Displaying More Than One SharpChart On A Chart

Click on the blue "Continue" button to start.

What's better than one chart? Two charts? Having multiple charts open at the same time is a great way to compare and contrast chart patterns, look for synchronized movements, or see how a chart you're watching is comparing against a baseline, among many other uses. To that end, SharpCharts makes it very easy for users to have multiple charts open on the same page, or even have ticker symbols overlaid on top of one another.

Scroll down to the bottom of an open SharpCharts page, where you'll find the StockCharts Workbench. If "Chart Settings" is selected on the menu to the left, you'll see the Overlays and Indicators sections, each with a set of dropdown menus below them. Before you get started, you may want to clean up any existing items on the workbench, so to do so, click "Clear All Overlays" and "Clear All Indicators", both on the right side of the workbench.

To add a second chart to your existing chart, open up one of the "Indicators" dropdown menus in the Indicators section. There, you'll want to click on "Price". This will open up a new line chart directly underneath the main chart, smaller in height but identical in horizontal length. By default, this new chart will be of $SPX, since the S&P 500 is commonly used as a baseline to compare the performance of an individual security against. To change that, click on the "Parameters" box immediately to the right and type in the ticker symbol for your desired chart.

The "Position" dropdown menu, again to the right, allows you to specify where on the page your new chart will be, including Above or Below the original chart. If you have multiple indicators on a page that are either all above or all below the original chart, the arrow icons allow you to change their positions relative to each other. Further to the right are dropdown menus that allow you to further customize the new chart, including:

• Style: If you don't want the default line chart, you can change the chart type to Candlesticks, OHLC bars, or one of several other options.

• Color: You can choose a singular color for the data on your chart, assuming the style allows for it.

• Height: Adjusts the size of your new chart by changing its height, calculated as a fraction of the original chart's height. If you choose 0.1, the new chart will be a tenth of the height of the original chart; if you choose 0.5, it will be half; and if you choose 1.0, both charts will be the same height and size.

• Overlay: You can add a single overlay to your secondary chart, including a simple moving average, Bollinger Bands, a horizontal line, and more. Some of these overlays include their own parameters that you can adjust.

To compare the charts for two ticker symbols even more directly, you can choose "Behind Price" for a position, which will allow you to create overlaid charts.

To delete, click the red trash can icon.

Remember, you aren't limited to just one extra charts; the Workbench allows for three new indicators to be added to or overlaid on a SharpChart. Take advantage of this useful means of directly comparing and contrasting the performance of different ticker symbols!

See these instructions visually in this step-by-step demo.