Chart basics

Pick a data source, change the symbol and interval, add indicators and set the chart up the way you read it.

The Terminal puts a live chart, your watchlist, the trade ticket and your positions on one screen. This page covers the chart: where its prices come from, how to change what it shows, and the shortcuts that save clicks.

The terminal at a glance

Terminal on a desktop screen showing a EURUSD 15-minute chart with an EMA, the drawing toolbar on the left and the watchlist open in the right rail
  • The chart toolbar runs along the top: symbol, intervals, Chart type, Indicators, Alert, Bar replay, Undo and Redo. On the right are the layout controls, Screenshot, Chart settings and Full screen.
  • The drawing toolbar runs down the left edge of the chart. See Drawing tools and the object tree.
  • On screens 1,280 px wide and up, the right rail has buttons for Watchlist, Object tree, Trade ticket and Account details, plus Risk controls when the selected account has rules. Click a button to open its panel and click it again to close it. The dot at the bottom of the rail is green while the feed is connected and amber when it isn’t.
  • The bottom panel holds Positions, Orders and History for the selected account. It starts collapsed. Click a tab to open it.
Switching symbol and intervalLength 0:21

Changing the chart from EURUSD to NAS100, switching to 1h and then 30 seconds, and typing 1 5 on the chart, then Enter, to go back to 15 minutes.

Choose a data source

Every chart reads its prices from one source:

  • Tether Market Data is the app’s own market feed. It’s read-only: you can chart it and add its symbols to your watchlist, but the trade ticket shows Trading is disabled for Tether Market Data.
  • Each MT4 or MT5 account you’ve connected. The chart uses that account’s prices and symbol names, and the trade ticket sends orders to it.

The terminal opens on your default account. If you haven’t connected one, it opens on Tether Market Data. To connect an account, see Connect a trading account.

  1. Click Account details in the right rail.

  2. Open the Feed & execution menu and pick a source. Accounts are listed with their platform after the name.

    Account panel with the Feed and execution menu open, listing Tether Market Data and two demo MT5 accounts

Under the menu you’ll see the platform, broker and server, then the connection status: Connecting…, Synchronizing…, Connected, Reconnecting… or Error. Below that are Balance, Equity, Margin, Free margin and Margin level.

You can also switch sources from the account buttons in symbol search. On a phone, that’s the only place to do it.

Each source keeps its own saved chart layouts, so switching brings back the layout you last used there. See Chart layouts.

Change the symbol

  1. Click the symbol name at the left of the chart toolbar. You can also click the symbol in the chart’s top-left status line, or start typing while the chart is selected.

  2. Symbol search opens. Type part of a symbol or an instrument name, or narrow the list with All, Forex, Metals, Crypto, Indices and Other.

    Symbol search with NAS typed in the search box, the Indices tab selected and the account buttons under the tabs
  3. Click a symbol, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter.

Results come in three groups: Watchlist, Recent (your last eight symbols) and All symbols. Click the star on a row to add that symbol to your watchlist, or remove it, without closing the dialog. The buttons under the tabs are your sources. Picking another one switches the whole terminal to it.

Symbol names come from your broker, so one account may call a market EURUSD and another EURUSD_ecn. If the account doesn’t offer a symbol saved in your layout, the chart switches to the account’s default symbol and a notice tells you which one it’s showing.

Change the interval

Your favourite intervals sit in the toolbar as one-click chips. You start with 1m, 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h, 4h, D, W, M and 1Y. The button after them opens the interval library. When the current interval isn’t a favourite, that button shows it.

  1. Click the interval button with the down arrow. The library groups intervals under Seconds, Minutes, Hours and Days & calendar.

    Interval library open on an MT5 account, showing the Seconds group, the Minutes group and filled stars on the favourite intervals
  2. Click an interval to switch to it.

  3. To pin it to the toolbar, click the star next to it. You can pin up to 12. Click a filled star to unpin.

To type an interval instead, type a number while the chart is selected, or click the interval in the chart’s top-left status line. Change interval opens. Enter a number of minutes, such as 15, or a number and a unit, such as 4h, 1d or 30s, and press Enter or click Apply interval. If the chart doesn’t offer that interval, the box says Choose an interval available for this chart.

Change interval box over the chart with 15 typed in, the hint Enter minutes, or a unit such as 1H or 1D, and the Apply interval button

To add an interval that isn’t listed, click Add custom interval, enter an Interval amount, choose an Interval unit and click Add. Custom intervals carry a Custom tag and a bin icon that removes them. You can keep up to 50, up to one year long.

Favourites and custom intervals are saved to your account, so they follow you to other devices. On a phone the chips are hidden and the interval button shows the current interval.

On weekly and longer intervals, such as W, M and 1Y, the last bar is the one still forming. It moves with live prices, so a monthly chart always ends on the current month.

Seconds intervals

5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds and 30 seconds appear only when the chart is on an MT5 account. You can add 20 seconds as a custom interval. MT4 accounts and Tether Market Data start at one minute.

