Creating and Viewing SharpCharts

In this article, we'll go over creating a SharpChart on the workbench and then using the Inspector tool to view OHLC price and volume data for specific bars and to measure price change. We'll wrap up with an overview of the Auto-Refresh feature that keeps members' charts up-to-date during market hours.

Read on to learn more about the chart-viewing features available on the SharpCharts Workbench.

Creating a Chart

Before you can view a chart, you need to create it. Luckily, creating a SharpChart from the SharpCharts Workbench is as easy as entering a new ticker symbol in the Symbol Box above the chart.

When you begin to type in the Symbol Box, a dropdown menu will show available symbols that match what you've typed in. You can select from this list, or just finish typing in the ticker symbol and click the Go button on the right side of the Symbol Box.

There are also a number of ways to create a SharpChart from outside the SharpCharts Workbench:

• Clicking on a ticker symbol anywhere on the StockCharts website.

• Typing a ticker symbol into the Create a Chart box, then clicking Go.

• Typing a ticker symbol into the box in the SharpCharts section of the Charts & Tools page, then clicking Go.

• Clicking on many of the charts in our Articles and ChartSchool areas.

• Clicking on the SharpCharts icons on our various reports and scan results pages.

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The Inspector

If you want to examine the data that makes up the bars on a SharpChart, you can check the Inspect button above the chart. When the Inspector is turned on, the button will be dark; when it is turned off, the button will be light.

When it is turned on, an interactive cursor will appear on the chart. This cursor has crosshairs showing you the exact date and price level where your mouse is positioned. In addition, it displays a small databox next to the cursor that shows data values for the price bar your mouse is currently hovered over.

The databox shows OHLC values, percent change, and volume, for the price bar in question. The “Y” data value is the mouse's vertical position inside the current panel. It can be used to see the values of indicators in panels above or below the price panel.

Cool Tips: Hold down the SHIFT key while using the Inspector to make the crosshairs appear thinner. Hold down the CTRL (CMD on a Mac) key to make the floating databox invisible.

Measuring with the Inspector

In addition to showing price and volume data, the Inspector can be used to measure time/price distances between two points. While Inspector is turned on, click on the first location and drag your mouse to the second location on the chart. The price change (if you drag vertically) or the number of periods (if you drag horizontally) will be displayed on the left side of the chart until you let go of the mouse button.

In the example below, we can see that the price change for GE between the low of December 18th and the pre-gap high of January 22nd is approximately 18.88%.

Caution: The additional data required to display price information in the Inspector can slow down the chart's loading time significantly. Therefore, you should only enable the Inspector when you are actively using it.

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Auto-Refresh

You can always update a SharpChart with the latest data by manually clicking the “Refresh” button at the right side of the Symbol Box on the SharpCharts Workbench.

In addition, when the markets are open, the chart will refresh automatically for StockCharts members. Charts will refresh as frequently as every 15 seconds for Basic and Extra members, and every 5 seconds for Pro members. Non-members will still need to press the Refresh button manually each time they want to refresh.

Once the market for that ticker symbol closes, the chart will no longer auto-refresh for members, but you can always manually refresh the chart using the Refresh button.

Note: If you'd like to turn off auto-refresh even during market hours, click the gears icon at the top right of the SharpCharts Workbench to open the Workbench Preferences, then toggle the Auto-Refresh setting and click the green Save Preferences button.

Chart Request Limits

Combining the auto-refresh feature with your browser's ability to open multiple tabs/windows allows it to create large collections of auto-updating charts. However, you must understand the “chart requests per second” limitation before doing that.

Basic and Extra members cannot automatically request more than one chart per second from our servers (on average over an extended period). Pro members cannot request more than two charts per second.

For example, if a Basic member opens 15 different browser tabs and has a SharpChart auto-refreshing every 15 seconds inside each tab, they would have hit the allowable limit, i.e., 15 charts (1 chart / 15 seconds) = 1 chart per second. If they opened up a 16th tab with another auto-refreshing chart in it, they would violate our policy.

Please see our Excessive Chart Requests Policy for more information.