How To Use These Charts

Chart Overview:

 

The Instrument Button

When you select the currency that you wish to view charts for from the Free Forex Charts page you are presented with the default chart for that particular currency. To view the other charts that are available you need to click on the ‘Instrument’ button. This will present the other options available. To select a new option simply click on the currency pair you desire.

On the example to the right we have chosen the Majors. The default chart for that category is EURUSD. By clicking on the ‘Instrument’ button we have revealed the other forex charts available in this section.

 

 

The Chart Type Button

The ‘Chart Type’ button lets you choose which format you would like to display the price data in the main window. All of our forex charts are set to Candlestick (how to read candlestick charts) by default but you can choose to view bars if you prefer. You are currently able to choose between OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) or HLC (High, Low, Close). Your current selection is shown in bold.

 

 

The Time Scale Button

The ‘Time Scale’ button lets you choose between the available time scales for the free forex charts. The default setting is 1 hour, which is displayed in bold, and you have a choice of 4 hours, 6 hours, daily, weekly or monthly. You can alter the time period of the chart by clicking the ‘Time Scale’ button, moving your mouse over your desired selection and left clicking once. The chart will automatically update with your new selection. You are free to switch between time scales as often as you like. If you close or navigate away from the live chart page then the chart will automatically reset itself to the 1 hour default time frame.

It is important to remember that ‘Time Scale’ refers to the period covered by each Japanese candlestick or bar, not the amount of data displayed on the chart. Each chart will show 70 candles/ bars of data.

 

 

The View Button

The ‘View’ button allows you to customise the information you see on the chart in the following ways:

Periods: By selecting ‘Periods’ from the ‘View’ menu you will be greeted by a new window as seen in the screenshot to the right. There are two display options housed within this window, ‘Periods’ and ‘Leading space’. ‘Periods’ refers to the number of candlesticks/ bars displayed on the chart. In the Chart Title explanation we mentioned that the number 70 referred to the bars/ candles on display and in this window you can change that number. By increasing the number the chart will appear squashed as more data is added while decreasing it will have the opposite effect. ‘Leading space’ refers to the distance between the furthest candlestick/ bar to the right (the current/ latest bar/ candle) and the price scale on the right-hand side. A value of 0 will mean that the current bar/ candle is right up against this scale while anything above 0 makes this distance greater.Once you have chosen your modifications click ‘OK’ to confirm or ‘Cancel’ to clear. You can change these settings as many times as you like and you should play around until you find a display that you like.

Information: By selecting the option ‘Information’ from the ‘View’ menu you are presented with the ‘Information’ panel which pops up as a new window on the chart. You can see on the image to the right that two blue lines (one horizontal and one vertical) also appear. The purpose of this panel is to display the information for the bar/ candlestick that your mouse is currently hovering over. The horizontal blue line automatically snaps to the highest price of the bar/ candle and this value is displayed on the price scale to the right of the chart in the same blue as the line itself. The vertical line indicates where your selection is located on the timescale (x axis) making it easy to identify and confirm your current selection.

The ‘Information’ panel itself consists of the following:
ID: This is the number ID of the current bar or candlestick. Depending on how many bars or candles you chose to display in the ‘Input Period’ window it will be x (x is the ID number) number of bars/ candles from the left (oldest data) of the chart.
Date: The date when your current selection opened.
Time: The time in GMT when the currently selected candlestick or bar opened.
Closing Price: The price at which your selection closed.
High Price: Also displayed by the blue horizontal line and on the y axis in blue type.
Low Price: The lowest price that occurred while this candle/ bar was open.
Open Price: The first price that was recorded once the bar/ candlestick opened.

You can also display the ‘Information’ panel by right mouse clicking anywhere on the chart. To close the panel click the .

 

 

Logarithmic Price Scale: “A logarithmic scale is a scale of measurement that uses the logarithm of a physical quantity instead of the quantity itself.” – Wikipedia.org
This option may be useful when price range is extremely wide but to be honest the live charts handle this extremely well anyway. Feel free to play around with this feature but we have found no benefit to it so far.

