Drawings#

Tracer's drawing tools let you mark up any chart with trend lines, Fibonacci levels, shapes, position planners, profiles, and freehand brushes. Every drawing is anchored to the data. It stores a time and a price for each point instead of screen pixels, so it stays locked to the candles when you pan, zoom, or change the timeframe.

This page is a full reference. It covers placing and editing drawings, the complete tool catalog, every tool's settings, templates, the object tree, the keyboard shortcuts, and how drawings are saved.

Place a drawing#

The drawing toolbar runs down the left edge of the chart.

TODO: screenshot of the drawing toolbar down the left edge of the chart.

1. Click a category to pick up its last-used tool, which starts as the category default, or click the caret on the category to open a flyout with every tool in that group.
2. Press a tool's shortcut if it has one (see the catalog).
3. Click the chart to set each point.
4. Press Esc to cancel before you finish, which returns you to the cursor.

You can also open the search panel from the toolbar to filter every tool by name or category, and you can bookmark tools to a floating dock for one-click access.

How points are placed#

Tools fall into three placement styles.

• Two-click. Click to start, move to preview, click again to place. Trend Line, Trend Angle, Ray, Extended Line, Horizontal Ray, Info Line, Arrow, Rectangle, Ellipse, Circle, Fib Retracement, Fib Extension, Measure, Price Range, Date Range, and Fixed Range Volume Profile.
• Three-click. Click three points in turn, with a live preview between each. Triangle, Parallel Channel, Pitchfork, Long Position, and Short Position.
• Freehand and single-anchor. Brush, Highlighter, and Eraser follow the cursor as you drag. Text, Price Label, Arrow Marker, and Flag Marker drop on a single anchor. Polyline takes as many clicks as you need.

Magnet#

The magnet button in the toolbar snaps each new point to the nearest candle value (open, high, low, or close). It makes dropping a line exactly on a wick or a close fast and precise.

Tool catalog#

Tracer ships 34 drawing tools in nine categories. Tools with a keyboard shortcut list it in the table.

TODO: screenshot of a chart with a few drawings placed (for example a trend line, a Fibonacci retracement, and a position tool).

Lines#

Channels#

Fibonacci#

Shapes#

Annotations#

Positions#

Brushes#

Pitchfork#

Utility#

Edit and manage#

Click a drawing to select it. The points become grab-handles.

• Reshape. Drag a handle to move that point. Drag the body to move the whole drawing without changing its shape.
• Restyle. Double-click a drawing, or pick Settings from its right-click menu, to open the settings modal. Changes preview live as you make them.
• Right-click menu. Right-click a drawing for Duplicate, Settings, and Delete. Delete is disabled on a locked drawing, with a note to unlock it first.
• Clone. Press Cmd/Ctrl+D to duplicate the selected drawing. The copy lands a few candles over and slightly above the original, and it comes in unlocked.
• Hide. The hide button in the toolbar toggles drawing visibility for the chart. Hidden drawings are kept, just not drawn.
• Delete. Press Delete or Backspace to remove the selected drawing. The trash button clears every drawing on the chart.
• Undo and redo. Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes the last drawing change and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes it. The sidebar also has undo and redo buttons.

Lock#

The lock button protects your drawings from accidental edits.

Drawing settings#

Double-click a drawing to open its settings. Simple tools show a single Style panel. Richer tools split their options across tabs such as Style, Labels, Inputs, Advanced, and Visibility.

TODO: screenshot of a drawing's settings dialog (the Style tab, and a richer tool showing its other tabs).

Most tools share a common set of controls.

• Color. A palette of 12 preset swatches, a hex field, and your recent colors.
• Line Width (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, or 3) and Line Style (solid, dashed, or dotted).
• Opacity sliders for fills and bands, shown as a percentage.
• A live preview, plus Apply, Cancel, and Delete.
• A Reset menu in the footer to reset the drawing to its defaults, load a saved template, or save the current style as a template.

Most tools default to a soft blue. Fibonacci defaults to violet, a long position to green, a short position to red, and Anchored VWAP to cyan.

The blocks below list every field per tool family, with its range and default.

Line tools (Trend Line, Ray, Horizontal, Vertical, Cross, Extended, Arrow, Trend Angle)

Style

• Color (default soft blue), Line Width (default 1.5), Line Style (default solid).

Labels (shown for the tools that support each label)

• Show Price (Horizontal Line, default on).
• Show Time (Vertical Line, default off).
• Show Price Change, Show Bars, Show Angle (Trend Line, Ray, Extended Line, Arrow, all default off).
• Text Color (Horizontal Line and Vertical Line, default soft blue).

Advanced

• Extend Left (Trend Line, Ray, Horizontal Ray, default off).
• Extend Right (Trend Line, default off).

Info Line

• Color (default soft blue), Line Width (default 1.5), Line Style (default solid).
• Show Price Diff (default on).
• Show Percentage (default on).
• Show Bars (default off).
• Show Angle (default off).

Parallel Channel

• Color, Line Width, Line Style.
• Fill Color (default soft blue).
• Fill Opacity (0 to 100, default 8 percent).

Fibonacci (Retracement and Extension)

Style

• Color (default violet), Line Width, Line Style.

