Inserting Line Studies Tools on the MetaTrader 4 Platform

The next option on the Insert menu within the MetaTrader 4 stock index trading software is the Line Studies Button. These tools are used to insert and draw stock indices trend-lines or to place various technical analysis tools on Indices charts. This button is shown below:

Line Studies on MT4

The button can be used to insert the following on the Stock Indices Trading charts:

1. Vertical Line
2. Horizontal Line
3. Stock Indices Trend Line
4. Stock Indices Trend by Angle

A trader might need to draw any of these line studies on Stock Indices Trading charts for different purposes: each line study will be placed on the trading chart depending on the type of analysis that a trader want to achieve.

Vertical Line

This is placed on a Stock Indices Trading chart when a trader wants to mark a particular point in a stock indices chart, maybe to mark the time they bought a stock indices instrument or sold a stock indices. To insert this vertical line on a Stock Indices Trading chart, a trader will open insert menu, as shown above, then click on the 'Vertical Line' option - to select this, cursor will also change to show vertical line icon, then select the point on Stock Indices chart where you want to draw this line.

Insert a Vertical To a Stock Index Chart in MetaTrader 4

Horizontal Line

On MT4 Indices trade platform, this line is placed on a Stock Indices Trading chart so that to mark a resistance level or a support level on the stock index chart. The horizontal line can be drawn by selecting its button key within the insert menu & then clicking on the level where you want to place it.

Drawing a Horizontal Line on MT4

On the stock indices example above this horizontal line is drawn at stock index price support point, the stock index price bounces up the second time that it gets to this point. The stock indices trend then changes to upward stock indices trend direction.

Stock Indices Trend Line

This is one of the most oftenly used technical analysis tool in stock index trading. To draw this stock indices trend line a trader can access this button from the insert menu. An upwards stock indices trend line on MT4 is shown below.

Stock Indices Trend Line Drawn in MetaTrader 4

To draw a stock indices trend line a trader has to have 2 points and join these points with the trend line & then extend it as shown above.

A trader can draw this stock indices trend line for either an upward stock indices trend direction or downward stock indices trend direction

Stock Indices Trend Line by Angle

The next option is to draw a stock indices trend by angle, this one looks exactly like the ordinary stock indices trendline shown above, only that in addition it'll show the angle at which the trend line is slanting which many trades may use as a signal and specify to only trade if the angle is more than 30 degrees.

Customizing

As a trader you might want to change the formatting of a specific item for examples let use "Stock Indices Trend-Line" study, if you want to edit its properties then you can choose it by double-clicking on it, then right click on it and the following menu will show.

Changing

Common Properties

After the above menu pops up (Note the trend line has three square points that you can click and drag with your mouse to adjust it to another point using these three squares), select the first option only "Stock Indices Trend-line Properties", the following pop up window will appear.

From this menu a trader can rename the trend line, give it a description, change the style color to another color using the down arrow next to the color named "Blue" above or change the width property by selecting a different style from the 2 drop down arrow buttons next to the color button, and then select okay.

The other options are marked "Parameters" & "Visualization"

Parameters

On the parameter, tick/untick the option marked as "Ray", this will extend/unextend the trendline up to the point where you have selected. Download the MetaTrader software to learn what this we are talking about.

Visualization

Visualization is used to select whether the line is shown on all timeframes or only shown on a choose few time-frames that a trader can select & select from this option as illustrated below.

Customizing Tools MT4 Studies