Snap to Price

Many of the drawing tools, such as trendlines, retracements, and fans, are often drawn by anchoring them to peaks or troughs on the chart. In the past you had to manually try to position the tool at exactly the right point.

From BullCharts 2.4 (actually the 2.3.2 beta) there is now a snap to price feature that aids in locking tools onto these critical price points. The BullCharts snap to price feature can actually be used in two different ways.

#1 The Old Fashion Way

The first way work similar to other popular chart programs. It just locks both ends of the tool to the closing price.

1. Draw a trendline on your chart
2. Right click on the trendline
3. Select "Snap to Price"
4. Now just drag the end points (handles) left and right until the line snaps to the peak/trough you're after.

This option is also available on the parameters tab of the trendline properties page.

This approach is handy, but it has some limitations. For example, you may want to snap one end of a line to a high-price and the other end to a low-price. Or you may only want to snap one end of the line.

#2 The Flexible BullCharts Way

Using the new snap-to hot keys, you can quickly snap part or all of a tool to the price. It does require a little bit of practice - but once mastered it can save a great deal of time.

1. Draw a trendline on your chart
2. Move the mouse over an end-point (handle), then push and hold the left mouse button (as if you were going to drag it).
3. Push and hold the "H" key on your keyboard.
4. Now drag the end-point around (without letting go of either the mouse button or the H key).
5. Notice that only one end of the line moves around, and that it snaps to the high price of each bar.
6. Move it to a peak.
7. Release the mouse button.
8. Release the "H" key.

What's happening here is that whenever you hold the "H" key, the currently selected handle snaps to the high price. Similarly use "O" for open, "L" for low, "C" for close. On a volume plot you can use "V". Or for an indicator use "S" for snap.

Common mistakes to watch out for:

• If you press the key before you press the mouse button then BullCharts might think you want to type in an ASX code. (though it won't do this if you're about to draw a new tool)
  
• If you let go of the key before you let go of the mouse button then the line will start following the mouse again. This is by design.

Other examples

To place a retracement using a peak and the following trough:

1. Select the retracement tool. (the cursor should change)
2. Hold the "H" key.
3. Move the mouse close to the peak.
4. Push and hold the left mouse button.
5. Drag the mouse without letting go.
6. Release the "H" key and hold the "L" key.
7. Move the mouse over the trough.
8. Release the mouse button.
9. Release the "L" key.

You can also use the snap-to hot keys to snap both ends of the tool. Drag a trendline by its middle. Both ends will move. When you hold a snap-to hot key, both ends will snap. Again, remember to release the mouse before releasing the key.

If you're drawing a lot of trendlines or retracements, it's well worth spending some time practicing these techniques as it can speed up your charting considerably.




Edited by Peter

This would happen if you're using an older version of BullCharts. This is a fairly new feature and requires version 2.3.2 or newer. See this post for details.

Would it be possible to have the crosshairs snap to the candlestick bar as well? Sometimes a bit fiddly to hover over a bar to see OHLC.