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Point (aka Range) bar

From MultiCharts

Understanding Point Chart Type

Each bar in a Point chart is formed by a tick group that consists of successive ticks over a defined price range. The bar's Open component is always one tick above or below the Close component of the previous bar, and the bar’s Close component is always at the High or the Low of the bar. All bars are of the same height, equal to the range. The next bar is started once the tick with a price outside of the original bar's range has been received. If the price movement is greater than the combined range of two consecutive bars, additional "virtual" bars are inserted between the bars to fill in the gap.


A Point chart can only be created from tick data.

How Point Bars Are Constructed

A Point bar is closed when the following condition is met:

modulus |High - Low| > chart resolution * (MinMovement / PriceScale)

The price difference in points equals the selected chart resolution. A new bar is formed from the remainder of the tick price with the MinMovement*PriceScale offset. The volume is allocated proportionally between all bars that are built from one tick (i.e. summarized tick volume equals the summarized bars volume). The volume of one tick is included into a bar only once (if several bars are formed from one tick, the volume is assigned to the first bar of this group and other bars receive 0).

Selecting Point Chart Type

Point chart type can be selected from the Format Instruments window:

  1. Open the Format Instruments window.
    To open the Format Instruments window, click the Format Instruments icon on the main toolbar;
    if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button.

    The Format Instruments window can also be opened by one of the following methods:
      - Position the mouse pointer over the symbol's data series; double-click once the Pointer changes into a Hand ;
      - Position the mouse pointer over the symbol's data series; once the Pointer changes into a Hand right-click and then click Format Symbol Name;
      - Right-click on an empty area of the chart and then click Format Instruments; if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button;
      - Select Format in the main menu and click Instrument; if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button.
  2. Select the Settings tab.
  3. In the Chart section, in the Resolution Interval text box, enter the price movement, in points, that is to trigger creation of the next bar.
  4. In the Resolution Unit drop-down list box select Point.
The maximum number of points that can be used to create a single bar is 2,000,000,000.

Resolution of Point charts can also be set by one of the following methods:

  • Click the Range Bar icon on the Resolution toolbar; from the drop-down list select the number of points to be used for each bar.
  • Click the down-arrow to the right of the Resolution icon on the Command Line toolbar, then point to Range Bar and select the number of points to be used for each bar from the drop-down list.
  • Enter the appropriate command into the Command Line toolbar combo box.
Click here to find out how to use the Command Line.

Selecting Point Chart Style

Point bars can have any of the regular bars styles.

See this section for more details.

Point Original

Point Original Chart Type can be selected from the Format Instruments window:

  1. Open the Format Instruments window.
    To open the Format Instruments window, click the Format Instruments icon on the main toolbar;
    if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button.

    The Format Instruments window can also be opened by one of the following methods:
      - Position the mouse pointer over the symbol's data series; double-click once the Pointer changes into a Hand ;
      - Position the mouse pointer over the symbol's data series; once the Pointer changes into a Hand right-click and then click Format Symbol Name;
      - Right-click on an empty area of the chart and then click Format Instruments; if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button;
      - Select Format in the main menu and click Instrument; if the Format Objects window appears, select the symbol and click the Format button.
  2. Select the Settings tab.
  3. Select Point Original from the Chart Type list.


One of the differences between Point Original and regular Point bars consists in the condition that has to be met for bar closing:
modulus |Open*PriceScale - Close*PriceScale| >= chart resolution.

Another difference is that a tick is not split between several bars, but is completely included in one bar, even if the price difference exceeds the chart resolution.