Seconds bars are built from the account’s live ticks. Where Tether Terminal has recorded history for the symbol, the chart loads it. Otherwise bars start from the moment you open the chart.

Chart type

The chart draws candlesticks. The Chart type menu has one option today, Candles.

Indicators

  1. Click Indicators in the chart toolbar.
  2. In Add an indicator, search or click the one you want. It appears on the chart straight away.
IndicatorWhat it draws
Day of WeekDay boundaries, weekday labels and each day’s high-to-low range.
Exponential Moving AverageA moving average weighted toward recent prices. You set the length and the source.
Higher Timeframe CandlesRecent candles from higher timeframes, drawn beside live price with a countdown.
Session / Expiry RangeAsia range, CBDR, New York midnight open and standard-deviation projections.

Indicators are listed at the top left of the chart. Hover one to hide it, open its settings or remove it. Its More menu adds Move up and Move down. Settings preview on the chart as you change them. Click Save to keep them or Cancel to drop them.

The arrow under the list hides the rows and leaves a count of your indicators. Click it again to show them. The list stays hidden or shown on this device when you reload or come back from another page.

Indicators stay on the chart when you change symbol or interval. In a multi-chart layout, each chart keeps its own set. To clear them all, right-click the chart and choose Remove all indicators.

Read and move around the chart

  • The status line at the top left shows the symbol and interval, then the open, high, low and close of the bar under the cursor, and its change from the previous close. Click the symbol to change it, or the interval to type a new one. On a narrow chart, a price that doesn’t fit is left out rather than cut off.
  • Next to it are the live bid and ask and the spread in pips. Prices delayed appears beside the symbol when its prices stop updating.
  • Drag the chart to move through time and scroll to zoom. Older bars load as you scroll left.
  • Click the price scale once to copy that price.
  • Right-click the chart for Reset chart view, Copy price, Object tree, Remove all drawings, Remove all indicators, Settings… and Chart options…. Settings… opens the colour editor on the scheme the chart shows (see Edit the chart’s colours), and Chart options… opens Chart settings.
  • Hover the chart and a + button follows the cursor’s price at the right edge. Click it to start a buy or sell order at that price. The same choices sit at the top of the right-click menu. See Place a pending order.
The chart's right-click menu: alert and order choices at the price, then Reset chart view, Copy price, Object tree, Remove all drawings, Remove all indicators, and Settings… and Chart options… at the bottom

Session clocks

The top-right corner of the chart, level with the symbol and interval, shows the three forex sessions, Asia, London and New York, as clocks.

The session clocks in the chart's top-right corner: Asia open with a countdown to its close, and London and New York closed with countdowns to their opens

Each row shows:

  • A dot, green while the session is open and hollow while it’s closed. Closed sessions are dimmed.
  • The time in the session’s city. Asia keeps Tokyo time.
  • closes and the time left until the close while the session is open, or opens and the time until it next opens while it’s closed. The countdown reads minutes and seconds (42:10), hours, minutes and seconds (3:02:02), or days and hours (2d 15h) when the open is more than a day away.
SessionOpen, Monday to Friday
Asia09:00 to 18:00 Tokyo time
London08:00 to 17:00 London time
New York08:00 to 17:00 New York time

The hours follow each city’s own clock, so they stay right in the weeks when only London or only New York has changed to or from summer time. At the weekend every session counts down to its Monday open. Public holidays aren’t taken into account, so on a holiday a session shows as open at its usual hours.

The clocks always show each city’s own time. The Time zone chart setting doesn’t change them.

In a multi-chart layout the clocks appear once, on the chart at the right end of the top row. A maximized chart, or the chart on a phone screen, shows them on its own. They’re hidden during bar replay, when the chart shows past prices.

To hide them, or to switch between 24-hour time (14:05) and 12-hour time (2:05 pm), open Chart settings and point to Session clocks.

Chart settings

Click Chart settings, the gear at the right of the toolbar, or right-click the chart and choose Chart options….

  • Candle colors: Default, Monochrome and your own schemes under My schemes. The pencil beside a built-in scheme, and Edit… on one of yours, open the colour editor. New scheme… starts one from scratch. See Edit the chart’s colours.
  • Background grid and Seconds on the time axis.
  • Show trade history draws your closed trades on the chart, and Trade history display picks how: Executions, Price levels or Both. See Your trade history on the chart.
  • Economic calendar events marks official economic releases on the time axis, if your role includes News. See Releases on your charts.
  • Show active positions draws entry, stop and target lines for open positions and pending orders. The order ticket’s preview lines show either way.
  • Ask line adds a price line for the ask, labelled Ask, so the gap between the two price labels is the spread.
  • Session clocks turns the session clocks on or off with Show on the chart and picks 24-hour or 12-hour time. The menu shows the current choice: 24-hour, 12-hour or Off.
  • Status line picks what the top-left readout shows: Symbol, Interval, OHLC values, Price change, Percentage change, Bid and ask and Spread.
  • Time zone sets where indicators draw day and session boundaries: New York (the default), London, Tokyo, Sydney or UTC.
  • Crosshair: Free, Snap to prices or Hidden.

