TradeStation Help

About Drawing Objects

Your charting application contains drawing objects that can be applied, moved, and formatted, directly on a chart, providing tremendous flexibility. When you change the data interval of your chart, your charting application automatically readjusts your drawing object. In addition, many drawing objects allow you to analyze new data on a chart by extending the drawing object to the right of the chart. Drawing objects cannot be included as part of an analysis group.

There are two different types of drawing objects:

Non-analytical - Such as the arc, arrow, text, and ellipse offer no specific market interpretation. You can use them to call attention to an area of a chart you consider worth noting. For example, you may want to highlight an area of your chart you want to review later using the rectangle drawing object. You might also want to write text on the chart to remind yourself about a market condition to watch for or as a label to include when you print a chart.
Analytical - Such as the Fibonacci Cycle, Percent Retracement, and Gann Fan perform calculations to analyze the price data where they are drawn. Most analytical drawing objects can also alert you when certain market conditions occur such as price breakouts.

You can also set alerts for drawing objects. You can choose to be alerted by a visual alert, sound notification, or email message when the alert criteria are met. This way you can keep up-to-date on important changes in the market no matter where you are. For more information, see About the TradeStation Message Center.

Each drawing object applied to a chart is assigned an identification number (ID#). As you place drawing objects on a chart, these numbers are assigned in sequence, starting with 1. Identification numbers are used in the Message Center to identify which drawing object generated an alert, in the Data Window to reference the values of a specific drawing objects, and in EasyLanguage to reference specific trendline and text drawing objects.

To view information on the drawing object applied to a chart, place your pointer on the drawing object and press and hold the right mouse button. Information specific to the drawing object is displayed as a DataTip.

When you apply a drawing object to a chart, it is associated with a specific data stream in the chart (for example, Data1, Data2, Data3, etc). If you replace or delete the associated data stream, the drawing object disappears. If replacing the data stream, you will need to redraw that object for the new symbol. However, the drawing object will reappear if you reapply the original data stream.

By default, your pointer remains in Drawing mode after applying a drawing object. While in Drawing mode, you will not be able to select other objects on the Chart Analysis window (for example, other drawing objects or price data). However, you can choose any other command from a menu or toolbar. Since each drawing object is unique, it is best to use the Drawing Object Library to locate the drawing object you want to learn more about.

You can also use the shortcut menu on a selected object component (identified with small square) to change the drawing properties such as Color, Style, Weight, and any object specific settings.

About Drawing Objects

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