Watchlist
Watchlists provide a convenient way to organize a related set of instruments together in one location. MotiveWave™ will create a default set of Watchlists when you first create your workspace.
There are two ways to view a Watch List:
Table View – In this tabular view, each row displays an instrument. The table view will have a default set of columns, but these can be configured by the user to show or hide any of the available instrument values. Optionally, you can sort this table view by any of the columns in ascending or descending order.
Quote Board View – The Quote Board displays Open, High, Low, Close and Change values of the instrument. The vertical bar on the right is an OHLC bar that represents the price action.
The following screen shot shows the default set of watch lists displayed on the Home page.
WatchList Tool Bar
Several features are available from the tool bar in the top right area of the watchlist panel. These buttons are as follows:
Search Box – Use this box to search for an instrument in the watchlist.
Link With Chart – If this button is on (shaded background), clicking on a row in the watchlist will set the instrument for the active chart on this page.
Table/Quote Board View – Toggles the view of the watch list between the table view and the Buy/Sell boxes view.
Filter List – Available flags will be listed and filter here.
Other options
Edit Mode – Enable this option to edit the watchlist
Search/Add Instruments – Launches the search dialog to search for an instrument and add it to the watch list.
Import Instruments – Click this to import a set of instruments from a CSV file (not available on all workspaces)
Import Watchlist – Use this option to import a watchlist to MotiveWave
Export Watchlist – Use this option to export a watchlist from MotiveWave
Open in Window – Opens this watch list in a separate window
Maximize – Maximizes the watch list panel to use all of the available space on the page
The following screen shot shows these buttons in the tool bar:
Sorting Options
The table view of the watch list can be either sorted or unsorted. This mode can be toggled by clicking on the column headers within the table view. Clicking a column header once sorts it by ascending order. Clicking a second time will sort in descending order. A third click will make the table unsorted returning it to its natural order.
Unsorted View
In the unsorted view, you can arrange the instruments in the list by clicking and dragging them to the desired location. Alternatively, right click on a row and choose Move Up / Move Down to adjust their locations.
Buy/Sell Boxes
A Buy/Sell box shows the current Best Bid and Best Ask prices for an instrument and makes it easy to quickly place a market order to buy or sell the instrument. The following diagram shows the elements of a Buy/Sell box:
The colors of the box will change as the prices change. If the price goes up the label will flash blue (or green depending on preferences). If the price goes down, the label will flash red.
You can modify the preferences for the Buy/Sell boxes from the Preferences dialog (Configure -> Preferences from the Console menu bar).
Create Watch List
Choose File -> New -> New Watch List from the Console menu bar to create a new watch list.
On the first page of the New Watch List wizard, you will be asked for the name of the Watch List. This name will be displayed on the panel tab.
On the next page of the wizard, you will be asked to specify the columns. If you would like to add one or more columns to the list, select them from the Available Columns list (hint: use the Ctrl key or Cmd key on OSX to select multiple rows) and press the ‘>’ button to move them to the Selected Columns list. If you would like to remove one or more columns, select them from the Selected Columns list and press the ‘<’ button.
The last step is to choose the set of instruments that will be displayed in the Watch List. Type the name of the symbol in the -Choose Symbol- field and press Enter to add it to the list. Alternatively, select a name from the drop down. You can also search for a particular symbol by clicking the Search/Add button. If supported by your broker/data service you can import a set of symbols by clicking on the import button (see below).
Edit Watch List
Click on the Edit Watch List button (pencil icon) on the Watch List tool bar to open the Edit Watch List dialog. From this dialog you can change the name, available columns or the instruments.
For convenience, columns can be modified directly from the Watch List. Click and drag a column header to change the order. On the right hand side of the column header, there is a button that can be used to show or hide columns.
Custom Watch List Column
Customized columns may be defined and added to Watch Lists and Quote Sheets. These columns will display a value that is generated by built-in or custom study. Formatting may also be applied to the column cells to make it easier to visualize trading opportunities.
Custom columns can be managed by choosing Configure -> Custom Columns from the Console menu bar.
Click on the Create button to create a new custom column. This will open the Create Custom Column wizard to guide you through the steps.
In the example below, we have chosen the RSI study on a 5-minute interval and live updates (instead of on bar close).
