There are 10+ types of charts. Something like Kagi looks strange and I'm not sure that anyone actually uses them. What is your favorite chart setup? It will be great to to see screenshots of actual chart layouts as well. I personally need it for my product development but I'm sure that it may be interesting to other traders as well PS: If a type of chart you are using is missing, please add it in a reply.
Kagi does look very odd, doesn't it? I think some people do use them (maybe not on their own?). I use constant volume bars, myself, and am very pleased I switched to them 3-4 years ago (after years of using bars on timed charts). I don't like candles as much as bars. They both give exactly the same information, of course - it's just a question of whether you want the immediate visual emphasis on the highs and lows (I do) or on the opens and closes (I don't). (No criticism intended, but I wouldn't have lumped "tick" and "volume" together in the responses, myself ... and my guess is that most of the people selecting that option will acutally be referring to "tick" rather than to "volume".)
Thank you for the detailed explanation! It was a surprise for me that there are people who don't like candlestics As for mixing tick/volume bars, the poll is limited to 10 options. I missed Three Line Break, for example. So, it was a choice between mixing or omitting.
I started drawing OHLC 40 years ago, small ruler and pencil, have studied all of them, have automation doing a Heikin-Ashi system, otherwise all regular bar charts with exception of tick charts looking for few seconds of support/resistance mixed into different forms of volume, cross between market profile, volume bars, bar charts. I have my own platform, charting, backtesting etc. What is missing from most retail charting packages is ability to do spread charts on dailies and intra-day without constant freezes, also bar charts instead of lines for spreading. Also, charts on options, bar charts. Good luck on getting chart setups from experienced traders, that like asking Coke for their formula.
Thank you! Wrote down your ideas, will definitely use them when converting my simulator to the stock market. I feel that spread charts are useless at Forex due to the nature of the market. After your developed an internal platform that works great for you, did you ever consider making a product out of it? Or is it your secret sause?
It has so many differences than most vendor applications, most of the apps I had engineers programming for me every possible sane and insane idea I could think. I never make copies or images of it. It is like this, I don't like people much and they be emailing you all hours of the day for problems cause they won't read online manual, and anything they can pay me for what I develop I can make in one trade. Except for systems recently have made and back tested and now doing one lots before a partner codes for automation, everything else is automated. So easy now to break software, before you have sold a couple, pirates be selling it in hundreds. I do in spreading currency futures and commodity spreading, do some spreads in stocks. And backtesting will doing more than 100 stats I can check. You going down an expensive road as there more and more free charting or low cost that is actually decent for small monthly fees. Ninja version 8 is pretty decent, has a better simulator than most. Maybe finding all the free or delayed data available so app can go and update be a plus. I find it amusing, people take heavy losses and often use some dinosaur trading platform. You might do better in having it online and nothing for them to download, give it away free like www.barchart.com and add advertising for other companies that pay you for being on your site. Then advertise your experience of making specialty work in various languages for other charting packages.
I agree that software business is somewhat different from what developers usually expect. I must spend a lot of time on "secondary" work like writing documentation, designing websites, etc. But the highest amount of time is spent on communication, including support. If somebody doesn't like to spend most part of his time communicating, it's not the right business for him. It's my 5th software product, I made a living selling my products in other niche for the last 15+ years. The only reason why I surivived for so long is because it's fun for me to talk to others. I don't hate support requests, I like helping other people. It's just a pure luck that I have this competitive advantage, other way I had no chance to launch. As for the problems of the niche I'm getting into, I'm aware of them but I also know that it's fun. In my previous venture new free competitors appeared every few weeks. It's not hard to compete with free products, it's much harder to compete with expensive ones because they can invest more into product development and marketing. That's why making it freeware and trying to make money from advertising is a way to failure. If you can pay for a customer more than others, you literally own the market. This niche is hard not because of direct competitors but because of brokers whose profits enable them to pay enormous money per lead. It's not hard to develop a product better than others have, it's much harder to reach prospective customers. That's why people still use dinosaur trading platforms while there are so many free and better options around. While it took me just 3 months to develop the product, I will need to spend at least 3 next months polishing and promoting it until I can make a living out of it. The hardest part is the very beginning, with a limited marketing budget. Yes, it will not be an easy journey but I've got accustomed to it. Persistence is the key.
Hmm candles very popular, not a big surprise. Not sure I've even heard of Kagi, going to go check those out.
I was more surprised that someone actually uses Line charts and that nobody still voted for Point&Figure while I saw it multiple time on screeshots in a chat room I've been for a while
Point & Figure looks pretty interesting, doesn't it? I've never used it, but have read a book on it, as well as an enormously long forum thread (elsewhere), and was hoping someone here would "plead guilty" to using it, so I can ask them more about it ...