Drawing tools

The drawing toolbar to the left of the chart has 87 tools in eight groups, plus Measure, Zoom in and seven modes. All drawing tools are available on every plan.

Drawings belong to their symbol: if you switch from BTC to ETH and back, the BTC drawings are there again. They are tied to time and price, so they move along when you zoom and pan, and they are saved with your workspace. You can draw on the price chart and just the same in any indicator pane.

The drawing toolbar

From top to bottom:

How to use it:

1. A click on a group picks the tool you last used there (initially the first one).
2. The small arrow on the right of the button (More) expands the group: sections, tools with shortcuts, a check mark on the active tool and a star for the favorites toolbar.
3. When you move over a button, it names its group or the tool from it you currently have in hand.

You can also reach tools through shortcuts (AltT Trend line, AltH Horizontal line, AltJ Horizontal ray, AltV Vertical line, AltC Cross line, AltF Fib retracement, AltShiftR Rectangle), through the quick tool wheel and through the super search (CtrlK, type the tool's name).

Place a drawing

1. Choose a tool.
2. Click the points on the chart. With two points, you can also click, drag and release. If you hold Shift while doing so, the new point snaps in 45° steps relative to the previous one: horizontal (same price), vertical (same time) or exactly diagonal. That way you draw a straight line in one go. This also applies when you move a point of a finished drawing with Shift held down.
3. Once the last point is set, the drawing is finished and selected. The tool goes back to the cursor, unless Stay in drawing mode is on.

Good to know:

• How many clicks a tool needs is listed in the tables below. Two clicks on the same spot place nothing.
• Open shapes (path, polyline, ghost feed) take any number of points. Finish them with a double-click or Enter. Esc keeps the shape if it already has two points. On touchscreens, Done and Cancel appear for this.
• Esc cancels a drawing in progress, a second Esc puts the tool down.
• Text: After placing, an “Enter text” field opens. Enter or Esc accepts the text. Empty text disappears again. Price label and Flag work without a text field.
• Image: After placing, you choose an image file. Large images are scaled down to 640 px.
• Emojis, stickers, symbols: After placing, the character picker opens.
• While the chart is still loading, nothing can be placed; the tool stays in hand.

Tools at a glance

Cursor

Under Settings, turn on Values tooltip on long press: if you hold the mouse button on a candle for half a second, a window shows open, high, low, close and volume.

Trend tools

Gann and Fibonacci tools

The trend-based Fib extension draws its levels exactly between the second and third point: it starts and ends where these points lie and is as wide as that section. With Extend right, the levels run to the right edge.

The Fib retracement shows the levels 0, 0.236, 0.382, 0.5, 0.618, 0.786 and 1; 0.5 and 0.618 are highlighted. Turn on further levels (1.236 to 2.618) in the drawing's settings under Levels.

Patterns

Elliott Waves: The first click sets the starting point, each further click the next wave. After the last wave, the count is finished. Labels sit above highs and below lows. Color, locking and deleting always apply to the whole count. In the settings you choose:

• Wave degree – 15 degrees from largest to smallest: Supermillennium, Millennium, Submillennium, Grand Supercycle, Supercycle, Cycle, Primary, Intermediate, Minor, Minute, Minuette, Subminuette, Micro, Submicro and Minuscule. Each degree has its own notation (Roman or Arabic, upper or lower case, with a circle, parentheses or angle brackets) and color; changing it rewrites the whole count.
• Label – a custom color instead of the degree's color.
• Wave line – connect the points with a line, with color, width and style. New counts start without a line, with labels only.
• Show origin (0) – label the starting point with 0.

Coordinates lists all points of the count for typing in exact values.

Forecasts & measurements

Long and short: One click sets the entry. The box extends 24 candles to the right, the target is 8% of the visible price range away and the stop half as far, which makes a risk/reward of 2.00. Then drag the target and stop by their handles. On the Inputs tab, enter Account size, Risk (as a percentage or an amount), Lot size and the Decimal places of the quantity; the box then also shows position size and profit or loss in money. Under Style, set the colors of target, stop and text, the font size, price labels and compact statistics; the risk/reward ratio is shown below.

Anchored VWAP: Under Inputs, choose the Source ((H+L+C)/3, close, (H+L)/2 or (O+H+L+C)/4) and up to three bands, each with its own width in σ. Under Style: line, band color, background between the bands and the label with the value.

Volume profiles: Under Inputs, set the number of Rows (4 to 200), the Value area as a percentage and the Volume: total, split into buy and sell, or as delta. Under Style: width and placement (left or right), the colors for volume, buy and sell, the opacity of the value area, the POC with its own color and optionally extended to the right edge, and the lines at VAH and VAL.

Geometric shapes

Text tools

Table: Each line is a table row, ShiftEnter starts a new one. Separate columns with a vertical bar |. The first row is bold.