Labels

• Background Opacity (0 to 100, default 4 percent).
• Show Prices (default on).
• Show Percentages (default on).

Advanced is an editable level table. Each row has an enable checkbox, a ratio (step 0.001), a label, a per-level color, a solid or dashed style, and a delete button. Add Level seeds a new row at 1.618.

• Retracement defaults to 7 levels: 0, 0.236, 0.382, 0.5, 0.618, 0.786, 1.0.
• Extension defaults to 11 levels: 0, 0.236, 0.382, 0.5, 0.618, 1.0, 1.272, 1.414, 1.618, 2.0, 2.618.

Shapes (Rectangle, Ellipse, Triangle, Circle)

• Border Color (default soft blue).
• Fill Color (default soft blue).
• Border Width (default 1.5).
• Border Style (solid, dashed, dotted).
• Fill Opacity (0 to 100, default 30 percent).

Text and Price Label

Style

• Color (default soft blue).

Labels

• Font Size (10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, or 32px, default 12).
• Font Weight (Normal or Bold, default Normal).
• Background (default on) with a BG Color (default black).
• Border (default off) with a Border Color (default white).

Markers (Arrow Marker, Flag Marker)

• Color (default soft blue).
• Direction (Arrow Marker only): Up or Down, default Up.

Positions (Long and Short)

• Entry Price, Target Price, Stop Loss (number inputs, step 0.01).
• Additional Take-Profits: add TP rows (TP 2, TP 3, and so on), each removable.
• A risk-to-reward summary and a percentage appear once Entry and Target are set, colored green for profit and red for loss.
• Show P&L (default on).
• Show R:R (default on).
• Color (default green for long, red for short).

Price Range

• Color (default soft blue), Line Width (default 1.5).
• Fill Opacity (0 to 100, default 14 percent).
• Show Price Diff (default on).
• Show Percentage (default on).
• Show Edge Prices (default on).

Date Range

• Show Bars (default off).
• Show Time Span (default on).
• Color (default soft blue).
• Fill Opacity (default 12 percent).

Brushes and Highlighter

• Color (default soft blue).
• Width (1 to 10, step 0.5, default 2 for Brush and 6 for Highlighter).
• Opacity (default 100 percent for Brush, 45 percent for Highlighter).

The Eraser has no settings panel.

Pitchfork

• Color (default soft blue), applied to the median and the tines, Line Width, Line Style.
• Channel Fill (default soft blue).
• Fill Opacity (default 5 percent).

Measure

• Show Distance (default on).
• Show Price Diff (default on).
• Show Percentage (default on).
• Show Bars (default off).
• Show Time Span (default off).
• Color (default soft blue).

Fixed Range Volume Profile and Anchored Volume Profile

Style

• Value Area color (default a light blue).
• POC color (default a lime green).
• Opacity Outside VA (0 to 100, default 35 percent).

Inputs

• Display Mode: Letters, Blocks, TPO Boxes, or Bins (default Bins).
• Value Area % (50 to 90, default 70).
• Tick Size (step 0.0001, default 0, which means auto).
• Profile Width % (10 to 100, default 85).

Visibility

• Show POC (default on).
• Show VAH / VAL (default on).
• Show Single Prints (default on).
• Show Tooltip (default on).

Anchored VWAP

Style

• Color (default cyan), Line Width, Line Style.

Inputs

• Show Bands (default off).
• Band Multipliers (1σ, or 1σ and 2σ, or 1σ, 2σ, and 3σ, default all three), shown when Show Bands is on.
• Band Opacity (0 to 100, default 12 percent), shown when Show Bands is on.

Templates#

Tracer has two separate template systems. They are easy to confuse, so it helps to know which one you are using.

• Style templates save the look of one tool. Open a drawing's settings, set it up the way you like, and use the Reset menu to save it as a template. Every new drawing of that exact type can then start from it. Each tool type holds up to 10 templates, and only the style is saved, never the geometry.
• Layout templates save every drawing on the chart as a named set. Save the whole markup, then load it back onto any chart later.

Both kinds persist in your browser across sessions.

The object tree#

The object tree lives in the Chart Inspector. It lists every drawing on the chart, grouped by type (Lines, Shapes, Text, and so on). Each row shows a color swatch, the drawing's name, and controls to lock it, hide it, or delete it.

TODO: screenshot of the object tree in the Chart Inspector, listing drawings grouped by type.

• Press / while the inspector is focused to jump to the search box, then type to filter the list by name.
• Click a row to open that drawing's settings.
• Ctrl/Cmd-click to add a row to a selection, or Shift-click to select a range.

The Chart Inspector has more on the object tree and the rest of the panel.

Keyboard shortcuts#

How drawings are saved#

Drawings are stored as data, not pixels. Each point keeps a time and a price, which Tracer converts to screen coordinates every frame, so a drawing tracks the candles through any pan, zoom, or timeframe change.

Your drawings are saved with the chart and restored when you reload. They belong to one chart instance, keyed by symbol and exchange, so the same symbol open in two chart widgets can carry different markup. When a chart is split into panels, the panels share their drawings.

A chart holds up to 200 drawings on desktop and 50 on mobile.