The next panel allows you to change the display of the cells in the custom column. The width attribute is the default width for the column (you can still adjust the column size in the watch list). There are several different cell types to choose from:
Plain – plain cell with no formatting.
Positive/Negative – Displays a blue/green or red background if the value positive or negative.
Arrow Up/Down – Displays an up or down arrow if the latest value is higher/lower than the previous value.
Meter – Fills the background from the left (or right depending on the alignment) with a percentage of the cell width using the current value of the column. For example with an RSI value of 90 (RSI values range from 0 – 100) it would fill 90% of the cell background with the given color.
Meter/Arrow – Combination of the Meter and Arrow types above.
The last panel in the wizard allows you to specify custom formatting rules to change the display of the column based on one or more conditions. These rules are evaluated in order and the first matching rule will be applied to the table cell.
Formatting rules can have multiple conditions. The rule is applicable only if all of the conditions are met. There are several formatting options:
Align – Text alignment (Left, Middle, Right).
Foreground – Foreground color (text color).
Background – Background color for the cell.
Meter Color – Fill color for the meter (only available if cell type if meter or meter/arrow)
Display Text – Optionally the text displayed in the cell can be a static value (instead of the study value). This can be useful if the study value is not important and you want to display a buy or sell message for example.
Font – Override for the default cell font.
In the example below, we are changing the format of the cell when the RSI value is between 20 and 80.
Study conditions can be a simple comparison between a study value and a static value or you can compare it with another study value (choose Relative Comparison). By default, the latest study value is used, but you can use the closing value for older bars by unselecting the Use Current Bar option.
The screen shot below shows a watch list with 4 custom columns displayed. Custom columns can be added to a watch list/quote sheet by clicking the edit button (pencil icon in the top right tool bar section). Alternatively click on the + (plus) button in the top right corner of the table and select the custom columns that you want to display. For convenience you can also right click on a column and edit its properties.
Default Filter
A default filter may be used to apply formatting for cases that don’t match the other filters. This can be particular useful for reducing clutter in the watch list by showing an empty cell for values that are not of immediate interest.
Select the Default Rule option on the Format Rule Dialog to create a default rule. Note: only one default rule can be set for a custom column. The default rule is applied only if there are no other matching rules so the order in the list does not matter.
In the dialog below, we are creating a default rule to show an empty cell (with a ‘-‘). In our example this will match cases where the RSI value is <= 80 and >= 20.
The screen shot below shows all the rules that we have defined for this custom column. Please note that the position of the default rule does not matter. In our case it is the last rule in the list.
The screen shot below shows the default rule applied to the RSI 5M column. Rows that don’t match RSI < 20 and RSI > 80 show a dash. This helps to clean up the watch list and draw your attention to the rows of interest.
Gauges
Gauges are used to visually display statistics or study values in a panel in the console (or desktop). These gauges are similar to the Speed Gauges study (first introduced in 5.4.0) but are not displayed on a chart and allow built-in or custom study values.
The example below shows study/statistic-based gauges inside a Gauge Panel.
To open/create a Gauges panel, click on the + (plus) button next to an open tab in the Console (or in a desktop) and select Gauge Panel.
The following dialog will be displayed with your existing gauge panels. Click on the Create button to create a new Gauge Panel.
The value for a gauge is computed from a single instrument although you could use a custom instrument to combine multiple instruments.
Statistic Gauges
The following options are available for statistics:
Ticks – Displays number of ticks that occurred over the given interval (in seconds). This is often used to gauge the speed of the market.
Price – Current price.
Volume – Traded volume over the given interval (in seconds).
Bid Vol – Volume that occurred at the Bid Price.
Ask Vol – Volume that occurred at the Ask Price.
Delta Vol – Difference between Bid/Ask Volume (Ask Volume – Bid Volume).
Delta Spread – Difference between the current Best Bid/Ask sizes (Best Bid Size – Best Ask Size).
Delta DOM – Difference between the total Bid/Ask sizes (Total Bid Sizes – Total Ask Sizes) in the Depth of Market (DOM).
Study Value Gauges
Study Value Gauges display a value (and recent history) from a built-in or custom study. Select/configure a study and choose the value from the study that you would like to display. For live/real time updates select the Bar Updates option.
Display options are available for both Study Value and Statistic Gauges under the Display tab:
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