This Tutorial will provide valuable insight into...

• Selecting technical indicators in charts, using both the keyboard and the mouse.
• Moving technical indicators, both by dragging with the mouse, or by using the keyboard.
• Editing technical indicators, using the preferences windows, the keyboard, or the mouse.
• Removing technical indicators from a chart.
• Bringing technical indicator to the front of other chart elements.

For additional information on individual technical indicators, also see the Technical Indicator Tour.

Selecting Technical Indicators
The key to adjusting technical indicators is first being able to select the indicator in the chart.  There are two ways to accomplish this.  You may select the indicator by either clicking on it with the mouse, or by using the "tab" key on your keyboard.  The keyboard method is a good option when either you find it difficult to select the indicator with the mouse, you prefer not to use the mouse when not necessary, or the indicator isn't currently visible in the chart window.

To select the indicator using the keyboard, simply click anywhere in the chart, and then hit the "tab" key repeatedly until you notice that your desired indicator is selected.  Different indicators undergo different transformations when selected, but in general, they will take on a more inflated appearance.  Trendlines will become thicker.  Moving averages will become thicker with rings.  Etc.  Each time you hit the "tab" key, a new indicator will be selected.  If you mistakenly tab past your desired indicator, you may Shift-tab to go back to it.  As you cycle through selected elements in your chart, you will receive feedback in the Investor/RT message bar of which element is selected.

To select your indicator with the mouse, simply click somewhere on the indicator itself.  The indicator should inflate slightly to indicate that it is selected.  If you find it difficult to select the indicator by clicking, or you don't see your indicator in the window, use the tab key method above.

Moving Technical Indicators
Now that we know how to select an indicator, let's discuss how to move it around in the chart.  There are two classes of indicators involved in this discussion.  One class can be dragged to different positions within a window pane.  Indicators in this class would include Trendlines, Fibonacci Retracements, Gann Angles, Horizontal and Vertical Reference lines, Annotations, Regression lines, etc.  The seconds class can be dragged into a different window pane, but cannot be dragged to a different position within the same window pane.  This class would include most of the indicators, moving averages, stochastics, MACD, and all other indicators which compute values at each bar.

For either class, you would drag by simply clicking on the indicator and holding the mouse down while you drag the indicator to a new position.  For indicators which can be dragged between panes, you would either drag the indicator from one pane to another, or drag the indicator into the horizontal scale along the bottom of the chart to create it's own pane.  After dragging an indicator into a pane with another indicator or price data, you may want to double click in the vertical scale along the right to bring up the scaling preferences to verify they are set as you wish.

To move indicators, such as trendlines, around with the same window pane, you may either use the keyboard or the mouse.  Let's use trendlines as an example.  Trendlines have small circles at each end representing the drag points.  To drag either end of the trendline to a different position, just click on that end of the trendline, and hold the mouse down while dragging the endpoint to it's now position.

Similarly, you may use the keyboard to move the trendline.  First, select the trendline using one of the methods discussed above.  Now, with the trendline selected, you may use the up, down, right, and left arrows on your keyboard to move the trendline around.  For instance, pressing the right arrow button once will move both the beginning and ending points on the trendline one bar to the right.  If you prefer to move only the begin point, you must hold down the shift key while pressing the right arrow.  If you wish to adjust only the end point, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing the arrows.

Editing Technical Indicators
You can edit technical indicator properties through the preferences window or directly from the keyboard.  The most common way to edit a technical indicators properties is by bringing up the "Update" window for that indicator.  There are three ways to accomplish this.  The first way, is to select the technical indicator using the methods described above, and then press the "Enter" key on your keyboard.  The Update window will appear.  You can edit any associated properties and hit Apply or OK.  The apply option gives you the ability to apply changes repeatedly without closing the window.  You can also access the Update window by double-clicking on the technical indicator.  And finally, you can access the Update window by clicking on the "Edit a chart element" button in the chart toolbar.

Many indicators which involve a period, like moving averages or stochastics, may be adjusted directly from the keyboard.   To be continued on Monday.....

Removing Technical Indicators
There are two ways to remove a technical indicator from a chart window.  The easiest way is to just select the indicator, using one of the methods described above, and then hit the "delete" key on your keyboard.  Alternatively, you can click on the green trashcan icon on the charting toolbar, select the element you would like to delete, and then click "OK".  If you would like to delete multiple elements from the chart, you can select the element in the list, click the "Apply" button, and then repeat the process.  Also, clicking the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the chart window pane removes that window pane.  In 4.9.5 and later, clicking that "X" in the main window pane, will remove all technical indicators from that pane and leave the instrument data in the pane.

Bringing Technical Indicators to the Front of other Chart Elements
The drawing order is dictated by the order of elements you see in the chart pane title bar.  The element that is first in that list is the one that will be drawn front-most in the window pane.  In order to adjust this order, just shift-click in the vertical scale of the window pane.  This action will cause the front-most element to be moved to the back, and all other elements to be moved up one position.  You may have to shift-click multiple times to get the desired element to the front of your window.