Shapes & Brushes

What this page is

The fifth button on the rail is the largest category, with eighteen tools in three sections. Brushes has two freehand strokes. Arrows has six pointers. Shapes has ten outlines.

The Brushes section works differently from everything else on the rail. Brush and Highlighter are the only two tools placed with a press, a drag and a release rather than with clicks: the stroke is sampled as you move and committed when you let go. The magnet deliberately stays out of it, because a stroke is a sampled path rather than a set of anchors. The Highlighter is the same tool at twelve pixels wide and a quarter opacity, for shading a region rather than drawing on it.

The Arrows section has two kinds. Arrow and Arrow Marker are two-click tools — you set the tail and the head, so they point in any direction; Arrow Marker is simply the heavier of the two. Arrow Mark Up, Down, Left and Right are one-click stamps: a hollow block arrow whose tip lands exactly on the bar you clicked, pointing the way its name says.

The Shapes section is the geometry. Rectangle, Circle and Ellipse take two clicks across a box. Triangle, Rotated Rectangle and Curve take three. Double Curve takes four. Arc takes two and bows between them. Path and Polyline are the two variable-length tools: keep clicking to add vertices and finish with a double-click or Enter — and Path also finishes on a right-click.

Most of the shapes fill their interior faintly, which is why they carry background colour, visibility and opacity controls alongside the usual line settings.

Why it helps you

When to use it, and where to find it

• When you have decided something and want it recorded on the chart rather than in your head.
• When you are preparing a chart to share or to review later, and the point needs pointing at.
• When a zone matters more than a level: a rectangle or a highlighter says "between here and here" in a way no line can.
• When you are reviewing a completed trade and want to mark the entry, the exit and what you now think you should have done.

Try it — a short walkthrough

1. 1
   Box a consolidation

   Open the sixth rail button and choose Rectangle. Click one corner of the range and then the opposite corner. It fills faintly, and the fill can be turned off or retuned in the Style tab of the settings dialog.
2. 2
   Stamp an arrow on one bar

   Choose Arrow Mark Up and click a single candle. The block arrow appears with its tip on that bar, pointing upward. Down, Left and Right work the same way.
3. 3
   Draw a free shape and finish it deliberately

   Choose Polyline and keep clicking to add corners. When the outline is right, double-click or press Enter to finish it. Path works the same way and also finishes on a right-click. Esc abandons the whole thing.
4. 4
   Shade a session with the highlighter

   Choose Highlighter, then press, drag across the region and release. It is one continuous stroke rather than a set of clicks, and the magnet has no effect on it.
5. 5
   Restyle several shapes at once

   Press Esc, click one shape, then Shift, Ctrl or Cmd click the others. The floating property bar then edits colour, width and line type for all of them, and the settings dialog shows only the properties they share.

Every part, up close

The Chart page — the brushes, arrows and shapes are behind the sixth rail button. Each part with a close-up of the real screen; the numbers match the dots on the picture.

1

Fifth button down

The fifth button opens the largest category on the rail: two brushes, six arrows and ten shapes behind one icon.

2

Press, drag, release

The two brushes are the only tools on the whole rail drawn with a drag across the candles instead of with clicks, and the magnet stays out of their way.

Reading the numbers

• Brush — one press-drag-release stroke. A 2.5 pixel opaque freehand line, sampled as you move. The magnet is ignored.
• Highlighter — one press-drag-release stroke. The same tool at twelve pixels wide and about a quarter opacity, for shading rather than drawing.
• Arrow Marker — 2 clicks, tail then head. A heavy shaft with a large head, for pointing at something emphatically.
• Arrow — 2 clicks, tail then head. The lighter of the two, at normal line weight.
• Arrow Mark Up — 1 click. A hollow block arrow about twenty-four pixels long, tip on the clicked bar, pointing up.
• Arrow Mark Down — 1 click. The same stamp pointing down.
• Arrow Mark Left — 1 click. The same stamp pointing left.
• Arrow Mark Right — 1 click. The same stamp pointing right.
• Rectangle — 2 clicks, opposite corners. Axis-aligned, faintly filled.
• Rotated Rectangle — 3 clicks. The first two set one edge, the third sets the perpendicular depth, so the box can sit at any angle.
• Path — 2 clicks minimum, then keep clicking. An open polyline with an arrow head on its last segment. Finish with a double-click, Enter or a right-click.
• Circle — 2 clicks. Centre and radius.
• Ellipse — 2 clicks, opposite corners of its bounding box.
• Polyline — 3 clicks minimum, then keep clicking. Closes itself and shades the interior. Finish with a double-click or Enter.
• Triangle — 3 clicks, one per corner. Filled.
• Arc — 2 clicks. A curve bowing between the two points at a fixed depth.
• Curve — 3 clicks. The first two are the ends, the third pulls the curve toward it.
• Double Curve — 4 clicks. Two ends and two control points, giving an S rather than a single bend.
• Rectangle, Rotated Rectangle, Ellipse, Circle, Triangle and Polyline fill their interiors, so those six carry background colour, visibility and opacity controls. The lines, arcs, curves, arrows and brushes do not.
• Every shape can also carry a text label from the Text tab of the settings dialog, positioned on each axis independently — a rectangle offers Middle because it has an interior, a curve does not.

What it does not do

• Nothing in this flyout measures anything. These are annotation tools; the rulers live in Prediction and Measurement, and the measured lines in Trend Line Tools.
• A freehand stroke can hold hundreds of sampled points and is moved as a whole rather than reshaped — only its two ends get handles. To change the shape of a stroke, delete it and draw it again.
• Path and Polyline stay armed until you finish them. If a click seems to be doing nothing but adding another corner, that is why: double-click, press Enter, or right-click on a Path.
• The magnet does not apply to Brush or Highlighter, by design. Every other tool here snaps its clicks when the magnet is on.
• All eighteen tools can be drawn on the Chart page, so nothing in this flyout is greyed out. If the engine ever could not draw a tool, its row would be disabled with a tooltip saying so.

Questions people ask