| I'll start by providing the quick and easy
way to make this happen, followed by a more detailed explanation of
what's going on behind the scenes. In our example, let's assume we
want to create a button that will toggle our Pivot Point indicator lines
on and off. First, just add the Pivot Point indicator to your
chart with the preferred settings. (You may want to visit this Q&A
on adding Daily and Weekly Pivots to Intraday Charts)
Now, order to create a toggle button for any indicator in your chart,
simply right-click on that indicator and choose "Add Button" from the
pop-up menu that appears. That's it. There are two things
that will tell you that you right-clicked on the proper place.
First, you should see the indicator change appearance slightly to let
you know it's selected (usually, the indicator line(s) become bolder).
Second, the popup menu contain the "Add Button" option right at the top.
In the case of our Pivot Point button, the button will be created with
the title "Pvpt" by default. Click on this button should remove
the Pivot Point indicator from the chart. Clicking on it again
should bring it back.
This button can be moved to it's own separate pane (at the top) by
right-clicking on the button and choosing "All to New Pane". This
will help keep the button(s) out of the way of other indicators and
symbols in your chart. You can do repeat this process for as many
indicators as you wish. This is a great way to have quick
access to technical indicators without cluttering up your chart.
That's really all you need to know to accomplish this, but if you'd
like to learn more about what's going on behind the scenes, then read
on.
The button that we created is actually a technical indicator of it's
own. You can explore the button indicators preferences by
right-clicking on that button in your chart and choosing "Edit this
Button" from the popup menu. (while you're add it, explore the other
options you have in this popup menu). The button indicator has a
variety of "Purpose" options available to it, one being "Add/Remove
Preset Indicator". Some others include "Change the Periodicity",
"Change the Instrument", etc. You can find out more about the
button indicator and it's various purposes by visiting:
www.linnsoft.com/tour/techind/buttons.htm
The purpose we are using here, "Add/Remove Preset Indicator",
basically just toggles an indicator with a specific set of preferences
dictated by the "Preset" that is selected in the button preferences.
I won't go into Presets here, but you can learn much more about Presets
at:
www.linnsoft.com/tour/presets.htm
Basically, Presets give the user the ability to save multiple sets of
preferences for any technical indicator, for easy future reference, and
for use in other places like this button indicator. When the user
right-clicks on an indicator in a chart and chooses to "Add Button",
Investor/RT just takes the current preferences of that indicator, and
creates a "Preset" out of those settings, gives the Preset a name like
"Button R1", and then finally creates the button indicator properly
setup to toggle this Preset on and off in the chart.
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