Drawing tools
The drawing rail runs down the left edge of Charts. Use it to mark levels, trends and zones on any chart: a line at yesterday's high, a channel, a Fibonacci retracement, a note on a bar.
Draw on the chart
Hover a group on the rail. A card opens with that group's tools.
Click a tool.
Click on the chart to place each point. Most tools take one or two clicks.
When the drawing is placed, the pointer goes back to the cursor. To place several drawings in a row, turn on Stay in drawing mode at the bottom of the rail.
Each rail button shows the last tool you used from its group, so your usual tool is one click away. Click the star beside any tool, Add to favorites, to give it its own button on the rail.
The tools
Group | Tools |
|---|---|
Shapes & Brushes | Rectangle, Ellipse, Circle, Triangle, Rotated Rectangle, Arc, Curve, Double Curve, Polyline, Path, arrows, Brush, Highlighter |
Lines | Trend Line, Ray, Extended Line, Trend Angle, Horizontal Line, Horizontal Ray, Vertical Line, Vertical Ray, Cross Line |
Pitchforks | Andrews' Pitchfork, Schiff Pitchfork, Modified Schiff Pitchfork, Inside Pitchfork |
Channels | Parallel Channel, Flat Top/Bottom, Disjoint Channel |
Text | Text, Comment, Callout, Price Label |
Fibonacci | Fib Retracement, Fib Extension, Fib Channel, Fib Speed Fan, Fib Time Zone, Fib Time Extension, Fib Arcs, Fib Circles, Fib Wedge, Fib Spiral, Pitchfan |
Gann | Gann Fan, Gann Box, Gann Square, Gann Square (Fixed) |
Measure | Info Line, Price Range, Date Range, Date & Price Range, Forecast, Projection |
Position | Buy (Long), Sell (Short): an entry, stop and target drawn as a planned trade |
Volume Profile | Basic, Dual, Total and Stacked Volume Profile over the range you draw |
A Layers group also appears when an indicator on the chart has a layer you can draw by hand. Scripting explains layers.
A Position drawing is a plan on the chart and sends nothing to your broker. To place a real order, see Trading from the chart.
Edit a drawing
Click a drawing to select it. A small toolbar appears beside it with the colour, Line Width, Line Style, Settings and a bin to delete it. Drag its points to reshape it, or drag the body to move it.
Settings opens the tool's own settings, for example Trend Line Settings, with its colour, width and style. Text tools add font size, font family and padding. The style you pick becomes that tool's default for the next drawing.
Keys
Key | What it does |
|---|---|
Backspace | Deletes the selected drawing |
Escape | Abandons a drawing you are part way through placing |
Enter | Finishes a polyline |
Lock and clear
Lock drawings, at the bottom of the rail, stops every drawing from being moved or edited. Picking a new tool turns the lock off.
The Remove group clears drawings, indicators, or both, and each option shows how many it will remove. There is no confirmation.
Where drawings are kept
Drawings are saved in this browser, with the instrument, so they come back whenever you chart it again. They are kept apart from chartbooks: saving a chartbook does not include them.
Because they live in the browser, drawings do not follow you to another browser or device. Signing in to a different Chartnaut account in the same browser clears them.
A replay session keeps its own drawings for each instrument, separate from real time. Lines you draw while backtesting stay with that session.