.
Figure 11. Selecting "Display in Chart".
15. The Display Chart Dialog is the same dialog that we used to change the chart we had open. By default, the most recent chart is selected. Let’s display a new chart. Click on Select new fields to display.
Figure 12. Selecting "Select new fields to display".
16. Let’s display a High/Low/Open/Close chart. Expand Composite Charts, then double-click on High/Low/Open/Close Chart.
Ä Note: Double-clicking an entry in a list will perform a default action on it. In this case, it will add it to the selected fields.
Figure 13. Double-clicking on "High/Low/Open/Close Chart".
17. By default, only a portion of the data is loaded into the chart. For this example, select Load all available data in the upper-right corner.
Figure 14. Location of "Load all available data."
18. Press OK. The new chart will be displayed.
19. Display all of the loaded data by right-clicking on the date axis and selecting Display All Data….
Figure 15. Selecting "Display All Data"
20. For additional help, select Chart View Help or Video Help from any of the context menus for the chart.
21. When you are done experimenting with the charts, close this window by clicking on the x in the upper right corner of the chart window.
Congratulations!
You should now have a good idea how to display and interact with charts in TradingSolutions. The next tutorial will show you a few differences when displaying data in a spreadsheet.
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