 

 

Show the Crosshair: This option is already selected by default and ‘show the crosshair’ is displayed in bold when you open the ‘View’ menu. This means that the crosshair is displayed on the chart window. It can be useful for lining up time and price values without showing the ‘Information’ panel. If you find the crosshair annoying you can click ‘show the crosshair’ to deselect this option. When you move your mouse over the chart no crosshair will be displayed and ‘show the crosshair’ will be displayed in normal type. Repeat this procedure to show the crosshair once more. Alternatively you can click the  button found on the secondary toolbar to switch between these options.

 

 

The Lines Button

The ‘Lines’ button allows some advanced customisation of your forex chart and provides you with some technical analysis tools. Below is an overview of the options provided:

 

 

Close: The ‘Close’ option allows you to draw a line connecting the closing values of any two bars/ candlesticks on the chart and then extends this line for you at either end. To use this option you should select ‘Close’ from the ‘Add’ menu which will display a black, horizontal line on the price chart at the closing value of the current bar or candlestick you are hovering over. To draw your ‘Close’ trend line you must find the first bar you are interested in, then left click and hold the mouse and drag it until your cursor is over the second bar/ candle you wish to select. Once you are there you can release the left mouse button and the chart will finish the line for you. You will notice that the black horizontal line that displays closing values is still present; this is in case you wish to draw another line. If you do not then you can right click the mouse and you will be able to move around the chart again as normal.

 

 

High/ Low: The ‘High/ Low’ option gives you the opportunity to connect the highs or lows of any two bars/ candlesticks but not a high to a low or vice versa. The line is then automatically extended on into the future. This is a much more traditional trend line and as you can see from the example to the right it can work quite nicely. Drawing the line is very simple. Firstly you need to find the first bar in your selection and hover the mouse close the high or the low depending on your preference. Then left click, hold and drag the mouse to the second bar/ candle in your selection. Once you release the mouse button the line will be drawn. To leave the ‘High/ Low’ mode right click the mouse.

 

 

Horizontal: The ‘Horizontal’ option enables you to draw horizontal lines either from the high or the low of any candlestick or bar on your chart. This line will then extend throughout the entire chart window. To draw your line select ‘Horizontal’ from the ‘Add’ menu, hover your cursor over the high or the low of your chosen candlestick/ bar and left click the mouse. The example to the right shows a horizontal line from a high point and one from a low point. To leave the ‘Horizontal’ function right click your mouse over the chart.

 

 

Freehand: The ‘Freehand’ option allows you to draw a line anywhere on the chart and extends this line forward in time. Freehand lines can be used when none of the other options meet your needs or you may just prefer to use freehand lines all of the time. To draw a freehand line find your starting point with your cursor, left click, hold and drag the mouse the desired distance and then release the mouse button. As always right click the mouse to navigate the chart as normal.

 

 

Delete All: The ‘Delete All’ option lets you delete all of the lines you have drawn and start again with a fresh chart.

 

 

Parallel: This option creates a new line identical to one that you have already created so that you can drag it into a position on the chart that runs parallel to your first line. To use this function you must first create a trend line using one of the ‘Add’ options explained above. Next click ‘Parallel’ in the ‘Lines’ menu and a duplicate line will appear on top of your first line. This will be highlighted red so you can identify it. Now hover your mouse over the new line, left click, hold and drag the line to your desired position. To duplicate the line again you can hover the mouse over either your first or your new line (will be highlighted red so that you can identify) and left click, hold and drag to another desired location. To leave this feature right click on the chart.

 

 

Move Line: This option is useful if you have added a line to the chart in the wrong place. All you have to do is click ‘Move Line’ and your line will be highlighted in red (if multiple lines the line you hover over will be in red) and you can move it around the chart by clicking and holding the left mouse button. Once you release the left button the line will be in its new position. To leave this function right click the mouse.

 

 

Fibonacci: The ‘Fibonacci’ option is somewhat different to how you may expect. Rather than drawing Fibonacci retracement it draws Fibonacci trend lines. This may or may not be to your tastes but you can draw these lines as follows:

Select ‘Fibonacci’ from the ‘Lines’ menu. Next, find the highest point of a down trend or the lowest point of an up trend as your first candle/ bar. Left click, hold and drag your mouse to the low of the move in a down trend or the high of the move in an up trend. Once you release the mouse button the ‘Fibonacci window’ will open. This allows you to select the Fibonacci numbers you wish to base your line on. If you are familiar with Fibonacci then you can alter to your tastes but if not it is probably better to keep them set to the default values. Once you are satisfied toy can click ‘OK’ and the lines will be drawn.

