ESignal Manual Ch2
ESignal Manual Ch2
C H A P T E R
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Advanced Charting
eSignal’s Advanced Charting offers an extremely flexible user interface and
includes a full array of line drawing tools, advanced analytics and a formula engine
that lets you create your own studies.You can import and create, save and even
encrypt your own formulas, select from an extensive library of formulas and
helpers, use advanced scaling features and customize your own Advanced Charting
Favorites Toolbar.
You can choose from the following Advanced Chart types:
Daily charts: Daily charts display historical daily data for an issue in
graphical format.
Interval charts: Interval charts track an issue’s current and previous
intraday days’ prices in time intervals that you choose such as 15, 30, or
60 minutes.
Note: You can retrieve up to 120 days of interval data in an Advanced Chart
window.
You can access the Advanced Charts through the Advanced Chart Toolbar, the
Chart Options menu, or by right-clicking inside a bar chart.
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Bar
A Bar Chart displays a series of bars for the interval you specify. This bar
is comprised of four separate data points:
Open: the opening price of the issue at the beginning of the bar interval
High: the highest price the issue reached during the bar interval
Low: the lowest price the issue reached during the bar interval.
Close: the closing price of the stock at the end of the bar interval.
The Open, High, Low and Close are specific to the time frame covered by each
bar. A Bar’s height is derived from its high and low prices during the period it
covers. The Open is displayed on each bar as a small horizontal tick to the left
side of the bar while the Close is shown on each bar as a small horizontal tick to
the right side of the bar.
High
Open
Close
Low
If an OHLC Bar is green, that means that its closing price was higher than its
opening price. Conversely, if an OHLC bar is red, its closing price was lower
than its opening price.
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Candlestick
Like Bar charts, Candlestick charts plot open, high, low, and close data for
the chart interval you specify. However, Candlestick charts display OHLC
data in a more visual way which many traders find appealing.
The body of a Candlestick is drawn as a rectangle between the opening and the
closing prices during the interval (e.g., 15 minutes). You will notice that Candlesticks
are either red or green in an eSignal Advanced Chart window. Candlestick
coloration depends on the price activity during the interval the Candlestick
represents. The wicks at the top and the bottom of each Candlestick represent
the high and low prices traded during the interval.
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High High
Open
Open
Close Close
Low
Low
Up Candlestick Down Candlestick
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Line
A Line chart plots the closing price for the interval you specify (i.e. 5
minute intra-day). If you are overlaying multiple symbols on a chart, using
a Line chart format makes the chart easier to read.
Shortcut: Press the Home key to go to the latest bar in the active Advanced
Chart window.
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Kagi
Kagi charts plot a single line until price reverses by a predetermined amount
where another line is then begun. It is an attempt to smooth out the noise
of daily trading activity so that trend can be more clearly represented. The thickness
of Kagi lines are significant when prior highs and prior lows are exceeded.
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Point Break
A Point Break chart displays new lines if the close of the period moves
outside of the period of the previous block of trading. If not, then no lines
are drawn.
The first line is drawn when the prices are greater, lower, or the same as the
opening price. If prices exceed the prior high (low) price a new line is drawn If
current prices are within the prior high or low, no new line is drawn.
When using a Point Break chart, prices must exceed the prior three high or low
lines to indicate a reversal.
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Renko
Renko charts display price movements if they are bigger than a fixed
amount.
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Favorites
toolbar
Cursor
window
Charting
area
What could be simpler than clicking a toolbar button to pull up an Advanced Chart
window that you access often? eSignal’s Advanced Chart window contains a
Favorites Toolbar that lets you access your favorite charts instantly. The Favorites
toolbar lets you pull up preset charts that you can further customize to meet your
needs.
When you initially open an Advanced Chart, the Favorites toolbar contains certain
preset folders (Equities and Other Intervals) and shortcuts (1 minute interval
chart, Daily etc.). You can experiment with the Favorites toolbar shortcuts and
pull-down menu choices and then customize them to reflect your own needs.
You can customize the Favorites toolbar by adding new shortcut folder names
and favorites names within the folders, by removing existing favorites shortcuts,
chang-ing the content of existing folders, and even adding new direct toolbar
shortcuts.
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When you open an Advanced Chart window, the Favorites Toolbar appears at
the top of the window.
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2. In the Use area, select either Symbol & Interval, Symbol, or Interval.
