Announcing the StockCharts ChartList Framework - A New Way to Organize Your Saved Charts

Today I'm very happy to announce the StockCharts ChartList Framework, a new method for organizing the charts stored in your account.  "The Framework" is free and very easy to install - it is also completely optional, no one is required to use it.

The Framework was created to help Extra, ExtraRT and PRO members that aren't sure how to use our ChartList feature effectively.  If you have a jumbled, confusing collection of saved charts and ChartLists in your account, the Framework is for you.  If you can't find charts that you were sure you saved earlier, the Framework is for you.  If you are still jamming all of your saved charts into one or two huge ChartLists, the Framework is for you.  If you have no idea how to begin to organize your charts... well, you get the picture.

On the other hand, if your ChartLists are working great for you and you have a system that keeps everything organized then you do not need the Framework.  Remember its use is completely optional.

The StockCharts ChartList Framework helps you organize your ChartLists in a way that reinforces the typical workflow of a technical investor.  By that I mean that it groups your personal ChartLists into collections focused on the key phases that technical investors go through every day.  Specifically,

• Analyzing the Major Markets
• Finding Strong Sectors and Strong Industries
• Finding Strong Stocks by Running Technical Scans
• Watching Potential Buy Candidates
• Monitoring Currently Open Positions
• Reviewing/Learning from Closed Positions

At its core, the Framework is a collection of empty ChartLists with distinctive names that group your own ChartLists into those key investing phases.  Here's a picture of what the Framework looks like immediately after being installed into a new account:

Once the Framework is installed you should add your own regular ChartLists inside of it to make it truly useful.  To add a ChartList into the Framework simply give it a name that starts with a 4-digit number that fits inside the Framework's numbering scheme.

For instance, let's say that you have a collection of charts of the various International Exchanges that we cover - symbols like $CAC, $NIKK, $BVSP, etc.  If you are using the Framework, you'd create a ChartList that begins with a number between 1200 and 1400 because those are the number that the Framework reserved for International Exchange ChartLists.  The actual number that you use is up to you - it depends on what order you want to see your various International ChartLists in.  For this example, let's say that we wanted to use "1250."  In that case, we'd click on the "Create a New List" link just below the ChartLists and create a new list named "1250 - My International Exchange Charts" (or whatever name you wanted).

Once that was done, and you created some charts inside that new list, the bottom of the Members page would look something like this:

You should continue adding new ChartLists (or renaming your old ones) with numbers that cause them to "slot" into the appropriate part of the Framework.

Note: The Framework is automatically installed when you install one of our ChartPacks.  If you'd like to install the Framework by itself (and you a member of our Extra, ExtraRT or PRO services) you can quickly install it into your account using these steps:

1. Log in to your StockCharts.com account
2. Click on the "Your Account" link at the top of the page in the righthand corner.
3. Scroll down and find the "ChartPacks" section of the page
4. Click on the link that says "Click here to learn more about the optional StockCharts ChartList Framework"
5. Carefully read the information provided on the next page.
6. If everything looks good, click the "Install Framework" button at the bottom.
7. Use the "Create a New ChartList" links on the "Members" page to start populating the Framework with your charts.

Let me be clear, there is definitely some work involved when you first set up the Framework.  However the payoff for that work is a much better organized collection of charts that will make StockCharts.com much, much more useful (and hopefully profitable) to you for years to come.

Q: But wait a second Chip.  I'm way too lazy to want to create all those charts and ChartLists inside the Framework.  Isn't there some way that you could automatically populate key parts of the Framework for me?

A: I'm so glad you asked!  Yes, yes there is.  Stay tuned for another major announcement from us this weekend concerning "ChartPacks" and how they plug-in to the Framework in a way that greatly expands your charting capabilities.

Until then, try out the Framework and see if it works for you.  Getting organized doesn't get any easier than this!

- Chip

P.S.  For those of you that have maxed out the number of ChartLists you can have in your account (200 for Extra, 300 for PRO), don't worry.  We've given you an additional 50 ChartLists that you can use for installing the Framework and our new ChartPacks.