Charting Menu Bar

Select to apply a saved chart template to the current chart. The five most recently loaded charts will display, or click More to see all the saved charted available.

Save the settings of the current chart as a template, which can then be applied to other charts. For example, if you like to apply to same studies to certain types of charts, you can save those studies as a chart template and then quickly apply them to any future charts.

In addition, you can specify which settings are saved into the template.

Load a template into multiple charts quickly using this feature. A window opens that lets you select a template and then check each chart, or individual chart tab, you want to apply the template to.

Enables you to customize the current page for printing. Read the Printing Windows topic for more information.

Click to print the chart currently displayed.

Click to close the chart currently displayed.

Changes the symbol current being displayed in the Chart.

TIP: This can also be done by right clicking on the chart or by just typing a new symbol when the Chart window is active.

Allows you to change specific bad data displayed in a chart that may impact the technical studies you are using. To edit tick data:

1. Click on the bar, line, or candle that has bad data.
2. Click on Edit > Edit Tick Data
3. The date at the top should be for the date you last clicked, if it is not, you can select the date or time from the pull-down menu.
4. Make the appropriate changes to Open, High, Low, or Close.
5. Click OK.

1. Select the item to remove by clicking on the label for any study or trend line, or for support and resistance lines, click on the line itself.
2. Select Delete Selected Item to remove it from the chart.
3. You can also delete the selected line or label by pressing Delete on your keyboard or right-clicking on the label or line and selecting Delete.

Deletes all of the available items for a group. The groups are Studies, Trend Lines, Support Lines and Resistance Lines.

If checked, lines marking the time frame the chart spans (i.e., hours, days, months, etc.) are visible.

If checked, lines marking various price levels are visible.

If checked, lines marking where the highest Volume Average Prices have occurred.

Stock symbols and price and volume data shown here and in the software are for illustrative purposes only. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., its parent or affiliates, and/or its employees and/or directors may have positions in securities referenced herein, and may, as principal or agent, buy from or sell to clients.

The Info Window provides the statistical data for the point on the chart you have clicked on. When you first open the window from the pull-down, today's data will be displayed. To change the displayed data, either left-click on a specific point on the chart or hold down the left mouse button and move the mouse to find the date you want.

If you haven't made any changes to the chart, the data in the window will include that day's Open, High, Low, Close, Volume, and BOL (Bollinger Bands). When you add more studies to the chart, they will also appear in the window. As you increase the number of viewed studies, you may not be able to see all of the statistical data in the window. To view all of the data available, you may need to resize the window by dragging the corner with the cursor until the all data is displayed.

The software allows you to add a vast number of studies to your chart for technical analysis.

1. Highlight the study you wish to add in the left column.
2. Make any period or color modifications.
3. Choose the Show In option and place the study in any of the options in the drop down menu.
4. Click OK.

Go to Chart Studies for information on each available study.

• Select the Type of trend line to display. Go to Trend Lines for more information on which Trend lines are available.
• Type a label for the trend line so that you can identify it on the chart. In the chart below, we have identified an upward trend.

• Right-click on the label to Edit or Delete the line.

Adds a horizontal GREEN line wherever you click on the chart to indicate the Support levels you want to identify in the chart you are viewing.

Adds a horizontal RED line wherever you click on the chart to indicate the Resistance levels you want to identify in the chart you are viewing.

Choose the period the chart will be based on: Monthly, Weekly, Daily, Intraday, or Ticks.

Enter number of periods up to 240 months for Monthly charts, 3,000 days for Daily charts, 250 weeks for Weekly charts, 30 days for an Intraday chart.

NOTE:  The number of days available on an Intraday chart decreases along with your Interval setting. For instance, if you choose 1 minute intervals, you will only see 4 days of data; however, as you increase your interval, you can increase the number of days back available to view. 60 days of Intraday charts are only available when the interval is 10 or higher in intervals of 5. For example you can get 10 days for Intervals of 10, 15, 20, 30, 60. You can only get 5 days for Intervals of 1-5 minutes or any other number that is not devisable by 5.

