Basic Operations

Common icons. Use mouse point the icons, a text box will popup next to the icon, and tells what is. Feel free to play, and get familiar.

Common icons 1

Common icons 2

A. Insert A Symbol Into A Chart

There are four ways to create a new chart window:

Set up a chart by clicking "New Chart" icon "S",

Clicking "Insert", "Symbol" menu.

Simply press "Ctrl-N" keys.

From File > New Chart… Type in the symbol name, such as IBM. Choose time interval (such as 30-min), or daily, or weekly etc., then click OK button.

You mat set up date range for back testing purpose.

B. Insert Buy/Sell Signals Into A Chart

After the chart shows up, you may simply click the "STM" icon on the Toolbar. It will apply AbleTrend1 (AT1) and AbleTrend2 (AT2) indicators with default settings to a chart. This is the "Buy On Blue" and "Sell On Red" trading method.

You may also click the "An" icon, the add indicator window will pops up.

Simply add AbleTrend1, AbleTrend2 … to the chart.

The blue dots are Buy signals and the red dots are Sell signals. You will hear sound alert and see the Alert Window popping up when there is a buy or sell signal.

C. Insert Indicator To A Chart

Click anywhere of a chart and select a chart. Click the "An" icon, the Indicator Setting window will pop up.

Select an indicator, such as AbleTrend1.

Click "Add".

Change "Parameter" settings

Change "Style ", "Weight ", "Color " and "Subgraph " settings.

Click "OK" button.

You may add the same indicator to the same chart a few times with different settings.

D. Drawing Tools

There are two ways to use drawing tools.

From Menu bar > Chart > Drawing Tools….

From Menu bar > View > Check Drawbar… It will show the icons Drawing Tools

The "Drawing" tools allow you to draw TrendLine, Text, Vertical Line, Horizontal Line, %R, etc. on a chart.

Drawing tools

The icons are listed in the order of Pointer, Select Wizard, PointMark, Cross, Text, Up-Arrow, Down-Arrow, Line, TrendLine, Horizontal Line, Vertical Line, %R, PointMark, Square, Circle, Erase, Erase All.

Pointer – Default pointer

Select Wizard – Use it to select an item, such as a symbol chart, or an indicator, or text, or TrendLine etc…

PointMark – drawing a point mark

Cross – drawing a cross mark

Text – drawing text

Up-Arrow – drawing an up-arrow

Down-Arrow - drawing a down-arrow

Line – drawing a line defined by two points

TrendLine – drawing a TrendLine defined by two points

Horizontal Line - drawing a horizontal line defined by two points

Vertical Line - drawing a vertical line defined by two points

%R – Percent Retracement. Click a low point, then click a high point, and finally click a point in between, %R will show. Or, Click a high point, then click a low point, and finally click a point in between, %R will show.

Radical – drawing a line from a line

Square – drawing a rectangle or square

Ellipse – drawing a circle or ellipse

Erase – Use this tool to erase an item, such as a symbol chart, an indicator, ATTS, a drawing etc.

Erase All – Erase all items in a chart.

E. Resize Chart

There are five (5) ways to resize a chart in AbleTrend software.

Click Zoom-In or Zoom-Out icon from "ResizeBar"

Resize bar

Click Menubar > Zoom-In or Zoom-Out. Or roll mouse wheel forward or back.

Turn mouse wheel to zoom-in or zoom-out

First click "Pointer", then press Ctrl key and drag the mouse to select the zoom of a chart.

Press left mouse and drag the chart to move to right or left.

To show Resizebar, click View > Resizebar… You may arrange the Resizebar to the top, left or right side of the screen.

Click "Original" icon to set the chart size back to default.

To custom setup default chart size: See Chart Custom Setup.

F. Virtual Paper Trading

There are two types of Virtual Paper Trading (VPT) that give traders great power and flexibility for testing strategies: Virtual paper trading with historic data and Virtual paper with real-time data.

Virtual Paper Trading with historic data
Traders can validate their trading strategy with historic data that goes beyond back testing reports. Traders can choose which indicators they want to include in their strategy and they can set the rules they want to use to interpret the indicators. They can use subjective indicators alone using the Classic configuration of AbleTrend or they can combine subjective indicators with the mechanical trading system in the Deluxe Plus configuration. No other software gives you such power: subjective indicators, mechanical trading system, and the means to perform virtual paper trading. The trader right clicks on a bar and clicks on VPT at This Bar to load the VPTBar.

Virtual Paper Trading with real-time data
Traders can experience real-time virtual paper trading to closely simulate real-time trading without risking any money. This can be very effective with subjective indicators, the mechanical trading system, or a combination of both. The trader right-clicks on the last bar of a chart and clicks on VPT at This Bar to load the VPTBar.

How to do VPT?

Go to any chart, click “VPT” icon at Toolbar.

Or, from Tools > VPT

The VPTBar will pop-up
VPT bar

The items on the VPTBar are in order of Stop, Play, Speed, Buy, Sell, Exit, Re-do, Re-set, C/B, Setting, Report (Exit)

Stop – stop the bar coming

Play – start to simulate the bar’s coming.

1s Speed – setup the bar coming speed, 1 second to 10 seconds per bar

B Buy – place buy order by clicking a bar, mark a blue up-arrow

S Sell – place sell order by clicking a bar, mark a red down-arrow

E Exit – place exit order by clicking a bar, mark a white cress

Re-do – re do the last trade

Re-set – reset the VPT again, start over

C/B – Default is entry at bar close. Click V/B icon, it will switch to Bid/Ask price, or any specific price on the bar (what you click, what will be the price to enter or exit)

Setting – setup ContractSize, CostPerTrade, and PointValue

Report – show VPT testing report. Close the report, it will exit the VPT. Trade by Trade

G. Custom Icon Bars

You may customize icons, toolbar, drawingbar, menu etc. by click the View > Toolbar …

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