microcharts in thinkorswim

STEPS TO SIMULATE MICROCHARTS IN THINKORSWIM:

(just ignore the color link feature because it's used to cycle through a watchlist on 1 chart display. so it's a many-to-one feature and what we want is many-to-many or 1 chart per watchlist item) 

note there are 4 upper toolbars: main toolbar (support and setup toolbar, tabs toolbar, charts toolbar, and the symbol toolbar)

- click on the charts tab in the charts toolbar

- make sure ondemand is disabled by making sure it's in the rightmost end of the tabs toolbar. if it's near the middle, it's enabled. just click on it to disable it.

- at the rightmost end of the chart toolbar is the "chart actions" button. next to it is the "grid" button. at the rightmost end of the symbols toolbar is the "symbol actions" button. 

- click "chart actions/reset".

- enter any stock symbol in the upper left corner (e.g. nvda)

- click "symbol actions/style/settings

   - time-axis tab: 6 months, aggregation period is day

   - appearance tab/chart type = line

   - uncheck all checkboxes especially equities tab (this removes all annoying chart markers)

   - click ok

- click "symbol actions/style/set chart default", then (click yes)

- click "symbol actions/style/save style" then enter "clean 6-month chart"

- click "symbol actions/style/settings

set time-axis tab: 5 years, aggregation period is month

- click "symbol actions/style/save style" then enter "clean 5-year chart"

- click "symbol actions/style/load style/clean 6-month chart"

- go to watchlist on the right subwindow. if no right subwindow, click the middle of the right edge of the main window. 

- if no watchlist gadget, click the + button in the bottom of the right subwindow and add the watchlist gadget

- click the button next to watchlist to bring up the contex/pop-up menu

- if you already have a saved watchlist, hover above "personal" to bring up the drop down menu of your saved watchlists. 

- if you want to add a watchlist, click "create watchlist". note the first input box is for the name, not the symbols. this really screwed me because the box is strangely very long. enter the name you want and then click import. 

- you can then copy the list of stocks to the clipboard then click "paste symbols from clipboard". it took me a month to get this to work. as it turns out, the problem was that the symbols need to be in ALL CAPS but my symbols were in lower caps. this is very stupid because there is no reason why they can't just make it case insensitive. note the symbols can be separated by newline, comma, space, or semi-colon. 

- if you have a fideliy account, you can click the download button in upper right corner of portfolio view. then open the file from excel or wps so you can copy the symbol column to clipboard (in excel, you first need to open an empty workbook then click "data/from text" to open the csv file then set the delimiter to comma). make sure to delete any heading or cash/money market rows so they don't get included.

- we will be choosing the 7 X 4 grid, which means each watchlist cannot be more than 28 stocks. so if you want to look at the charts of more than 28 stocks, you will need to break it up. example, my watchlists from my fidelity IRA are ira1, ira2, and ira3

- click save

- click "chart actions/clear symbols"

- click "grid" then click the last square (bottom right)

- click "chart actions/load symbols to cells/personal/<your watchlist>

- click "grid/save grid as" then enter the name (e.g. ira1 6-month charts)

- clear the symbols again and repeat the steps to load and save the 6-month charts for other watchlists if any

- if the "symbol actions" button is not visible drag the right edge of any cell a little bit to the right so it becomes visible. 

- click "symbol actions/load style/clean 5-year chart"

- click "symbol actions/style/set chart default", then (click yes)

- click "chart actions/reset"

- click "grid" then click the last square (bottom right)

- click "chart actions/load symbols to cells/personal/<your watchlist>

- click "grid/save grid as" then enter the name (e.g. ira1 5-year charts)

- clear the symbols again and repeat the steps to load and save the 5-year charts for other watchlists if any

- to make the micro-charts bigger, collapse the left and bottom subwindows (click the middle of the right edge and click the "down arrow" button in the upper left corner of each BOTTOM subwindow

- also make sure the "show sidebar in cells" is unchecked in the grid menu

- if you want to open more than 1 chart grid, click the "chart actions/detach". you will need to remove the sidebars again by unchecking "show sidebar in cells" in the grid menu.

- you can actually increase the grid size (e.g. 8 X 5 = 40 cells) by choosing the "flexible grid" tab instead of charts. just keep splitting the windows horizontally and vertically until you get the desired grid. to remove the splitter toolbar in each cell, click "show grid actions/customize grid" (click it again to show the toolbar). 

(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)