Applicable to Intraday charts only.

Enter a symbol to overlay on your chart.

Enter the hours you want chart data for in military time (for example, 1600 for 4:00 p.m. ET).

NOTE: Beginning time can be no earlier than 0600 and no later than 0930 ET. Closing time can be no earlier than 1600 and no later than 2000 ET.

Default times are for the standard session only (09:30 to 16:00 ET). As extended hours quotes are only available streaming, it is possible to have gaps in you chart if you ask for all session times (i.e., 0600 to 2000 ET). The only way to view this data consistently on a chart is to leave that chart open during Pre Market or After Hours Sessions.  If you switch stocks within the same chart, this will generate gaps as the data is not presented to the chart while open. Charts will not populate data for times prior to when the chart was opened, regardless of the settings of the chart.

If checked, starting at 10:00 a.m. ET, a chart using 60 minute bars will be based on the hour (10-11, 11-12, etc.) rather than the half-hour (9:30-10:30, 10:30-11:30, etc.)

When overlaying another symbol on the chart, checking this box will change the display to a percent scale. Percentages are based off the performance over the time period (intraday, daily, monthly, etc.)

TIPS:

1. For the classic look, a line chart can be selected with a line overlay.  Go to Settings > Colors to configure the colors of these lines for best display.
2. The current price will display in the right-hand scale that defines the percentages. To remove that display go to Settings > General and uncheck the Show last trade label box located at the bottom of that window.
3. Use a support or resistance line and place it at the zero percent level.  This level can be easily located as the starting point on the left when the symbol and overlay begin plotting.
4. Use the crosshairs to see the exact percentage numbers.

Stock symbols and price and volume data shown here and in the software are for illustrative purposes only. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., its parent or affiliates, and/or its employees and/or directors may have positions in securities referenced herein, and may, as principal or agent, buy from or sell to clients.

Bar

• On a daily chart, each bar is one day. On an intraday chart, each bar represents one interval.
• On Bar charts, the left rung indicates the opening price of the stock, and the right rung indicates the closing/last price of the stock for the day or interval.
• The top and bottom of the bar represent the high and low for that day or interval.
• Green indicates the security's closing/last price for the day or interval was higher than today's opening price.
• Red indicates the security's closing/last price for the day or interval was less than or equal to today's opening price.

Calculate Change From Open/Close

Allows you to select the basis for the calculation of bars. By default this setting is Change from Open, which calculates a bar as up or down based on the difference between the open and closing price. When set to Change from Close, the color (or change) of each bar is determined by the difference between the previous bars closing price and the current bars last (or closing) price.

Candlestick

• On a daily chart, each stick is one day. On an intraday chart, each stick represents between 1 and 120 minutes.
• Green indicates the security's closing/last price for the day or interval was higher than today's opening price.
• Red indicates the security's closing/last price for the day or interval was less than today's opening price.
• Gray indicates the security's closing/last price for the day or interval was equal to today's opening price.
• The top and bottom of the line behind it represent the high and low for the day/period.

Outline Candlesticks

• Check or uncheck your preference to have the Candlesticks outlined or not. This is only available when candlestick is selected as graph style.

Line

• Yellow Opening price for that day or interval.
• Green High price for that day or interval.
• Red Low price for that day or interval.
• Blue Closing/last price for that day or interval.

Line Graph

• When selected, you can choose which lines to view: Open, High, Low or Close.

Point & Figure Charts

When selected, you can choose how to display the following items for Point & Figure:

• Box size from 0.05 to 500
• Using either High/Low or Close
• Reversal from 1 to 5.

If applying an overlay of a second symbol, the style is set here.

This gray field is adjustable with the up or down arrows to the right of the field. The higher the number, the bolder the line in the chart.

NOTE:  A higher setting may cause distortion to the graph.

Point and Figure charts have several designations the user should be familiar with.

