Tools: Markers

Markers can be placed on charts to mark bars or formations. A common use is to indicate where a trade was entered or exited. To place a marker on a chart, click the Arrow button on the Draw Tools panel.

The cursor will change to a pencil while in draw mode. Move the pencil to the location for the marker, and click the left mouse button. A default marker will appear on the chart. You can now click the right mouse button to display a properties form to change the marker shape or the text that appears adjacent to the marker.

Markers can be drawn in a huge variety of shapes. Use the drop down Marker list to select a marker shape. Optionally, various words like 'Long', 'Short' and 'Out' can be displayed with the marker either above or below, on the left or the right side of the marker.

Tip: Select the marker that you use most frequently, and then check the 'Use as Default' box on the properties form. Your choice will display as the default when a new marker is placed on a chart.

The preview window shows how the marker will look on the chart. The example shows custom text positioned above the marker made up of four differently colored dots.

Markers can be repositioned by clicking the left mouse button down on the marker, and dragging the object to a new position. The pencil is displayed when a marker is reselected. When a marker is selected, you can click the right mouse button to display its properties form.

Tip: A marker can be placed quite easily on the chart with the mouse. This price can be manually edited to place the marker exactly on a price, instead of just close to a specific price.

Click on the color square on the properties form to change the color of the marker. A new color is selected from the color dialog form that is displayed.

The Chart Objects list is displayed by clicking the chart objects button, which is the rightmost button on the top row. The list shows all studies and draw tools that are present on the chart. An item can be selected by clicking on its name in the list, and then clicking the button to show its Properties form, or clicking the button to Remove this object from the chart. Clicking the All button will remove all objects from the chart.

Tip: Double clicking on an item in the chart objects list will display the properties form.

Horizontal Lines

Any of the horizontal line markers in the Right side position make a great tool for quickly putting horizontal lines on a chart. Text can be optionally shown on the right side of the line, regardless of the length of the horizonal line marker. This makes for a very clean and easy way to put a horizontal line on the chart at the point where the mouse is clicked, and to also include a custom label on the right side of the line.

Tip: If drawing horizontal lines is something you do often, consider doing so using the Marker object instead of the Draw Line object. Set the Default to be a horizontal line that is the length most often used. Configure tab 1 to have similar settings but with a shorter length line marker. Configure tab 2 as a horizontal line that is a bit longer, and tab 3 a longer line, and tab 4 with the line marker that extends to the right edge of the chart. Then you can quite quickly put on the marker, and use the mouse wheel to scroll through the first several tabs of the marker object which dials in the length of the line you seek.

This sequence of charts illustrates the 4 different horizontal markers suggested for tab 1, tab 2, tab 3 and tab 4.

Use a horizontal marker and custom text to label gaps, swings points, yesterday values, etc. For labels oft repeated, consider setting up one of the tabs on the marker to show the oft used label, and then use the mouse wheel to select the tab without going to the object's property form to obtain the line and the label you seek.

Tip: Have the Price Magnet enabled and then the point where you seek to place this horizonal line snaps to the price you are nearest on the bar. In the examples, the line has snapped to the low of the swing bar just to the left of the horizontal line.

Tip: When a label is used with the marker that draws rightward to the scale, have the margin space wide enough to show the entire label. If the margin is too narrow, then as the chart moves leftward, the portion of the label that overlaps the bars will be repeated, which is not as clean as it could be.