BinarySoft - Support - BDI

6. Charts

6.1 Introduction to Charts

BDI features a highly comprehensive charting package which supports an unlimited number of fully customisable, zoomable charts. All chart data is compiled and shown in real-time from the data provided by the Betfair API.

Charts

The default chart shows up to 1 minute of compiled data, as indicated by the title bar ("Chart 1 [1 min]"). The legend below the chart shows the 4 items being plotted:

The Last Traded Price (LTP) is plotted as a thick red line which shifts up and down when the LTP changes.
The Volume Change (VC) is plotted as vertical black bars, with a new bar appearing whenever there is a new trade on the market. The height of the bar is proportional to the size of the last trade.
The best buy price on the market is plotted as a solid blue area extending from the bottom of the chart.
The best sell price on the market is plotted as a solid pink area extending from the top of the chart.

Also note that LTP, Best Buy and Best Sell are all mapped to the vertical Price axis on the left of the chart, whilst the VC data is plotted relative to the vertical Volume axis on the right. The horizontal axis always shows the local time, synchronised to Betfair server time.

To zoom in on the chart, simply left click and drag to the right and downwards to select a zoom area. This can be repeated to successively zoom in on a certain area of the chart. To zoom out, left click and drag to the left or upwards - this will reset the zoom level to show all the data available.

To pan around the chart, hold the shift key and left click and drag. This is especially useful when zoomed in to the chart.

6.2 General Chart Options

To access the options for the chart, right-click (or Ctrl-click on Mac OS X) in the chart plot area and then click on "Properties...".

Charts

Anti-aliasing - if this option is enabled, then the chart will have a smoother appearance.
Show chart title - this can be used to show the full market name and selection just above the chart plot area.
Swap price/volume axis position - if this option is enabled, then the Price axis is shown on the right of the chart and the Volume axis on the left.
Limit Duration - if enabled, then the chart will show up to the specified duration of compiled data. If the option is disabled then BDI will show all compiled data. When the OK button is clicked to save the properties for this chart, the title bar of the chart updates to reflect the duration - if no limit has been chosen then this will be displayed as "[All data]". Also note that changing the duration of a chart will not delete any of the compiled data, nor increase the number of underlying Betfair API calls - BDI will always store the chart data in the background and will only delete the data once the market has not been viewed for at least 20 minutes.
Fixed Range Price Axis - if enabled, then the price axis will have a fixed range from the specified lower to upper value.

Click the OK button to save the changes, or Cancel to revert to the previous setting. The Default button can be used to restore all settings for this chart to the default value.

There are also 2 options to save the chart as a PNG (image) or PDF file, by right-clicking (or Ctrl-click on Mac OS X) in the chart plot area. Note that when you save the chart in this way, the anti-aliasing option is always turned on whilst the chart is being saved, and the chart title is always shown.

The "+" icon on the right of the Chart 1 title bar can be used to create an additional chart window.

BDI supports an unlimited number of chart windows, each with its own settings. Creating new chart windows will never increase the number of underlying Betfair API service calls.

6.3 Plotting Market Data

Click the Market tab of the chart properies window to show the options for plotting various items of market data:

Charts

Plot LTP - if enabled, then the Last Traded Price is plotted as a thick line which shifts up and down when the LTP of the market changes.
Plot VC - if enabled, then the Volume Change is plotted as vertical bars, with a new bar appearing whenever there is a new trade on the market. The height of the bar is proportional to the size of the last trade.
Plot Best Buy - if enabled, then the best buy price on the market is plotted as a solid area extending from the bottom of the chart.
Plot Best Sell - if enabled, then the best sell price on the market is plotted as a solid area extending from the top of the chart.

Each plot can be switched on or off, along with the colour used to plot the data. The opacity is a value from 0 to 100, with 0 being fully transparent and 100 being fully opaque.

6.4 Plotting Filled Orders

Click the Filled tab of the chart properties window to show the options for plotting your filled orders on the chart:

Charts

Plot Buy Price - if enabled, then your individual buy orders are plotted as X symbols at the appropriate time and price.
Plot Buy Stake - if enabled, then the stake of your individual buy orders is plotted as vertical bars, mapped to the Volume axis.
Plot Sell Price - if enabled, then your individual sell orders are plotted as X symbols at the appropriate time and price.
Plot Sell Stake - if enabled, then the stake of your individual sell orders is plotted as vertical bars, mapped to the Volume axis.

Note that BDI uses the difference in filled amounts between each update as a method of calculating and averaging the filled size and price in between each time it retrieves an update from the Betfair API. This means that if you had 2 filled orders since the last update, e.g. one buy order of 1/point filled at a price of 50 and one buy order of 1/point filled at a price of 60, this would be shown as 2/point at a price of 55.

6.5 Trend Lines

BDI allows an unlimited number of user-customisable trend lines to be added to each chart. The following types of trend line are supported:

Simple Moving Average (SMA) - a simple average of all data contained in the time period.
Exponential Moving Average (EMA) - an average which gives greater weighting to recent values.
Bollinger Upper Band - a trend line which is 2 standard deviations above the SMA.
Bollinger Lower Band - a trend line which is 2 standard deviations below the SMA.

We recommend that you first acquaint yourself with these various trend line types and how to interpret them. StockCharts.com has a comprehensive introduction to the SMA and EMA trend lines; Wikipedia has a decent entry about Bollinger Bands, as well as the official Bollinger Bands website.

Click the Trend Lines tab of the chart properties window to show the options for plotting trend lines on the chart:

Charts

Press the Add button to add a new trend line to the chart. The current trend line being edited is shown with a blue border around it at the top of the window.

Each trend line can be applied to any of the 8 data items that can be plotted in the charts. The Period section specifies the time period over which the trend line is calculated.

Bollinger Bands can be constructed in BDI from 3 separate trend lines:

A Simple Moving Average (SMA) for a certain time period.
A Bollinger Upper Band with the same time period as the SMA.
A Bollinger Lower Band with the same time period as the SMA.

The current trend line being edited can be removed by using the Remove button. Pressing the Default button will reset all of the settings for the chart to the default values, including the removal of all trend lines.

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