TradeStation Help
ShowMe and PaintBar studies enable you to quickly and easily spot certain market conditions in your charts. These studies mark the bars of data in your chart that meet specific criteria by either plotting colored dots on the bar or by painting the entire bar in a different color. You can quickly and easily test the validity of an idea before incorporating it into a trading strategy.
ShowMe studies are designed to automatically identify specific market conditions and mark each bar of the chart that meets the specific criteria. ShowMe studies eliminate the task of manually scrolling through a chart looking for patterns and specific significant events that you think are important. By using a ShowMe study, you can quickly analyze your chart for patterns and see whether they did, in fact, precede market moves important to your trading objectives.
Most ShowMe studies contain inputs, which means you can modify the values within the criteria used to mark each bar. Also, you can write your own ShowMe studies using EasyLanguage.
ShowMe studies are best used to find market events that occur sporadically, as opposed to identifying a market mode. By default, a ShowMe study marks each bar that meets the criteria of the study with a large easy-to-see dot either on the open, high, low or close of the bar (you can change the location of the dot by editing the study in EasyLanguage).
PaintBar studies work very much like ShowMe studies in that they scan your chart to identify the bars that meet specific criteria. However, rather than placing a mark on the bar that meets the criteria, a PaintBar study paints the bar a different color (the entire bar or a portion of the bar).
While ShowMe studies are best used to search for and mark bars based on criteria that occurs sporadically, PaintBar studies are best used to search for and mark bars based on criteria that occurs for several bars in a row, or that identifies a market mode.
Charting PaintBar Study Library
Inserting Analysis Techniques in a Chart or Grid Window
Viewing PaintBar and ShowMe Study Values
Formatting Analysis Techniques