We've written a Mailbag article about the solid black candlesticks that can appear on our SharpCharts.

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There are two issues that could be causing this problem.

1. Our system does not provide "streaming" or automatically updating charts. Our "real-time" service provides you with static charts that you can update whenever you want by clicking your browser's refresh button. Streaming charts typically require you to install and configure additional software at additional cost.
2. If the chart doesn't update when you click your browser's refresh button, you are probably seeing a "cached" copy of the chart that was (incorrectly) stored locally on your computer's hard disk. To "un-stick" the charts, clear your browser's temporary file cache and restart your computer.

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Members can use our standard SharpCharts interface to create charts that can go back to January 1st, 1990 for US stocks and mutual funds and January 1, 1996 for most Canadian stocks. The data for major markets can go back to 1980. Just use the "Select Start/End" range settings to specify how far back you want the chart to go.

We have a couple of static long-term charts in our Historical Chart Gallery.

Our partner site, DecisionPoint.com, provides detailed charts of the Nasdaq, the Dow, and the NYSE going w-a-y back.

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Simply click on the "Annotate" link below the chart. Once the annotation applet appears and the chart is loaded, you can move your mouse over the price bars and the price data will appear in the lower left corner of the window. If you prefer, you can use the "Change Info Mode" button (at the top on the right) to see the price data in a popup balloon (click it twice).

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Overlaid charts are charts that have two different datasets (i.e. a stock or an indicator), plotted on top of each other in the main charting window.

There are limits on the number of datasets that each group can request: Free users can see up to 2, Basic members can see up to 4, and Extra members can see up to 6 per chart.

To overlay one stock on top of another stock: Add a "Price" indicator to your chart and change its "Position" setting to "Behind Price", then click Update. The scale of the overlaid stocks will appear on the left. To adjust the vertical size of the overlaid stock, pull-out the Advanced settings for the Indicators, and change the "Height" value for the corresponding Price indicator.

To overlay an indicator on top of your main stock: Add whatever indicator you want to your chart and change its "Position" setting to "Behind Price", then click Update. The scale of the overlaid stocks will appear on the left. To adjust the vertical size of the overlaid stock, pull-out the Advanced settings for the Indicators, and change the "Height" value for the corresponding indicator.

To plot an overlay on top of an indicator: Open the "Advanced Options" section to the right of the indicators and select the overlay you want from the dropdown, then click Update. (Only available to members)

To overlay an indicator on top of an unrelated indicator: Add two indicators to your chart and change the "Position" setting of the second indicator to "Behind Ind.", then click Update. The scale of the second indicator will appear on the left. (Only available to members)

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On the left side of each chart is a list of abbreviations for each indicator or overlay on the chart followed by a number that represents the value of that indicator at the right side of the chart. For example, if a daily chart that ends on January 12th contained the phrase "MA(50) 13.5", it means that the value of the 50-day simple moving average overlay on January 12th was 13.5. You can disable the numbers by unchecking the box next to "Show Legends" in the Chart Attributes section of the SharpCharts workbench then clicking "Update".

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When you first create a SharpChart, we provide slots for three price overlays and three indicators. To add more, simply enter your first three overlays and/or indicators and then click the "Update Chart" button. When the chart redraws, an additional overlay or indicator slot will appears. You can continue to add overlays and indicators using the same method. Basic members can add up to 9 indicators and overlays. Extra members can add up to 25.

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Free users can only add three indicators to a chart. If you are a member and you cannot add more than three, then you probably are not logged in to your account. Go to the homepage and re-login using the boxes on the left side of the page.

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There are several market breadth indices that we track that are often viewed cumulatively instead of in "raw" form. For example, the NYSE Advance-Decline index is very "spikey" when charted directly however it forms a smooth curve called the "NYSE Advance-Decline Line" when plotted on a cumulative chart. To create such a chart, select "Cumulative" from the "Type" dropdown below the chart. Example

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You can create a "Ratio" SharpChart where the main charting area contains the ratio of one stock divided by another by entering the first symbol, a colon character, and the second symbol inside the "Enter Ticker" box. For example, "MSFT:$SPX" charts the ratio of Microsoft divided by the S&P 500. Ratio charts are best viewed with the "Line (NAV)" style setting. Example

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No. We do not support spread charts at this time. We hope to add this capability in the future.

