How to Pin an Annotation on a SharpChart

Generally, annotations on your chart move to the left as more bars are added to your chart, keeping the annotations inline with the price bars. This is useful when you are using annotations to point out chart patterns, trendlines, areas of support/resistance, etc. Once enough bars are added that the chart pattern is off the left edge of the chart, the annotations should no longer be visible either.

For some annotations, however, you want the annotation to remain in its place on the chart, even as the bars move to the left of the chart and eventually move off the left edge of the chart. For example, if you have comments that describe the chart as a whole, that information is relevant all the time, and should not be not tied to a particular price bar.

The "pinning" feature of ChartNotes allows you to pin some annotations in place, so that they are always visible on the chart.

This in-depth tutorial takes you step-by-step through pinning both new and existing annotations, and shows you how both pinned and unpinned chart annotations move over time.

Tutorial: Pinning Annotations on a SharpChart

In this step-by-step tutorial, we'll pin both new and existing annotations on this chart of SPY.

You'll notice that it has a label in the lower indicator panel explaining that the panel is showing relative performance with the SPY/IWM ratio. This label should remain on the chart at all times, so we will pin it in place. We'll also add a new pinned label for the main price plot of the chart.

Step 1: Click the Annotate Button

Click the Annotate Button at the top right of the workbench to launch ChartNotes and edit the annotations.

Step 2: Select the SPY/IWM Text Annotation

When you click the Annotate button, the chart will be launched in our annotation tool, ChartNotes. Choose the Selection tool in the menu on the left, then click on the SPY/IWM text annotation in the lower panel.

Step 3: Pin the Annotation

Once the annotation is selected, you will see a dotted line box around the text. The menu at the top will also change to show settings for that specific annotation.

To pin the annotation, click the pushpin icon in the menu at the top. It will be blue when the annotation is pinned and white when the annotation is not pinned.

Step 4: Create a New Annotation

Next we will add a brand new annotation and pin it.

Choose the "Note" tool in the menu on the left. Add a Note annotation to the chart. When annotations are first added, they are always unpinned, but you can change the setting as soon as the annotation is created.

Step 5: Pin the New Annotation

Once the Note tool is pinned and you have changed the settings to what you want, click on the chart to add the Note annotation. Here we have added a pinned note that says SPY in a larger font. After it is created, the new annotation will remain selected. Click the "pin" button in the menu at the top to pin the annotation.

Be sure to save the chart when you are done making changes.

Step 6: View the Final Chart for Different Dates

Here is the chart with an end date of February 13, 2025:

If you change the range of the chart so it has an end date a few months earlier, you can see that the unpinned annotations, which are tied to the price bars, have moved along with the price bars. Our two pinned annotations labelling the two panels of the chart remain in the same locations, regardless of the range shown on the chart.

Here is the chart in October 2024. The January 2025 cup with handle and its annotations are no longer on the screen, and a triangle annotation from April 2024 is now visible along with its annotations. But the two pinned labels ("SPY" in the main price plot and "SPY/IWM Ratio" in the lower panel) are still in exactly the same spot on the chart.