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thinkStart
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Finding your way
around your favorite
trading platforms
thinkorswim
Charts Page
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If pictures could speak a
thousand words, this one is
guilty as charged.
• Surely you’ve seen those magical chart
programs on TV? You know, the ones being
peddled as crystal balls that tell you exactly
where any stock is headed for only $3,995?
Uh-huh—well, they don’t exist. Sorry, we
can’t promise to show you the future, but we
do have thinkorswim Charts. And they’re
free. So flexible, they perform yoga, and contain more indicators than any other broker/dealer to help you find that perfect
setup. Here’s the high-level view.
PRICE CHART Customize your colors and
chart type. If it’s Candlesticks, bars, or heck,
Heikin Ashi that you want, it’s there. As far as
trading goes, this really is the “big picture.”
Pretty, isn’t it?
UPPER INDICATOR AREA Drop all kinds of
drawings and studies over the price chart. From
the Drawings menu (upper right button), you
can add trendlines, Fibonacci retracements, and
even regression channels. From the Studies
menu (next to Drawings button) add all flavors
of moving averages, Bollinger Bands (pictured
here), price channels, or plot all the places where
certain in study “crossovers” occur as potential
entry/exit points.
LOWER INDICATOR AREA If it doesn’t
belong in the upper chart area, it probably lives
in the lower sub-graph. The default is volume,
but this is not only other old favorites live—i.e.
MACD histrograms and Stochastics—but also
the lesser-known as well, such as volatility studies, ADX, and the ever-ironic Random Walk Index
(no, not kidding).
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• This is not a trade recommendation and is for illustrative purposes only.
5 Treats for Chart Nerds
1/Expiration Friday
It might be a good idea to check out how the stock you’re
looking at fared at prior options expirations before trying
out your next new options strategy. The little dashed-lines running vertically up your screen tell the date of
expiration on the bottom.
2/Earnings and Dividends
Hover your cursor over these little icons to get the past
numbers. Right click and choose “Read Press Release” to
get the details. Can’t see them? Click the Style button
(upper right) and choose “Settings.” Choose Equities and
check the box next to “Corporate Actions.”
