Chart Your Way to Profits: The Online Trader's Guide to Technical Analysis with ProphetCharts, Second Edition

Chapter 9. Expansion and Channels

In this chapter we are going to undertake two different but related subjects: chart resizing and drawn channels. A channel is a drawn object that consists of two parallel trendlines, so many of the same principles you learned in Chapter 8 apply. First, though, we will examine charting resizing since it is relevant not just to channels but to almost all drawn objects.

RESIZING AND EXPANSION

The ability to resize the space allocated to a chart is one of the most unique and vital features in ProphetCharts. To understand this concept, think about what the right side of virtually all charts looks like, ending with the most recent data point and the most recently available date. This makes sense, because charts are read from left (earliest date) to right (latest date), and it seems logical for the chart to end wherever the data end.

In addition, it makes sense for a chart's upper and lower extremes to be bounded by extremes in price. If you are charting a stock that, during the time period shown, ranges in price from $5 to $10, it would unnecessarily flatten the chart if the price range available on the y-axis started at $0 and ended at $500.

However, there is real value in being able to modify how much empty space is above, below, and to the right of a chart. To make this easier to understand, think of the entire area available (the entire y-axis, which is vertical, and the entire x-axis, which is horizontal) as the "chart area" and think of the area in ...