 

 

The Studies Button

The ‘Studies’ button reveals the option to add several technical indicators. The indicators available to be added are ‘Moving Averages’ and ‘Bollinger Bands’. To add either of these two options you can follow the instructions below:

 

 

Moving Averages: Adding moving averages is a fairly simple process. The first step is to click the ‘Studies’ button and then hover over ‘Moving Averages’ and select ‘New’. This will open the ‘Moving Averages Input Window’ where you can enter the parameters for your MA (moving average). At this point it is important to bear in mind that the MA can only be calculated using the number of bars/ candlesticks displayed on the chart. So, if you have 70 in your ‘Input Period’ box and you want a 100MA the chart will not be able to calculate it. In this case you would need to increase the number of periods displayed or work with faster MA’s. Once you have entered your desired period in the ‘Input for Moving Averages’ box click ‘OK’ and your MA will appear on your chart. You can go ahead and add more moving averaged by repeating these instructions. Each one will be given a different colour. Notice how each MA is listed in the ‘Chart Title’ in its unique colour and with its current value. If you are familiar with moving averages you will know that it can be hard to tell when the MA lines are touching and when they have actually crossed. By displaying the values in the ‘Chart Title’ this should remove such discrepancies.

To remove the moving averages from your chart you should follow the same process as needed to add a MA but rather than clicking ‘New’ you can simply left click on one of your moving averages that are now displayed under ‘New’. This will remove the MA immediately. You can repeat this process as many times as needed to clear the chart.

Bollinger Bands: Adding Bollinger Bands to your chart is very similar to adding moving averages. Firstly, click ‘Studies’ and then scroll over ‘Bollinger Bands’ to ‘New’. Once you have selected new the ‘Input for Bollinger Bands’ window will appear. At this point you can enter your chosen parameters and click ‘OK’. Your Bollinger Bands will appear on the chart as seen in the example to the right.To remove the Bollinger Bands click ‘Studies’ and scroll over ‘Bollinger Bands’ and click on the Bollinger Bands displayed underneath ‘New’. This will clear your chart immediately.

 

The Zoom Button

The ‘Zoom’ button allows you to select an area of the chart to ‘Zoom In’ on. Once you are zoomed in it then allows you to ‘Zoom Out’ and return to the normal display once more.

 

 

Zoom In: To ‘Zoom In’ on an area of the chart you must click the ‘Zoom’ button and select ‘Zoom In’ from the menu. The next stage is to select the area of the chart you wish to zoom in on. To do this you should left click and hold and drag the mouse from left to right selecting the area you wish to enlarge. Once you have selected the area you can release the mouse button. The chart window will then display only the area you have selected. The bars/ candlesticks will seem enlarged allowing you to study the chart in closer detail. To return to the normal display follow the instructions below.

 

Zoom Out: When your chart is zoomed in you can click the ‘Zoom’ and you will notice that the ‘Zoom Out’ option is displayed rather than faded out. Left clicking the ‘Zoom Out’ option will return your chart to its normal display and you will be able to view the whole chart once again.

 

 

The Help Button

By clicking the ‘Help’ button you are provided with one option, ‘About’. Clicking on this option will display the ‘About’ window which gives you information about the free forex charts.

 

The Detach Chart Option

The ability to detach the chart from the web page is a clever feature that allows even more flexibility when customizing your display. To detach the chart simply click the ‘Detach’ button on the ‘Secondary Toolbar’. The chart will then be opened in a separate window that you can enlarge, minimize or maximise depending on your requirements. When you enlarge the chart extra bars/ candlesticks is automatically added to fill the new available space. To reattach the chart simply click the ‘Detach’ button again and the chart snaps back to the web page. It should be noted at this point that closing or navigating away from the web page while the chart is detached would close the chart window. While the chart is detached all of your options remain enabled.