3. Enter the symbol, interval (D=Daily, 15= 15 minutes, T=Tick, etc.), enter a
name for the favorite, select a folder where you want to save the favorite, and
click OK.
4. If you want to create a new folder, click on the Favorites folder and then
click the New Folder button. Then enter the name of the new folder in the
window that appears and click OK to save it. You can also create folders within
folders (by clicking on the + sign).
5. If you want to add a Favorite shortcut button directly to the Favorites toolbar,
close the Favorites folder if it is open by clicking the -to its left. Then add a new
favorite name, symbol and interval and click OK to add it.
Thereafter, you can access new favorite charts from the Equities, Other Intervals,
or other pull-down menus you have defined or, directly from a Favorites toolbar
icon.
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* The Favorites Toolbar supports auto hide. You enable auto hiding by clicking on
the Properties toolbar button, checking the Auto Hide box, and clicking OK. When
the auto hide feature is active, the Favorites Toolbar appears when you move
your mouse cursor where it was resizing, and disappears when the mouse is
moved off the toolbar.
* The Favorites Toolbar is dockable to other edges of the window (top, bottom,
left, right). All other eSignal toolbars are dockable too. If a toolbar is docked, you
can turn on the autohide feature.
* You can conserve screen space on the toolbar by selecting some options under
properties (separators between top level items, hide images).
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Cursor Window
The Cursor window displays the data for the bar or point you currently have
high-lighted. It is displayed by default when you open an Advanced Chart window.
You remove the cursor window by de-selecting it from the Advanced Chart
Right-click or Chart Options menus, or, or clicking on the Cursor Tracking icon
on the Advanced Charts toolbar.
When you right-click in the main chart area or select the Chart Options menu,
the following Cursor options appear.
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Just right-click on a Cursor Window to access the following menu and customize
its look and feel.
See the “Using the Right-Click Menus” section later in this chapter for further
detail.
Charting Area
The charting area contains the actual chart. Depending on the chart type and
properties you’ve set, the chart area may include a cursor window, cursor tracking,
a volume histogram, and various technical studies.
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Click the Bar Chart button to pull up an open, high, low, close bar chart.
Click the Candlestick button to pull up a Candlestick chart.
Click the Line button to pull up an OHLC line chart.
Click the Point and Figure button to pull up a Point and Figure chart.
Click the Point Break button to pull up a 3 Line Break/3 Point Break chart.
Click the Renko button to pull up a Renko chart.
Click the Kagi button to pull up a Kagi chart.
Click the Auto Scale button to Auto Scale chart data.
Click the Scale Price button to Scale Price data only.
Click the Logarithm button to switch to a logarithmic scale.
Click the Increase Bar Width button to increase bar width.
Click the Decrease Bar Width button to decrease bar width.
Click the Increase Bar Spacing button to increase bar spacing.
Click the Decrease Bar Spacing button to decrease bar spacing.
Click the Cursor Tracking button to have your Advanced Chart symbol
track your cursor.
Click the Cursor Window button so that the Advanced Chart window
displays a Cursor window that shows data for the bar or point your Advanced
Chart cursor is on.
Click the Reset button to reset your chart.
Click the Advanced Chart Properties button to specify Advanced Chart
window properties.
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2. When you initially open an Advanced Chart window, there are preset chart
intervals and Favorites lists (lists of preset charts) for Equities and Other Intervals
that you can choose from the Favorites Toolbar as shown below.
3. You can quickly change the interval for data in the Advanced Chart window by
selecting from the preset intervals of 1, 5, and 60 minutes and Daily from the
Favorites Toolbar.
To redisplay a Favorite chart in an Advanced Chart window:
l. Click the down arrow on the Equities list or the Other Intervals list or any
other user-defined folder list and select the name of a previously saved favorite
chart from the pull-down list.
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Properties
Click Properties to specify chart colors, fonts, margins, and ticker filtering settings.
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Style Templates
You may want to set up different Style Templates for various types of issues.
You can do this by saving each of these Advanced Charts as a separate Style
Template so that you can load it whenever you want.
Select Style Templates to load a particular style template, to save a chart as a
style template, to set a particular chart as your style template, or to load the
default chart style template. The default eSignal style template is called
Default.ach. However, you can make any existing advanced chart a style template
and once you save it as the Default, it will then be available.
