Adjusting the chart style
Cryptowatch’s charts are built to be simple and flexible for quick analysis and trading. Several options for configuring your chart can be found in this article.
New to trading? Click the ? button at the top of the chart style menu to take a price chart crash-course at school.stockcharts.com.
Get started by opening the Chart Style menu, which looks like this:
Candlestick charts show the open and close prices of the market during a period of time with the thicker “body” section of each time period (or "candle"). The highest and lowest prices during that same candle are shown with the thin "wicks".
Candles can be as short as 1 minute and as long as 1 week, depending on time interval settings (near the market selector towards the top-left of the chart). The candle is then colored with the “up” color if the close price is higher than the open price.
If the close price of the candle is lower than its open price, then the candle gets the "down" color. The default up and down colors are green and red, respectively.
Heikin-Ashi candles are similar to traditional candlestick charts, but with some important differences. The close price is the average of the current candlestick, and the open price is the midpoint of the previous candle. This lends the chart a more “trend-based" feel.
Bar charts are similar to candlesticks, but with a more minimal profile. Instead of using a full-body to denote open & close ranges, the bar charts position the open price on the left of the main column and the close price on the right.
Line charts show a line representing market price at regular intervals, with an up-colored and down-colored area extending to the highs and lows of trading during each interval. These charts help you visualize overall price direction and volatility.
Mountain charts are simplified representations of market price. This chart type shows a single line representing the market price at regular intervals.
Y Axis refers to how the prices display on the vertical axis. Scrolling up or down on the Y Axis area will expand and contract make it expand or contract. If you see auto in the upper right corner of the chart, the window and Y Axis will automatically resize to fit all the candles in view at a given time. Clicking auto will change this setting to manual, where the user has full control over the candles in view.
Cryptowatch currently supports the following Y Axis scaling options, each with its own hotkey:
Y Axis Type | Description | Hotkey |
Linear | Default setting. Units on the Y Axis are measured equally. | 7 |
Percentage | Last-traded price is indicated by 0.00%. Other price levels are indicated by the percent-change from 0.00%. | 8 |
Logarithmic | Equivalent percentage-changes in price are given the same vertical distance on the Y Axis. eg: $5-to-$10 and $10-to-$20 are both 100% increases in price and share the same vertical distance on a logarithmic price scale. | 9 |
Option | Description |
Depth Chart | View the depth chart in the margin. This feature is only available for shorter time intervals (< 2 hrs). |
Grid | Displays grid lines directly on the chart. |
Style | Determines whether the grid across the charts has dashed or solid lines. |
Padding | Determines the padding provided between the top and bottom of the chart and the highest and lowest point on the chart in view. |
The Weekly Start setting determines the specific day the weekly candles begin (i.e. first day of the week). The options are Monday (standard work week) and Thursday (UNIX time).
Cryptowatch used UNIX time to determine weekly candles, at first. Traders that have been with us a while may be more accustomed to these candles for their analysis.
The hotkeys below adjust the zoom level of your chart. For a full list of hotkeys you can use on Cryptowatch, see our documentation:
Action | Buttons | Description |
Zoom |
| Compress and extend the chart’s x-axis. Also possible by using scroll-wheel up/down when hovering over chart. |
Zoom y-axis |
| Compress and extend the chart y-axis. Also known as “y-axis padding” under the Chart Style menu. Also possible by using scroll-wheel up/down when hovering over chart y-axis. |