We’re pleased to introduce a new drawing tool to Cryptowatch, combining date and price ranges into a single drawing. Measure is contextual to each market, supporting both amount and percentage changes to be placed on any chart or indicator. Want to follow along? Open up your nearest Cryptowatch chart and we’ll get started.
During initial release, Measure is shown in a highlighted state within the drawing tools tray. This temporary effect is removed once the tool has been selected and you may see it on this or other drawing tools added in the future. Now that we know where to find Measure, let’s go through a few demonstrations of how it works and some tips to make the most of your drawings!
For the examples below, we’ll be using an account with an Exchange API key connected. This isn’t required to use Measure, but Cryptowatch supports visual trading and this is extra useful when looking at profit/loss across trades, time between order fills, or visualizing time remaining on margin positions. These dots are shown on top of the chart to indicate the type of trade and whether it is open or filled.
Measuring Lines
Line Measure works in the chart or indicator area, as a horizontal (time) or vertical (amount) scale. Measurements of time also include a bar count based on the currently selected interval. Measurements of price include both the amount as well as percentage change. Some tips when drawing line measurements:
- The label is put on the side of the cursor when placing the second point.
- Holding the
shiftkey will ensure that only a straight line is drawn. - Holding the
optionkey will allow the point selection to detach from any snapping.
Combined Measurements
Rather than requiring one line for time and another for price, the combined measurement brings them both into the same drawing. This is done simply by drawing a rectangle instead of a line, which outputs a measurement of both time and price, with the color shaded by the direction of price. A couple notes when using the rectangle measurement:
- Label position and gain/loss color are determined by the position of the second point. The same rectangle drawn above that starts upper right to bottom left will have the opposite negative color and left bottom label position.
- Combined measurements appear below the chart and labels appear above. The fill color alpha of 20% supports several stacking before the overlap is opaque, with drawings remaining beneath the chart.
Adjusting a Measurement
The same functionality exists when modifying a drawing as creating one. While the crosshair (default) is selected, drawings will appear without handlers and are not editable. To edit a drawing, simply select the Measure tool or any other shape drawing tool. Removing a measurement is done via right click on desktop (or shake on mobile) and in order of most recently modified. If you want to ensure one drawing is removed instead of another, simply modify a point on the drawing you wish to remove before right clicking. This will make it the most recently modified and therefore the first to go.
Sizing it all up
We’ve shown where to find Measure, how to force fixed lines, create combined measurements, modify and remove them, and do it all from just one drawing tool! We look forward to hearing how this tool makes its way into your trading workflow and hope this quick walkthrough helps you make the most out of using it.
