Symbol Search
To search for a new chart, you can use the ticker search directly above the chart. You can search for a security by typing the ticker or name. Either select the correct security from the list that appears or type in your desired ticker and click enter.
If the security you are looking for is not currently in our system, you can request that we add it to our system by clicking the "send request" button that appears along with the error message.
Relative Strength Comparisons
One of the major advantages of our charts is that you can quickly and easily create a custom Relative Strength comparison right from the chart page.
To do so, simply click the plus icon next to the ticker search bar. This will allow you to add another ticker to create your Relative Strength chart.
By default, this will initially bring up this security's Market RS chart (unless you have specified a different default RS ticker within chart preferences), but you also have the option to select the security's peer RS comparison, recent tickers you have used in RS comparisons, or to any ticker you choose to enter in the search box.
On your RS chart, the ticker on the left will be in the numerator of the RS calculation and the ticker on the right will be in the denominator. Therefore, a chart in a column of Xs means the ticker on the left is outperforming and a chart in a column of Os means the ticker on the right is outperforming.
To remove the RS comparison and return to this security's trend chart, click the X icon to the right of both ticker search boxes.
Chart Type
There are 3 types of charts you can choose from:
- Trend chart- the standard Point & Figure chart first shown when you bring up a security's chart. This chart plots the price movement of one security by itself and uses a linear scale on the y-axis.
- RS Chart- a Relative Strength chart comparing the relative performance of two securites
- % Trend- This chart plots the price movement of one security by itself, but instead of the linear scale used on the y-axis of standard trend charts, this chart uses a percentage scale on the y-axis.
Scale
The scale of the chart refers to the difference between one box and the next on the y-axis of a chart. The chosen scale will influence the overall timeframe of the chart and how much short-term price movement is shown on the chart.
In general, a larger scale will lead to a smoother, less-volatile chart more appropriate for long-term analysis and a smaller scale will show more price movement and volatility and is generally more appropriate for short-term analysis.
You have the option to select from preexisting options or to type in any scale of your choice.
The Default ETF, Short Term, Intermediate Term, and Long Term scales shown among the list above will adjust at different price levels. For example, on the graph below the Default ETF scale shows $5 between each box on the y-axis, but this changes below $200, where the scale shifts to $2/box.
Although changing the chart's scale can impact things like the chart's current signal, column, and trend, the security's technical attribute rating or fund score will not change based on the chosen scale. Technical attribute ratings and fund scores will always be based on our default scales.
Reversal Size
Another way to influence the amount of short term noise within your chart is by adjusting the number of boxes required to reverse from a column of Xs to a column of Os and vice versa. The default value is 3, which allows us to ensure we are only reacting to more significant reversals in supply & demand rather than reacting to each and every small swing in the security's price. As a result, you'll notice in the below chart that there are no columns with fewer than 3 Xs or Os.
Alternately, if you chose to change the reversal size to 2 boxes, you'll notice more volatility in the chart and more column reversals in each year. You'll also notice there are now columns with only 2 Xs or Os due to the smaller reversal requirement.
Timeframe
By default, a chart will show data from inception to present. You can adjust the timeframe of your chart either by entering a number of years to look back from the current date or by selecting specific start and end dates. To return to the default, click the refresh icon in the top right corner of the dropdown.
Chart Scrolling
To scroll to see the remainder of the chart history, you can left-click within the chart window and drag your mouse to move the chart.
Chart Zoom
Instead of scrolling, you can also use the zoom out feature in the top right corner of the chart window to see a high-level overview of the chart.
This zoomed view will also adjust with your timeframe. For example, the above chart shows a zoomed our view of QQQ since inception, while the below chart shows a zoomed out view of QQQ over just the last 20 years.
The third chart below adjusts the timeframe further to focus on the last 5 years.
Display Options
There are several different options for customizing the display of your chart, which are designed to make reading and understanding the charts easier.
Signals
The signals option will highlight buy and sell signals in green and red respectively. This is designed to help you more easily identify where signals have occurred so you can understand the recent strength or weakness of a security.
Trails
Signal trails help you visualize when a security is "on a buy signal" or "on a sell signal." Once a security registers a buy signal, it is considered to be "on a buy signal" until it registers a sell signal. With signal trails turned on, areas where the chart was "on a buy signal" are highlighted in green while areas where the chart was "on a sell signal" are not highlighted.
Trends
Trend lines help you visualize whether a security is in a long-term positive or negative trend as well as where it would need to rise or fall to to reverse its current trend.
Months
With the months option turned on, the first plot in a given month is indicated with a number or letter in place of the X or O that would normally be plotted. January to September are shown as 1-9 with October, November, and December shown as A, B, and C. This is used to give you an idea of when a particular movement on the chart occurred since columns do not correspond to a specific period of time.
Tooltips
With tooltips turned on, you can right-click on any column in the chart to view information on each plot in that column, such as the date it occurred on; the high, low, and closing prices on that day; and any significant chart movements that occurred, including column reversals, signals, and trend changes.
The tooltip data shown above starts at 3 because this chart uses a 3 box reversal and therefore, plots 1 through 3 would all have the same data. If you were to choose a 2 box reversal for your chart, the tooltip data would start at 2 instead.
Price Tokens
The price tokens option indicates where the security's current price is on the chart. This is designed to help you more easily visualize how close a security is to reversing columns or adding a new box in its current column.
If you have both tooltips and price tokens turned on, hovering over the price token will show you the current price.
Closing Prices Only
The "closing prices only" option will plot the security's chart based solely on its closing price data rather than the intraday high and low.
Limit Columns
The "Limit Columns" option will show only the most recent chart data that fits within the chart window and eliminate the vertical and horizontal scrolling feature from the chart window when activated. You can set the number of columns your chart is limited to when this option is turned on under chart preferences.