These settings are saved in this browser. Your own colour schemes are saved to your account.

Full screen, at the far right of the toolbar, fills the screen with the terminal. Click Exit full screen or press Esc to leave.

Your trade history on the chart

With Show trade history on, the chart draws the closed trades of the account it shows, on the symbol it shows. Each trade is drawn in its win or loss colour, with a tag that shows its side and result, for example Long +605.20 · +0.60%.

To choose what each trade gets, open Chart settings and point to Trade history display:

Chart settings with Show trade history ticked and the Trade history display submenu open, listing Executions, Price levels and Both, with Both ticked
  • Executions puts an arrow where the trade opened and one where it closed, each pointing the way that fill went: up for a buy, down for a sell. A line joins the entry to the exit. A trade closed in parts gets an arrow and a line for every part.
  • Price levels draws the trade’s entry price and the stop loss and take profit recorded for it, across the time the trade was open, with the risk and reward shaded between them. A stop or target the trade never had isn’t drawn.
  • Both draws the arrows and the levels together. It’s the default.

Your choice is saved in this browser. It stays when you reload, hide and show trade history, or change colour scheme. The Journal’s charts draw your trades the same way.

Edit the chart’s colours

A colour scheme covers the whole chart: the body, border and wick of up and down candles, the price lines, and how your closed trades are drawn. It has one set of colours for dark mode and one for light mode.

  1. Right-click the chart and choose Settings…. The colour editor opens on the scheme the chart shows, for example Edit Default.

    The colour editor titled Edit Default, explaining that Default is built in and stays as it is, with the name Default (edited), Dark Mode and Light Mode tabs, a candle preview, the up and down candle colours, and Cancel and Save copy buttons
  2. Pick Dark Mode or Light Mode, then change the colours. Click a swatch or type a hex code. Copy from light mode (or dark mode) copies the other set across, and Start from fills in the candle colours of Default or Monochrome. Scroll down for Price lines and Trade history.

  3. Click Save copy, or Save scheme when the scheme is one of your own.

Under Trade history, two previews show a winning and a losing trade drawn in Both, and they change as you edit:

  • Winning trade and Losing trade are the two outcome colours.
  • Entry color colours the entry arrows and the entry level, Line color the lines from entry to exit, and Exit color the exit arrows. Leave any of them blank and it follows each trade’s win or loss colour.
  • Stop level and Target level colour the stop loss and take profit levels.
  • Below them are Line width, Entry arrow size, Exit arrow size, Level opacity and Zone opacity, and switches for what the tag shows and for Dashed levels and Zone shading.
The colour editor's Trade history section: a note on blank fields, Win and Loss previews with arrows, lines and levels, and colour fields for Winning trade, Losing trade, Entry color, Line color, Exit color, Stop level and Target level, the three execution colours blank and following the win or loss colour

Default and Monochrome are built in and never change. Saving an edit of one keeps your changes as your own scheme, named Default (edited) unless you change the Name, and switches the chart to it. A second copy is named Default (edited 2), and so on. The pencil beside each built-in scheme in Chart settings opens the same editor.

Your own schemes are listed under My schemes in Chart settings, each with Use this scheme, Edit…, Duplicate and Delete. Saving an edit of one of them changes it in place. They’re saved to your account, so they follow you to other devices.

Resize the panels

Drag the gap between two panels to resize them. There’s one between the chart and the right rail, one between the charts and the bottom panel, and one between each pair of charts in a multi-chart layout. Drag the right rail all the way in to close it, and drag it back or click a rail button to reopen it. Sizes are remembered in this browser.

To open or close the bottom panel, click the active tab or the arrow at its right end.

On a phone

Terminal on a phone, with the chart filling the screen and the bottom bar showing the drawing tools, watchlist and Trade buttons

The chart fills the screen width. The bar at the bottom has Show drawing tools (the pencil and ruler), Open watchlist (the list icon) and Trade. Trade opens the order ticket as a sheet over the lower part of the screen while the chart above stays live. The menu above the chart names the chart on screen, for example Chart 1: EURUSD · 15m. If your layout has more than one chart, the phone shows one at a time. Pick another from that menu.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcuts go to the selected chart, wherever the pointer is. They pause while a dialog is open or while you’re typing in a field.

KeysAction
Any letter, for example eOpen symbol search with that letter typed in.
A number, for example 1 5Open Change interval with the number typed in. Add a unit if you want one, s seconds, m minutes, h hours, d days, w weeks or y years, and press Enter. A number on its own is minutes.
Ctrl Z (⌘ Z on a Mac)Undo the last drawing change.
Ctrl Shift Z or Ctrl YRedo.
Shift plus a letterPick a drawing tool. See drawing shortcuts.
Shift and drag, with no tool pickedMeasure price, bars and time without drawing. See Measure without drawing.
EscCancel the drawing in progress, or clear the selection.
Delete or BackspaceRemove the selected drawing.
Arrow keysNudge the selected drawing one bar sideways or one price step up or down.