Line Tools

Horizontal, Vertical, and Trend Lines

Drawing lines on charts is the most basic aspect of analysis when studying chart patterns. VT Trader makes it easy to place and customize these basic analystical tools.

Selecting a Line to Draw

You select which kind of line you would like to place from either the Drawing Toolbar or from the Tool Selector Icon in the Chart Window's Toolbar. The relevant icons for choosing the line tools are shown highlighted in red below, while the choices for the Lines inside the Tool Select Icon are highlighted in blue.

   

Placing Vertical and Horizontal Lines

After selecting either a vertical or horizontal line, it is easy to place them at any part of a chart; simply click the point where you want to lay down the line.

Here is an example of a vertical line:

Placing Trend Lines

After selecing the Trend Line tool you create a trend line by clicking a point on the chart and then draging the mouse to a second point where you would like the trend line to end.

Moving and Editing Lines 

When you hover over any line, your cursor changes from an arrow to a hand (you can see this in the above 2 images). This means you can click and select that line and alter it in several ways.

For vertical and horizontal lines, you can click and drag the line to a new position.

For trend lines, you can move them around the chart in the same way as vertizal and horizontal lines. You can also click and drag an endpoint of the trend line to either extend the line, or to rotate it. 

Line Properties 

Above you see the differnet things you can change about horizontal and vertical lines. You can choose different colors, line widths, line styles, and even specific values that the lines should be drawn on.

The alerts tab in the Properties window bring gives your lines added functionality as you can set VT Trader to give you alerts whenever price breaks the line, and these alerts can be set to go off either when price breaks the line at any time, or when a bar or candle close above or below your line.

For trend lines, there are some added items you can choose from. The value parameter has been expanded to include a begin value and date, and an end value and date. Also, you can extend either the beginning or the end of the trendline with a simple click of the checkbox next to each option.