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No. The format of the Gallery View charts is fixed.

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You can add the volume EMA to the charts by simply entering a number (the EMA's period - i.e. "60") in the Volume indicators "Parameter" box. You can disable the Volume plot under "Chart Attributes" by selecting "Off" from the dropdown.

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Yes. Members can change the color overlays from the "Advanced Options" menu. For free charts, the color of each overlay on a chart is determined by the order in which the overlays are specified in the Price Overlay dropdowns. The first overlay is always blue, the next red, the next green.

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You can create an inverse chart by first entering the "$ONE" symbol, a colon character, and then your chosen symbol in the "Enter Ticker" box. For instance, "$ONE:INTC" will create such a chart. Example

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We don't publish tables of indicator values however you can see the value of any indicator on any day in the past. Simply create a chart with a user-defined duration that ends on the day that you are interested in. The indicator values that appear on the left side of the chart are the values from the ending day on the chart.

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We've written a MailBag article about how Price Labels are positioned and how they should and should not be used. You can find it at the top of this page.

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Yes. First, select the period you want to chart. Then, select the "Start/End" option from the range dropdown and click "Update". There is a limited amount of historical intraday data to create these charts from. Basic members can create intraday charts for the last 5 days. Extra members can create 1-, 5- and 15-minute charts going back 20 days, 10-, 30- minute charts going back 40 days, and 60-minute charts going back to mid 2001.

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Chip addressed this issue in his article in the Jan. 3rd, 2004 edition of our free newsletter.

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The Duration setting is now called Range and can be customized under the chart in the Chart Attributes section. There are three options now from the dropdown including "Fill the Chart", "Predefined Range", and "Select Start/End".

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In SharpCharts2, we added the "Price" indicator that lets you add another dataset to your charts. The combination of the new Price indicator and the colon notation feature replaces the old Price Relative indicator. Simply add a "Price" indicator to your chart and set its parameter field equal to the ratio of your chart's main ticker symbol and the other ticker you want to compare it to.

For example, to create a Price Relative plot comparing IBM to the S&P 500, just create an IBM chart and add the Price Indicator to it with the parameter "IBM:$SPX".

By using the Price indicator instead of the old Price Relative one, you gain a lot more flexibility including the ability to overlay another indicator on top of it, the ability to plot it behind your main chart, and the ability to add ratios for unrelated ticker symbols.

Note: Whenever you change the main ticker symbol for a chart, we automatically change any ratio symbols for the chart that contain that same symbol. This means that all your "Price" indicators will work just like the old Price Relative indicator did when you change the chart's main ticker symbol.

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No. The Period setting for the chart defines the time increment used by all indicators and overlays. Changing the Period from Daily to Weekly also changes the Daily Moving Average to a Weekly Moving Average.

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The blue dashed line represents the closing value for the previous day.

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This is a percent change between the last quoted value and the previous closing value.

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Unlike SharpCharts1, before you can bookmark a chart you need to click on the "Linkable Version" link located just below the chart and let the page refresh. The reason for this extra step is because all of SharpCharts2 new features (overlays, colors, etc.) prevents us from describing a SC2 chart in a web link as a series of letters and numbers like we were able to do for SC1 charts. When you click "Linkable Version", we store a detailed description of your chart in our database and give you back a web address with a "P number" (for example "P123456"). Web addresses with "P numbers" can be bookmarked safely. If you forget this step before storing a chart in your browser's favorites, you will see our default $INDU chart when you click your bookmark.

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SharpCharts2 features StyleButtons that you can add to the left side of your charts. StyleButtons allow our Extra members to quickly switch between different ChartStyles that they have previously saved. For example, let's say that you have three different ways of analysizing a stock - one with a 30-minute view, one with a daily view and one with a weekly view. You can now create three different ChartStyles (let's call them "ShortTerm", "Daily" and "Weekly") and assign each one to a StyleButton. Then, the next time your friend sends you the ticker symbol of their next "sure thing", you can simply create a chart for that stock and then click on your three StyleButtons to see if you agree.

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