Bar Sizes

Bar sizes are useful for changing the resolution of a chart based on time, price or volume movements. MotiveWave™ supports several different types of bars:

1. Linear – time interval based bars (such as 1 minute, 15 minute, 1 day, 2 week etc)

2. Range – bars are based on price movements of a specific price range

3. Renko/Hybrid Renko – these are special price range based bars

4. Tick – these bars are based on a specific number of price ticks (or trades)

5. Volume – each of these bars will have a fixed trading volume

6. Point & Figure

There are several ways to change the bar size and type. Perhaps the most convenient way is to use the Bar Size Selector at the bottom of the chart. Alternatively, you can use the bar size drop down from the tool bar or right click on the chart and select the bar size from the context menu.

Select Bar Size

Custom Bar Sizes

MotiveWave™ comes with a default set of bar sizes, but you can create your own bar sizes from the Preferences Dialog (Configure -> Preferences from the Console menu bar). You can create second based bars provided you have access to historical tick data.

Custom Bar Sizes

Bar Size Selector

The Bar Size Selector is a convenient way access common bar sizes by simply clicking on one of the tabs at the bottom of the chart. The Bar Size Selector is visible by default on all charts. If you would like to hide this, choose View -> Display -> Bar Size Selector from the top menu bar to toggle its visibility. (Note: the default behavior can modified in the Preferences dialog, click on Chart the on Options, see Show Bar Size Selector option).

You can configure the tabs available in the Bar Size Selector by right clicking on one of the tabs and choosing Configure. You can put any type of bar size in the selector. For example you could have Range(3) or Constant Volume(500).

Configure Bar Size Selector

The Bar Size Selector also has some buttons on the right hand side (configurable in Preferences). These can be convenient for the following (in order from left to right):

1. Toggle Semi-Log Scale – Toggles semi-log scaling

2. Choose Study Template – Allows you to choose a study template

3. Toggle Birds Eye View – Toggles the display of the Birds Eye View

4. Display Time Frame – Choose a specific time frame to display on the chart (ie 2 week, 1 day etc)

5. Go To Date – Go to a specific date in history

Bar Size Selector Buttons