To change a text, double-click the drawing or use its settings (Edit in chart).

Symbols

Place Emojis, Sticker and Symbols with one click, then choose the character.

Measure and zoom in

• Measure: Drag across the chart or click start and end. A box shows the price change, percent and number of candles (“+1,234.50 (+2.31%) · 18 candles”). It disappears on the next click. It's faster with Shift and dragging, as long as you have no drawing tool in hand.
• Zoom in: Drag out an area or click start and end. The chart zooms to that time span.

Edit drawings

• Select: Click the drawing. A click on an empty area clears the selection, as does Esc.
• Move: Grab the drawing and drag it; along the time axis it snaps to the candles.
• Reshape: Drag a handle.
• Delete: Del or ⌫, the trash can in the selection bar, or the eraser.
• Copy and paste: CtrlC copies the selected drawing, CtrlV (or right-click → Paste) places the copy five candles further to the right.
• Undo: CtrlZ takes back every step, including moving and deleting.

The selection bar

While a drawing is selected, a floating bar sits at the top center of the chart. From left to right:

For the Text tool, instead of line and style the bar shows: text color, background, border, font size, B (bold) and I (italic).

In a narrow chart, such as a multi-chart window, the bar wraps and leaves out Template and Line style (both are also in the dialog).

The color picker

Every color button opens the same color picker:

• at the top, ten shades of gray from white to black, below them ten base colors with six shades each,
• below that, the five terminal colors (the base color follows light and dark) and your most recent custom colors,
• + for a custom color: through the system color picker or as a hex code (FF9800), then Add,
• Opacity from 0 to 100%. Another color from the grid keeps the set opacity.

Drawing settings

The gear, More → Settings… or a double-click on the drawing opens the settings dialog (for text, the double-click still opens the text field). You see every change on the chart right away. OK applies everything as a single step for CtrlZ; Cancel, the × or Esc restore the drawing as it was. Drag the dialog by its header.

The dialog has up to five tabs. Each tool shows exactly the settings that belong to it.

Inputs – only for tools that calculate: long and short, Anchored VWAP and the volume profiles (see above).

Style – what appears here depends on the tool:

• Line (for areas Border): color, width, style.
• Background: on or off and the color with opacity.
• Extend: Left and Right (trend line, horizontal line, rectangle, Fibonacci; channel and Fib extension right only).
• Trend line: Left end and Right end (Normal or Arrow), Midpoint, Price labels (the price at both ends), Statistics (move, percent and duration) and Angle.
• Ray: end as an arrow, price label.
• Horizontal line: Price label on or off, From last touch.
• Rectangle: Midline.
• Path, polyline, curve: arrow at the end.
• Channels: midline with its own style, extend; for the regression trend also to the left, plus the correlation coefficient.
• Pitchforks, Fib family and Gann: the levels as for Fibonacci (value, color, on or off), background between the levels and the labels.
• Chart patterns, cycles, forecast, bars pattern, ghost feed, sector, price and date range: line, background, colors and text.
• Text tools: font, background and border; Image: opacity and border; Symbols: the character, size and rotation.
• Elliott Waves, long/short, VWAP, volume profiles: see above.

Text – for trend line, ray, horizontal and vertical line and rectangle: a text on the line or in the rectangle with color, font size, bold and italic. Position sets whether it sits above, on or below the line and at its start, middle or end; in the rectangle at the top, center or bottom and left, center or right. The text runs along the line, upward on a vertical line.

For the Text tool, the first tab is called Text: color, size, bold, italic, the text field, Background and Border, each on or off with its own color, and Alignment (left, center, right).

Coordinates – price and time of each point for typing in exact values (Enter or leaving the field applies them). Move freehand shapes with many points as a whole on the chart.

Visibility – on which intervals the drawing is shown: one row each for Seconds (1–59), Minutes (1–59), Hours (1–24), Days (1–366), Weeks (1–52) and Months (1–12), each with a check box and a range. Example: Minutes 1 to 15 with Hours off shows a scalping line only on 1- to 15-minute charts. All intervals turns everything on or off. On other intervals the drawing is neither visible nor clickable; it stays listed in Layers → Drawings.

At the bottom left of the dialog is Template, with the same entries as in the bar. A template you apply here shows on the chart right away; OK keeps it, Cancel restores the drawing. Templates apply per tool and, when you're signed in, on every device; a drawing's text, position and lock are never part of them.

