Components

Many different types of components can be added to a chart as part of your analysis. Examples of components include Trend Lines, Price Labels, Channels, Commentary, Elliott Waves, and Markers. Components can be added to a chart from the Components Panel or directly to the toolbar(s) around a station.

Components Panel

The Components Panel organizes the available components in MotiveWave™. This panel is displayed on the top toolbar of the chart. There are a few ways to search for a component. You can type a component name in the Search bar. You can select the Category drop down and choose from available component groups in the list. To see all components, click on the "All" button on the right.

Screenshot below displays components in the Commentary group, selected from the Category drop down. Right click on a component to customize, add/remove from the Favourites or assign shortcut key to it.

Components in the Favourites list can be organized using the left click mouse and drag to the desired position in the section:

Adding a Component

To add a component from the Components Panel, simply use the left mouse button to select the component then start adding it to the chart.

Mouse Tools are available for some of the more common components. These mouse tools can be found by clicking on the Favorites or All button at the top then navigate to the Tools section in the Components panel. You can customize the tool bar to make certain mouse tools more convenient to access. Short-cut keys are also available to quickly select tools. These keys typically take the form of Ctrl + Shift + <Key> (see tool menu for key combinations, Note: on Mac OS X use Cmd instead of Ctrl.)

The following example shows the usage of the Channel Tool to create a channel. This particular tool requires three clicks to define the channel.

Selecting Components

You can select components on a chart by simply clicking on them with the left mouse button. When a component is selected, you will typically see blue resize points that indicate areas that you can move to modify the component.

If you want to select all components, press Ctrl/command + A key or go to Edit menu > Select All. You can also select all lines, or commentaries, or waves via the Edit menu > Select.

If you want specifically select multiple components, simply hold down on the Shift key while clicking on other components. Alternatively, use the Select tool ( Ctrl/command + Shift + S shortcut key) to click and drag an area containing the components.

Selecting multiple components can be useful if you want to move them as a group or delete them. Some components such as trend lines have options from the right click menu (right mouse click) that apply to the group. In the following example, you can make two (or more) lines parallel by selecting them and choosing the “Make Lines Parallel” option from the right click menu. (Note: lines will be drawn parallel to the primary component, ie the one selected first):

Deleting a Component

Deleting (removing) a component from a chart is straight forward. Simply click on the component to select it and then press the ‘Delete’ key on the keyboard. Alternatively, right click on it and choose Delete.

If you want to delete all components from a chart, choose Edit > Delete All from the top menu bar.

Note: Locked components cannot be deleted until they are in the unlocked state.

Lock/Unlock Components

You can lock a component or a set of components by right clicking on the component or a group of components and select "Lock Figure". This will prevent the components from being moved or deleted by accident.

To lock all components on the active chart (instead of locking components individually), go to View > Lock/Unlock Components from the menu bar:

To lock/unlock multiple components ( but not all components on the chart), use the Object Viewer panel.

Component Properties

Components may be modified from the Component Properties dialog and (in many cases) by using the right click menu that is available via right click on a component. You can open the Properties dialog by double clicking on a component or right click and choose Properties.

The following screen shot shows the Component Properties dialog for the Channel component. The options available in this dialog will vary depending on what component you are editing.

Formatting

Formatting options such as color, font, line width/style, shading etc can usually be found under the General tab of the Properties dialog (double click on the component). For convenience, several formatting options are available on the Quick Settings menu box. It is located at the bottom of the chart by default and can be dragged to the desired position on the chart.

Visibility

Visibility is a very useful feature in MotiveWave™ that enables you to specify the bar sizes where a component is visible. This can be very useful to avoid clutter when switching bar sizes on a chart.

Visibility setting can be set from the Properties option via the right click menu on the component or via the Quick Settings menu ( the gear icon). You can also double click on the component to open the dialog. The Visibility section can be found under the Options tab:

Defaults

Settings/format of a component can be save as defaults for future use. After you have made changes to the component, click on the Default drop down at the bottom of the component's Properties dialog then select "Save Defaults." Select "Reset Defaults" to revert to the original format.

Component Templates

Component templates are similar to study templates in that they allow you to choose settings and formatting for a component and save it for later use. You can apply a component template via the context menu (right click) or from the Template menu button in the properties dialog.

In the example below, the triangle component is configured to use a blue dashed line. From the Template menu button choose “Save As Template”. Note: existing templates for this component will appear in this drop down. Choose a template to apply it to the active component.

In the Save As Template dialog enter the name of the template. Template names are scoped to the type of component so you can reuse the same name across different component types. Click on the Save As button to save the template.

Right click on a component (in a chart) and choose Template > Template Name to apply template settings.

Working with Trend Lines

Trend lines are an important element of most all forms of market analysis. Several features are built into MotiveWave™ to make working with trend lines easier.

Trend Lines can be found in the Favourites list ( select the Favourites button at the top of the Components panel)

Creating a trend line requires two left mouse clicks. The first click defines the starting point for the line and the second defines the end point. Once you have created the Trend Line, you can press the Space bar to switch the tool back to the default Drag tool.