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Time Templates
Select Time Templates to load a particular time template or to load one of the
default chart time templates that comes with eSignal.
Template files all have the suffix of.ach (i.e. Advancedchart.ach) and are stored
under the eSignal program directory. The Style and Time Templates submenus
can also display up to 4 of the most recently saved or loaded templates for easy
access.
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4. You may change the Default Type, Interval, number of days or start and end
times.
5. When you are finished updating the selected Time Template, click the Update/
Add button.
6. You can also use the Time Templates window to create a new template (click
the New Template button), delete an existing template (click the Delete Template
button), rename a template (click the Rename Template button), or copy an
exist-ing template (click the Copy Template button).
7. When you are finished managing your Time Templates, click the Close button
to close the Time Templates window.
Title Bar
Select Title Bar from the Advanced Chart right-click menu to toggle the Advanced
Chart window title bar on and off.
Bar
Select Bar from the Chart Type right-click submenu to change the active
Advanced Chart window to an OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) Bar chart.
Candlestick
Select Candlestick from the Chart Type submenu to change the active Advanced
Chart window to a Candlestick chart.
Line
Select Line from the Chart Types submenu to change the active Advanced Chart
win-dow to a Line chart that connects the closing prices (by default) for each
chart inter-val. You can also base the Line chart on a variety of price sources
such as open, high, low, close, or combinations of these sources. When a line
chart is active, right click and select Edit Studies to select from several Sources
on which you can base the line.
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Interpretation/Trading Signals
* Buy when a green block emerges after three prior red blocks and sell when a
red block appears after three green blocks.
Renko
The Renko charting method is thought to have acquired its name from renga
which is the Japanese word for bricks. Renko charts were introduced by Steve
Nison, author of the book Beyond Candlesticks.
Renko charts are similar to Point Break charts except that in a Renko chart, a
line (or brick as they are sometimes called) is drawn in the direction of the prior
move only if a fixed amount (i.e. the box size) has been exceeded. The bricks are
always equal in size. For example, in a five unit Renko chart, a 20 point rally is
dis-played as four equally sized, five unit high Renko bricks.
To draw Renko bricks, today's close is compared with the high and low of the
previ-ous brick (green or red). When the closing price is greater than the previous
brick by the box size or more, one or more equal height, green bricks are drawn
in the next column. If the closing price falls below the bottom of the previous
brick by the box size or more, one or more equal height, red bricks are drawn in
the next column.
If the market moves up more than the amount required to draw one brick, but less
than the amount required to draw two bricks, only one brick is drawn. For example,
in a two unit Renko chart, if the base price is 100 and the market moves to 103,
then one green brick is drawn from the base price of 100 to 102. The rest of the
move -- from 102 to 103 -- is not shown on the Renko chart. The same rule
applies whenever the price does not fall on a box size divisor.
Indicators calculated on Renko charts use all the data in each column and then
display the average value of the indicator for that column.
Interpretation
Basic trend reversals are signaled with the emergence of a green or red brick. A
new green brick indicates the beginning of a new uptrend. A new red brick indicates
the beginning of a new downtrend. Since the Renko chart is a trend following
technique, there will be times when the market induces whipsaws. However, a
trend following technique is intended to allow traders to ride on the major portion
of the trend.
Since a Renko chart isolates the underlying trends by filtering out minor ups and
downs, they are excellent for helping determine support and resistance levels.
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Kagi
Kagi charts plot a single line until price reverses by a predetermined amount
where another line is then begun. It is an attempt to smooth out the noise of daily
trading activity so that trends can be more clearly represented. The thickness of
Kagi lines are significant when prior highs and prior lows are exceeded.
Scaling
Auto Scale
Select Auto Scale from the Advanced Chart right-click menu to automatically
scale the active Advanced Chart window. Autoscaling adjusts the Y-Axis to fit
the chart’s high and low prices. If this feature is disabled, you would have to
scroll up and down vertically while scrolling backwards to adjust the scaling.
Log Scale
Select Log Scale from the Advanced Chart right-click menu to apply a
logorhythmic-scale to the active Chart window. A log scale is often used to pinpoint
small price changes in a high priced stock.
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Cursor
Cursor Window
Select Cursor Window to display information about various data points in a
summary window. When the Cursor Window is active, the data it displays for
bars and studies updates as you move the cross hairs along the chart. If you hold
down the ctrl key while moving the cross hairs, only the X-cross hair value updates
in the Cursor Window. Hold down shift and only the Y-hair updates.