1. Within the rising and falling columns of daily Point & Figure charts there are letters and numbers. Since Point & Figure charts technically don’t include ‘time,’ these designations are used for reference. January through September correspond with 1- 9 and A, B, C are assigned to October through December respectively. See below:
   
   
2. Within the rising and falling columns of intraday Point & Figure charts there are colored squares. These markings designate the beginning of a new trading session. See below:
   

This gray field is adjustable with the up or down arrows to the right of the field. The higher the number, the bolder the line in the chart.

NOTE:  A higher setting may cause distortion to the graph.

Specify the number of days to display in the chart at any one time.

NOTE:  This is only applicable when the Show all data field is unchecked.

If checked, shows chart for the time frame specified in the Range (days).

If unchecked, this will display what is indicated in the Data to show field.  A scroll bar will appear at the bottom of the chart allowing you to move back and/or forth through Range (days) selected.

Specify the increments for the price scale, from .05 to Auto or Logarithmic. Once a price interval is selected (not Auto or Logarithmic), you can manually input an interval. You should select an interval that is appropriate to the price range of the security you are charting for the selected Range (days).

• Default is Auto, which allows the software to select the optimal scale based on the size of the chart.
• Logarithmic, or percentage, scaling will change the price scale's appearance by making the vertical spacing between two points correspond to the percentage change between those numbers. So, for instance, the vertical distance between 10 and 20 and the vertical distance between 50 and 100 will be the same. This helps provide a truer picture of charts with large vertical ranges.

Highlights the last trade price in the Price Scale.

The Default will display the Price Scale on the right.  By checking this field, the Price Scale will display on the left.

When enabled, clicking a point on the chart will display the High, Low, Open and Close values for that point directly over the chart.

When disabled, clicking a point on the chart will display the values in a small separate window which can be moved around the screen.

Allows you to quickly change between Monthly, Weekly, Daily, and Intraday charts.

The Settings > General window determines how many days or intervals are displayed.

You can change the Back Test settings when applying a Strategy to the chart to see how having a different starting equity or trade quantity, or adding commissions to the cost of the trades, will affect the outcome of the test.

Click to change the font style in the chart.

1. When the Font box opens, select the type, style and size.
2. Click OK.

NOTE:  Large font sizes may not allow for a clean view of the text displayed in the chart.

To change the colors in a chart, select the item you wish to change, then press the color button to change, and click OK.

 

Clicking Enable will create 2 tabs in the Chart Window, your current chart, plus an additional chart which you can customize separately using the Tabs > Edit menu item.

Add more tabs than the 2 added when enabled.

Edit the selected tab.

Remove the selected tab

When checked, all of the tabs within the Chart window will use the same symbol. When unchecked, all of the tabs can have specific symbols saved within the tabs.

The software allows you to add a vast number of studies to your chart for technical analysis.

1. Highlight the study you wish to add in the left column.
2. Click the >> to move it to the box on the right.
3. Choose the Show In option and place the study in any of the five options in the drop down menu.
4. Click OK

Go to Chart Studies for information on each available study.

Open the Strategy Center to apply a strategy to the chart. You can also edit or create a new strategy from the Strategy Center.

To add a strategy to the chart, click on the strategy in the Available Strategies list and check. Show selected strategy on chart.

Opens the Edit Strategy window for the strategy currently applied to the chart and will allow you to make changes to both the Strategy details and the chart display.

Once an initial strategy has been applied to the chart, you can use Show Strategy to hide or show the strategy on the chart.

The Strategy Performance Details window breaks down the details and statistics of the strategy being tested in the Chart window.

Select to change your cursor to display a crosshair when you click on the chart. The Crosshair pointer can help you pinpoint prices on a chart more easily than when using the regular cursor.

Select again to turn off Crosshairs.

Allows you to zoom in on a smaller area of a chart without having to change your Chart settings.

1. Click Zoom In
2. Click and hold the mouse button on the point within the chart where you wish to start to zoom in
3. Drag your mouse across to the point where you wish to end the zoom in and release the mouse button.