When a trend line is selected, it will display basic information about that trend line (such as the bar numbers, price range, time span, etc). You can adjust the line by moving the end points (blue resize points). These points will snap to key locations such as the top or bottom of price bars (hold down on the ‘Alt’ or 'option' key to disable this feature).

Common angles (such as horizontal, vertical, 45 degree etc) can be set by holding down on the Shift key while moving one of the end points. Hold down on the Ctrl key while moving one of the end points to maintain the current slope (angle) of the trend line.

Detailed information about the trend line can be found if you place the mouse cursor over the trend line and leave it there for 2 seconds.

Several operations for working on trend lines can be found by right mouse clicking on the line to show its context menu.

• Create Alert – Create an alert when the price crosses the trend line (see Component Alerts section)

• Show Info – Shows information about the trend line

• Show Angle – Displays the angle of the trend line (in degrees)

• Extend Right – Extends the trend line to the Right

• Extend Left – Extends the trend line to the Left

• Flip Line – Flips the values on the start and end points

• Rotate 90 Degrees – Rotates the trend line 90 degrees clock wise

• Rotate 45 Degrees – Rotates the trend line 45 degrees clock wise

• Make Lines Parallel – If you select multiple trend lines this will make them all parallel to the primary line (the one with the green resize points)

• Make Lines Parallel and Equidistant – If you select multiple trend lines this will make them all parallel to the primary line (the one with the green resize points) and equidistant between the top and bottom lines.

• Delete – Removes the trend line from the chart

• Format :

  • Move to Front – Moves the selected trend line to the Front, on top of other components.

  • Move to Back – Moves the selected trend line to the Back, under other components.

• Visibility – Sets the visibility of the selected trend line

• Lock Figure – Locks the trend line to prevent it from being move or delete by accident

• Hide – Hides the trend line. To unhide, refer to the Object Viewer dialog.

• Properties – Opens the trend line properties.

Custom Tools

Custom tools are based on existing mouse tools. A custom tool allows you to configure the default properties of the component that is drawn using the tool. For example, you could create a custom trend line tool that draws a blue dashed line (instead of a black solid line).

Custom tools can be created directly from the Components panel or added to toolbars around the chart via the Custom Tools tab via the Configure menu from the Console menu bar.

From the Components panel, right click on a component and select "Customize & Add to Favs" to open the Edit Custom Tool dialog and start creating a custom tool:

The tool must be based on an existing tool, select this from the Base Tool drop down ( in this case, it is the Trend Line tool and the option is greyed out as we selected from the trend line in the Component panel already). Optionally, you can change the color(s) for the tool icon (to make it more distinguishable).

Click on the Customize button to open the Component Properties dialog and adjust the default settings. In this case we would like to create a red line with white extended lines to the left and right. The line's format and settings can be adjusted from the General tab.

After clicking the OK button in the two previous dialogs, you will see the custom tool added to the Favourites list ( click on the Favourites button), the Custom section ( click on the All button) in the Components panel and in the Custom Tools tab via the Configure menu > Settings > Toolbar.

Similarly, you can created custom components and add them to the toolbar(s) in the station by going to the Configure menu > Settings > Toolbar > Custom Tools. From the Custom Tools section, click on the add button (plus sign) to open the Add Custom Tool dialog. For example we will choose blue as the primary icon color.

After clicking the OK button in the two previous dialogs, you will see the custom tool added to the list below:

The next step in using the custom tool is to add it to a tool bar so it can be accessed using the mouse. Click on the Tool Bar tab to customize the tool bar. In this case we are going to customize the Top Tool Bar to add our Blue Dashed Line tool to the left of our tools drop down.

After making the modifications above, the Red Extended Trend Line and Blue Dashed Line tools will be added to the top tool bar (see below).

The screen shot below illustrates the new tool in action creating an extended red line:

Tool Groups

Tool Groups may be used to create a custom drop down button for organizing existing and custom tools. This can help to optimize the available space on the tool bar(s). Tool Groups can be created from the Configure menu > Settings > Toolbar > Tool Groups. Click on the add button (plus icon) to create a new Tool Group.

Choose a name for the tool group and add the desired tools from the Available Actions list to the Tool Group Actions list. Click on the OK button to create the tool group. Note: the name identifies the tool group and will also be used as the tool tip.

The newly created Tool Group will be added to the Tool Groups list via the Settings dialog. The icon for the first tool in the tool group will be used for the tool group.

The next step is to add the tool group to a tool bar so it can be used. Click on the Tool Bar tab in the Preferences dialog and select the Top tool bar from the Tool Bar drop down. In this case we will add the My Tools tool group just after the two custom trend lines that we created in the previous section.

The screen shot below shows the new tool group added to the top tool bar. When you click on the drop down you will see the tools that were added in this tool group.

Object Viewer

The Object Viewer is a convenient dialog for managing components on a chart from a single location. This dialog can be accessed from the top menu bar: View > Display > Object Viewer. You can check and edit the hidden and locked status of the tools. Components can be deleted from the chart using the X icon or hold the Ctrl/command key then select multiple rows and press the Delete key to remove them. You can also double click on a row to edit the properties.

You can assign a name to a component via the component's Properties dialog > Options > Name, and the name will show up in the Object Viewer, making it easier to distinguish the tools.