Cursor Tracking
Select Cursor Tracking to toggle the Advanced Chart window cross hairs on
and off.
Lock in Place
Select Lock in Place if you want the information currently displayed in the
cursor to remain or be locked in place even when you move the chart cross hairs.
Small Cursor
Select Small Cursor to make the cursor small.
Properties
Select Properties to pull up the Cursor Window Properties window.
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Tools
Select Tools and then select one of the following menu options from the Tools
submenu to backtest formulas, set price filtering criteria, to Export Data or to
replay chart data.
Back Testing
Select Back Test to back test a formula that you have applied to the active
Advanced Chart window.
Price Filtering
This filter on the Advanced Charts allows you to set a % range or % average
range of a bar compared to the bars before and after. If a price comes in that is
outside the filtered range, it will be displayed in a different color of your choice
and won’t be used to calculate any studies or to set chart scaling.
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Data Export
You can export all Advanced Chart data (including data on studies applied to the
chart) in tabular format. Exported data can be either in text format, separated by
commas or, in an html format. You can also copy Advanced Chart window data to
your clipboard and paste it into any other program that accepts clipboard data.
To export Advanced Chart window data, right-click on an Advanced Chart window,
then select Tools, then Data Export from the menu. Alternatively, you can
select Tools, then Data Export from the Chart Options menu (Alt-O,L, Data
Export).
To save the Advanced Chart data to a text file:
1. In the Data Export dialog box that appears, click the Save As Text button to
save data as a comma delimited text file.
2. In the Save Data as Text File dialog box enter the file name you want and
select a special directory, if desired, then click the Save button.
To save the Advanced Chart data to an HTML file:
1. In the Data Export dialog box that appears, click the Save As HTML button
to save data to an HTML file.
2. In the Save Data as HTML File dialog box enter the file name you want and
select a special directory, if desired, then click the Save button.
To copy the Advanced Chart data to the clipboard, click the Copy to Clipboard
button in the Data Export window that appears. You may then paste the data into
any application that accepts clipboard data.
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Bar Editor
Select Bar Editor to edit bar values for the active chart.
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Line Tools
The Line Tools Submenu provides access to all
tools that are available in the Line and the Advanced
Line Toolbars. For more information about Line
Tools, see Chapter 3: Line Tools.
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Un-Merge Studies
Select Un-Merge Studies to un-merge any studies you have previously merged
on the active Advanced Chart window.
Edit Studies
Select Edit Studies to edit a study that is currently applied to the active Advanced
Chart window. Select a study that you want to edit from the pull-down study box,
to edit settings, colors and other display options. When you have finished editing
a study, click OK to apply your changes for that study to the Active Advanced
Chart window. Since you have a pull-down of all studies, you can make changes
to more than one study. Apply This applies the changes for the study and chart
you are cur-rently editing. Apply All applies the changes for all of the edits if you
made changes to more than one study.
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Basic Studies
eSignal’s Advanced Charting supports many basic studies that you can apply to
your charts. Select Basic Studies to choose from a selection of over 20 technical
studies that you can add to an Advanced Chart window.
Price only studies such as Bollinger Bands appear above the line in the right-click
menu. You can apply multiple studies to Advanced Charts and even merge studies.
For more information about Basic Studies, see Chapter 4: Studies.
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Remove
Select Remove from the right-click menu to remove a study from the
Advanced Chart window. Select Remove, then Remove All Studies to
remove all studies that have previously been applied to the Active Chart
window.
If you do not want to see the above information on the Y-Axis, just click on
the check mark to its left to remove the data.
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Scrolling
You can place your mouse on the X-Axis of an Advanced Chart and move pull or
move it to the right to scroll back in time. Conversely, move your mouse to the
left to scroll ahead in time.
Rescaling
To reset scaling, click the Reset Toolbar button on the Advanced Chart Toolbar.
Resizing
To resize the Y-Axis, click on it and drag it up or down.
Repositioning Studies
You can reposition studies by holding down the Control key, grabbing a study and
dragging it to your desired location.
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Adding Formulas
eSignal’s Advanced Charting supports an extensive library of analytical formulas.
Select Formulas form the eSignal Advanced Chart right-click menu to access a
listing of available formulas.
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