Fibonacci settings

Fib retracement and Fib extension have their own Style tab:

• Trend line: the dashed line between the anchors, on or off, with its own color, width and style. New Fibonacci drawings start without it.
• Level lines: width and style of all levels.
• Extend left and right, Reverse (0% at the start instead of at the end of the move).
• Label: Prices and Levels, each on or off, levels as Values (0.618) or Percent (61.8%); for the retracement the Position (left, center, right; above, on or below the line) and the Font size. On the left and right, the labels sit outside the zone, next to its edge, so they don't lie on the candles. Only when there's no room there, such as with a zone extended to the edge, do they move inside. In the center they sit on the line, and the line is interrupted at that spot.
• Background: the bands between the levels with adjustable opacity; each band in the color of the level it reaches.
• Single color: all levels in the line color.
• Logarithmic levels: levels calculated on the log scale (default).
• Levels: each level with a check box, value (with a comma or a point, also as 61,8 %) and its own color; × removes it. Add level adds the next missing standard level (0.236 … 4.618). Reset colors removes the custom colors again.

Without custom colors, the usual terminal look stays: all levels in the line color, 0.5 and 0.618 highlighted.

Draw in indicator panes

Every tool also works in an indicator pane below the price chart, such as RSI, CVD or open interest. Just place the points there.

• The drawing belongs to that pane and reads its values from the pane's scale: a horizontal line at RSI 70 stays at 70, no matter how the price moves.
• Selecting, moving, handles, the selection bar, settings, coordinates and CtrlZ work as on the price chart. The coordinates show the indicator's value there instead of a price.
• The drawing stays in its pane and doesn't extend into the price chart.
• The magnet only snaps to candles on the price chart; in an indicator pane you place the points freely.
• If you collapse the pane or remove the indicator, its drawings are no longer visible. They are tied to the pane's position: if you later add a pane at the same spot, they appear there.

The drawing toolbar modes

Magnet

A click turns the weak magnet on and off. In the expanded menu you choose:

• Weak magnet: A point snaps to the candle's open, high, low or close if it's at most 30 px away.
• Strong magnet: A point always snaps to the nearest of these four values.
• Snap to indicators: Points also snap to indicator lines on the price chart.

Brush and Highlighter never snap.

Stay in drawing mode

With Stay in drawing mode on, the tool stays in hand after each drawing. That way you can place several horizontal lines in a row, for example. Esc puts the tool down.

Lock

A click locks all drawings. In the menu you choose:

• Lock drawings: no drawing can be moved or reshaped.
• Lock indicators: indicators can no longer be removed in the legend, in the indicator panes or in the Layers panel, and the pane heights stay as they are (“Indicators are locked”).
• Lock all: both.

Hide

A click hides all drawings (like CtrlAltH), a second one shows them again. In the menu you choose Hide drawings, Hide indicators or Hide all. What's hidden is kept and comes back with another click.

Sync

Applies to new drawings in a multi-chart layout:

• Don't sync (default): a drawing from an additional chart window doesn't appear in any other additional window.
• Sync in layout: new drawings appear in every chart of the layout that shows the same symbol.
• Sync globally: as in layout; in addition, the terminal carries these drawings along when you load another workspace or a layout.

A click on the button toggles between Don't sync and Sync in layout.

Remove objects

The menu removes in one go:

• Remove drawings: all drawings of the symbol on the chart, with the count next to it,
• Remove indicators: all active indicators, with the count next to it,
• Remove drawings and indicators: both.

Locked drawings stay in place, unless Always remove locked drawings is on. The notice afterwards offers Undo.

Favorites toolbar

1. Expand a group and click the star next to the tool.
2. Turn on Favorites toolbar in the drawing toolbar.
3. A floating bar with your favorites appears next to the drawing toolbar. Drag it by the handle on the left.

Without favorites, the bar says: “Add tools with the star in the menu”.

The quick tool wheel

The wheel brings your favorite tools right to the mouse pointer. It's available on a computer, not on a phone.

1. Hold Alt (Mac: Option) while the mouse pointer is over the chart. After a short moment the wheel opens at the pointer.
2. Move the mouse toward a tool.
3. Release Alt. The tool is in hand.

Other ways:

• The digits 1 to 0 choose a slot directly.
• If you release Alt without moving the mouse, the wheel stays open. Then choose with a click, or at the bottom with Customize and Close.
• Esc, a right-click or a click outside closes the wheel.
• Alt together with another key is a shortcut (for example AltT) and doesn't open the wheel.

By default the wheel holds: Trend line, Horizontal line, Fib retracement, Elliott impulse wave, Elliott corrective waves, Crosshair, Long position, Short position, Rectangle and Price range; with twelve slots also Text and Brush.

Customize the wheel

Open the editor with Customize on the open wheel, by right-clicking the chart → Quick tools… or in the super search with Customize quick tools….

1. At the top, choose the number of slots: 6, 8, 10 or 12.
2. Click a slot on the wheel.
3. Click a tool in the list. It lands on the slot, and the next slot is selected. You can also drag a tool onto a slot.
4. Done closes the editor, Restore defaults restores the default assignment.

The list contains the cursor modes, all drawing tools as well as Measure and Zoom in; Search tools filters it. Each tool is on the wheel at most once: if you put it on another slot, the two swap. Your assignment is saved with your settings.