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Suggestions for Posting Forex Charts

If you are part of a Forex community, you will probably be sharing a lot of your charts with fellow traders and also learning from charts posted by others. There are few more direct means of explaining problems or offering solutions than to simply post a chart that shows exactly what you are talking about. It is much more efficient than trying to explain in words, and it allows other traders to see not only what you are talking about but an example of it in the real world. Posting charts allows you to share not just your methods but your trades and to get feedback from others to improve your trading. It also gives you a means to help answer the questions of other traders who are less experienced and need your help.

You will notice there are no consistent guidelines for posting charts. This is because everyone looks at charts with different settings. At the same time, you will notice that some Forex trader’s charts are illegible, and not very useful to anyone. You do not want to waste other traders’ time by forcing them to try and interpret unreadable charts. You also do not want to post charts without explanations, thinking that others will always know what you are trying to demonstrate.

However, you typically look at your own charts, try and think about other people when you post your charts. If you use colors which others may find hard to see or you display your charts zoomed way out, consider zooming in on the action and selecting colors which others will be able to distinguish. Center on the phenomena in question, if you can, while providing a good view of the context. Most charting platforms have an option to let you save your chart as an image. In MetaTrader, the option is File->Save As Picture. This will allow you to create an image file and also automatically post it to MQL5 community. This can be useful if you want to share a link to the chart rather than uploading it.

Next, open your Forex screenshot in an image editing program and crop the screen to show the relevant section of the chart. It is useful to leave in the axes, and again — do not crop out the entire context because you think it is irrelevant. Context is extremely important in Forex. Use a circle tool to draw a circle around the bars in question. Make sure the circle is clearly visible. Then put a caption next to the circle in open space so that others will know why you circled those bars. Do not make them guess!

These suggestions may all beg the question, but once you have looked online at enough Forex charts, you will realize just how many charts are posted in a rush without regard for how difficult they are to read. Do everyone a favor and post clear Forex charts that include all the relevant information you wish to convey. Hopefully, you are already doing this, and you probably are — but if you are not, now you have a better idea of how to set up your charts for posting. If in doubt, ask yourself whether you would understand the chart if you had not been the one who made it. If not, then add some more explanation or change the chart settings so that it is easier to read.