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Chart Colors and Their Psychological Effect


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Chart Colors and Their Psychological Effect

  #1 (permalink)
 
josh's Avatar
 josh 
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Do you think the color of a candle or bar affects certain people when trading? Here are two charts, one a standard red/green candle, and the other a black OHLC. Imagine that you had placed the lower blue line before the market open, and that you were looking to buy at or near the line. Would you have found it more difficult to buy if you saw the big red down candles? Compare that to the neutral, black OHLC. Does the OHLC chart, by its lack of color in this case, present a generally more neutral perspective? Is it easier to buy after a big down bar (often the best time to buy) if you don't see a lot of red? Conversely, is it easier to sell after a big up bar if you aren't seeing green?






More generally speaking, how does the color of various chart components affect our trading, if at all?

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  #3 (permalink)
 Redneck 
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Sight is easily argued - our most important sense when trading

Yes color affects our brain / our emotions / our psychology - potentially our ability to act


To trade best – requires we trade in a neutral/ unbiased state of mind



Something upon which to ponder

Color Psychology


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  #4 (permalink)
MJ888
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Wow! Never thought color of charts/bars mattered but I guess it does!

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 PandaWarrior 
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I've thought about this a lot in terms of how the colors affect my vision but in the last few months I've thought about in terms of the effect it has on me mentally. The gray background I use is the most soothing one I have found and all other colors stand out on it.

For a long time I've wanted to use a monochromatic chart. I do have another chart I use that is muted browns and dark greens. I like this chart. Its easier to watch and for some reason I don't seem to be so anxious when watching it.

More experimentation is needed.

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 addchild 
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Absolutely, Red= stop, green= go, many a trade has been closed to early because of a unfortunately placed color. Numbers on the other hand, don't have this problem.


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 Silver Dragon 
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Fast moving red/green bars have made me take bad trades. Both on Entry and exit. Learning to ignore the bars and look at the chart itself has been a challenging thing to learn.

I tried changing the colors but could never find a combination I liked. The best thing I did was to change the background to grey and remove the grid lines. This makes the chart more pleasing to look at.

Robert

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 Massive l 
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I can't disclose my secret color combination.

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 Big Mike 
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Massive l View Post
I can't disclose my secret color combination.

Transparency...

Mike

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 Massive l 
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Okay, here's my preference but please don't spread this around the internet.
I like my candles the same color.
Either all red or all yellow. I like the red on a black background.

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