Bid-Ask Charts Hidden Feature

[Alexander]

I was exploring some of the settings of our Bid-Ask charts for some documentation I was preparing, and I came across this unusual feature that is really kind of interesting to look at. Here’s a little run-through of how to reproduce my experience.

First open up a chart for your favorite contract. Then change the Chart Type setting to Bid-Ask Volume. Double-click on any bar profile to open the plotter customization settings.

Uncheck the Bar Histograms checkbox, then take a look at your chart. Nothing special, should just show some transparent candles with bid/ask values inside. Now go back to the settings, turn on the Bar Histograms, and then check Constant Width and ensure Opaque Volume is not checked. Then turn off Bar Histograms again. Now zoom out until the candles disappear. You should see something akin to Tetris building out on the screen:

But wait, there’s more(!). Open the settings once again, and change the Bid-Ask Chart Type setting to Delta and observe.

Now it’s more like The Game of Life (the programming/math one). I’ll let the analysts have a go at making some good sense out of these chart types, but I think the first example is pretty fun to look at.

[grasshopper]

That’s nifty, Alexander. Any chance you have a similar discovery with the Bid-Ask Volume mode that will keep the candle overlays showing when the chart size is reduced? I understand that the numbers cannot be shown when the size is reduced beyond a certain point, but I don’t understand why the same is true for the graphics that form the candle overlays.

For the NQ, where the candles are long, I currently have to choose between a) seeing the candles but not being able to see the tops or bottoms of some prior histograms and b) seeing the past six or seven histograms in full but not being able to see the candle overlays.

[NorCalKyle]

Ugh I have the same issue. Why do the candles disappear!? Have you found a solution to this?