Bell and whistle request: additional drawing tool button(s)

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Tresor
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Bell and whistle request: additional drawing tool button(s)

Postby Tresor » 05 Mar 2010

Hi TSS,

I am a trendline trader. I can have as many as 30 - 40 trendlines on a chart at one time, which sometimes makes it hard to distinguish between them.

Would it be possible (in future) to implement an additional button for trendlines?

A trader might want to use:

(i) one button for drawing e.g. blue trendlines and the other button for drawing red trendlines, or
(ii) one button for short trendlines and the other for extended trendlines.

This is explained in a screenshot.

Thanks
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bowlesj3
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Postby bowlesj3 » 05 Mar 2010

I think the best way to do this is to develop a more advanced custom tool bar where a button which is placed on the custom tool bar can be assigned the task of pulling up a tool (any tool with preset settings) and applying it to the chart. Right now when you set the default settings for a tool (any tool) it is storing these settings in some sort of a database somwhere. All they have to do is set up another storage area for another set of settings and have the button assigned to retrieve that tool and those settings. I have no idea how hard this is but I am pretty sure that TS4.0 could do it so I suspect that in time MC will have this feature. I would have several lines set up (I don't use trend lines any more but I do use lines here and there) and serveral arcs set up.

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Nice to have this feature

Postby vking » 05 Mar 2010

I also use the trendlines and this feature would be really useful the way it is being requested.

Thanks.

Tresor
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Postby Tresor » 05 Mar 2010

I think the best way to do this is to develop a more advanced custom tool bar where a button which is placed on the custom tool bar can be assigned the task of pulling up a tool (any tool with preset settings) and applying it to the chart. ... but I do use serveral arcs set up.
This would make much sense :D

Traders who use many trendlines' set ups could multiply their trendlines' buttons. Those who use multiple arcs' set-ups could mulitiple their arcs' buttons, etc.

The thread's title was changed to meet traders' need for ANY drawing tool :P
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bowlesj3
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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Mar 2010

Yes, if the tool bar could be any length and have unlimited buttons (or up to 10 per tool bar maybe if there is unlimited custom tool bars), if the tools could control the snap and what to snap too and this was part of the stuff picked up in the custom tool bar button, now that would be way cool. Better yet a very great time saver for the time pressed day trader.

So maybe there is a database for every tool. Maybe the default key for the database is 1. Maybe any key above that is a custom setting. Maybe the button simply contains the type of tool and the database key.

So maybe the trader has a custom tool bar for lines and a custom tool bar for arcs and a custom tool bar for whatever. This way thay can separate them the way they like inside the chart or even outside MC all together.

Maybe every custom tool bar has a special button at the front (far left) that pulls up a customize list for that tool bar and it allows the trader to create a new custom button, delete a custom button, and update any custom button as I describe below..

Maybe to change a buttons settings the trader highlights a trend line (or arc or whatever) on the chart that has the settings they want and they click one of the entries in the list of the custom buttons in that tool bar and it copies the settings for that highlighted line into that database entry (updating the database entry for that specified key). Of course if this tool bar is only to store trend lines then the edit checks to be sure that the trader highlighted a trend line rather than an arc. So this implies that a custom tool bar only stores one tool type (maybe that is good, maybe that is easier to program, not sure about that but I can certainly handle one tool bar per tool type without any fuss). So maybe having one custom tool bar per tool type would allow TSS to phase this idea in one tool type at a time starting with the trend line first.

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arnie
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Postby arnie » 06 Mar 2010

One thing that is a "must have" is the option of extend a vertical trendline into the subcharts.

Why do we draw a vertical trendline on a chart? I want to believe that is to compare a time zone to the indicator/data below or above of that same chart.

If that trendline cannot be extended into that indicator/data, what's the point of having it?

Regards,
Fernando

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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Mar 2010

Qcharts had what you want Fernando. I am trying to remember if it was a trend line or a special line. Currently I have a study in which I drop an arrow on the main chart and it creates a vertical line in the main chart and directly below in the subchart. It does not block the main plot on the subchart. It transfers information back to the main chart to mark it when a certain event takes place and to send info to my database program for processing. My database program can clear these lines with a simple button click removing clutter automatically and preparing for the next need for these lines. I eliminated the nead or this feature and taken it a few steps beyond this feature. However it all depends on what the trader wants this for I would assume. It was a lot of work.

With the above costom tool bar idea the trader could put different colored arrows on the chart and the arrow drop I mention above could be directed differently based upon the color of arrow the trader drops on the chart. Right now it is limited to one function only.

So for priority I would say (arrows and lines) then arcs, other tools such as text). However it may be that TSS can do them all at once. Arcs are great for marking breaks. Different colors on the custom tool bar could have different meanings. If the arcs can be processed exactly like trend lines these could be detected and certain actions could be taken maybe or maybe MC could just clean them off when the trader wants (cleaning off a selected color only maybe). If arcs could be programmed like trend lines the study could detect a break and mark the break with an arc.

Custom tool bars helps open up an interactive type of programming for MC and it gets even better if MC can execute studies not just on every tick but on selected time intervals. It allows the human eye to take on some of the more complex market structure detection and submit this input into MC or the opposite. So over a period of time the trader may be able to offload more and more to MC but at the start they can use the interactive ability to cover off much of it with the human eye. Right now I am inputing certain things into MC with arrows and more and more info is coming back telling me what to do next as a trader (check something, prepare for trigger, etc). I just made a change and it reminds me to input some info If I have not done it within the last 3 minutes (a parameter setting).
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Postby arnie » 06 Mar 2010

MC was built especifically for automatic systems/traders, not for "manual work" on the charts.

Based on that, I understand that and accept the lack of "manual tools" and all their needs.

The problem though, is that MC is also used by discretionary traders that have specific needs for "manual tools" (ie. trendlines and text with specific options, like the ones John has been talking about), tools that MC lacks. .

TSSupport should pay attention to this area of trading (discretionary).

I've never worked with Qcharts, but I still work with Metastock, and it have a pretty good "manual tools".

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Postby bowlesj3 » 06 Mar 2010

I often think that TSS should do an email poll of their clients to ask them what % they are within these two groups and how they use MC. 100% automated or 50% automated, whatever. Even more interesting would be to ask why they are not 100% automated and if the trader has plans in this regard. I can think of one trader who I will not name who uses TS but is discretionary and after starting with negative assets is now worth many millions. This person has a few systems that point out certain simple market situations for a few specific types of trades but the more complex situations they do it all manually. They do not have the computer execute automatically on any trade.
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Tresor
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Postby Tresor » 06 Mar 2010

One thing that is a "must have" is the option of extend a vertical trendline into the subcharts.
+1 (just like a vertical line in MT4 is capable of going down through all subcharts).

And one should also be able to have an option to switch off the date and time on the vertical / time line.

Tresor
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Re: Bell and whistle request: additional drawing tool button

Postby Tresor » 19 Nov 2010

You can now:
(i) vote for this feature, and
(ii) add comments
here: https://www.multicharts.com/pm/index.php

MC-58 - Feature request: MULTIPLE COMMAND BUTTONS (for Drawing Tools, e.g trendlines)


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