How to Use Chart Widgets

Here we'll show you how to use the Chart widget in the Trading Dashboard. You'll learn how to add technical indicators, drawings, events and benchmarks.

As an example, we'll analyze Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and benchmark it to other instruments in the S&P 500 index.

Chart widgets

To begin, open a Chart widget from the Widgets Gallery and add it to your workspace.

Click the search icon and enter the name of the security, in this case RY. Add it to the chart.

Alternatively, you can open a Chart widget from another widget, such as an Index Constituents widget.

The Chart widget displays the financial chart of your chosen security. You can choose from nine chart types, such as Mountain chart or Bar chart. Your selection will be the default chart type when you reopen the widget.

From the Display menu, you can select your preferred:

• Chart type, such as Candle chart
• Chart preferences, such as displaying a range selector to select a user-defined timeframe

Easily navigate the chart using your mouse, touchpad or touchscreen by dragging, scrolling or using the controls.

To return the chart to its home position, click on the double arrow button.

Easily zoom in on the x- or y-axis by clicking and dragging the axis.

To show all historical data, change the time period at the bottom of the Chart widget from intraday to 10 years.

You can select the timeline of the data from the dropdown menu at the top. Choose from one minute to one hour for intraday charts, and daily, weekly or monthly for interday charts.

Technical indicators

The Trading Dashboard provides an extensive library of technical indicators, available in the Studies dropdown menu. In this example, we've added:

• 30-day Simple Moving Average as an overlay
• Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) in a panel
• Volume Candle chart in another panel

Use the arrow keys to move a panel up or down, and click and drag to adjust its height.

Click the cog wheel to adjust the parameters of a study.

To remove a study, click the x behind the study in the Studies menu, or hover over the study and click the x that appears.

Events

From the Events menu, you can add event flags for news headlines.

For stocks, you can also add:

• Splits
• Company events
• Dividends

After adding news headlines, you can click an event flag for more details and launch the News widget for the corresponding story.

To remove event flags, select None from the Events dropdown menu.

Next, click the crosshair icon to show horizontal and vertical lines and inspect the data on the chart.

Drawings

To further your analysis, click the pencil icon to activate Drawing mode and add trendlines, annotations, shapes, Fibonaccis and more.

To include a drawing, select a tool from the list. Click on the chart to choose the start and end points.

To move a drawing, click and drag it. To reveal a drawing's endpoints, tap it or hover over it. To change the drawing's shape, click and drag its endpoints.

The drawing is saved with the financial instrument.

To delete a drawing, hover over it and right-click your mouse

Benchmarks

In addition to searching for a security, you can drag and drop one from another widget to replace the main instrument or add a benchmark.

Let's replace the main instrument with a security. Drag and drop the security from the S&P 500 list.

When you add an instrument to the lower part of the chart as a benchmark, such as S&P 500, a relative chart is displayed.

You can add up to 10 benchmarks.

For more information about a security, there is a mini quote available near the top of the widget. Click the three lines beside the company name below the title bar.

It includes base data, the ability to change the market and bid/ask data and, for some asset classes, the data field.