Chapter 3 left one field blank: the stop distance, which no form can fill because it comes off a chart. Crypto charting tools for beginners means building that chart once, before an idea is on it: a saved template of timeframes, scale and indicator settings, and a watchlist of only the coins your charter allows.
Open the same stretch on a weekly and a daily chart and you see different things: the higher chart shows the larger swings and hides detail, the lower one shows detail and more noise. An idea can look right on one and wrong on the other, so a chart chosen after you have the idea can be chosen to suit it. Most settings also arrive as a platform's defaults. Fix yours in the order below and write each one's source beside it. Chart the contract you will trade, since spot and perpetual volume are separate books. The limit: a template records your choices, and none of them has a tested edge on the pages linked here.
| Line | What you set | Test it must pass |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | The perpetual on your Markets line, on that exchange, as the chart's symbol. | Does the symbol on screen match the contract on your fact sheet, not spot and not a figure summed across exchanges? |
| Decision timeframe | The candle your charter's Timeframes line says you decide on, and the time your platform closes it. Many platforms label a candle with its open time, so it closes when the next one opens; a daily label often shows only the date, so confirm the time on a shorter chart or in the platform's settings. | Is the closing time written with the time zone the chart displays, and do the times you look cover every close your plan needs? |
| Context timeframe | The chart you read for the larger trend. A common convention puts it about 4 to 7 times the decision candle. | Is the ratio written beside the pair? Near 1, the two charts overlap heavily. |
| Scale | Linear, where equal price distances look equal, or log, where equal percentage moves do. One per template. | Read three prices off the axis, each double the last (for arithmetic only, 50, 100 and 200). Are the two gaps equal? Yes means log, and it should match what you wrote. |
| Indicators | Name, the inputs your platform shows (length in candles, smoothing, source price), the chart it sits on, whether each value is a published default, one of this manual's references or your own number, and the question it answers. An empty row is allowed. | Can you write the question before you open the indicator, and do the inputs on screen match what you wrote? |
| Saved and written down | The template saved on your platform, and one page that records it: these lines filled in, the watchlist symbols, the dates, and anything the platform does not save with the template. | Close the chart, reopen the template and compare it with the page. Does anything fail to come back, and does a later change carry its date and reason? |
| Watchlist | The exporter's futures list for your exchange, cut to the coins on your Markets line, and the export date. Its lines are TradingView symbols, a coin can have more than one line, and on some exchanges the futures list is not perpetual-only. Typing the symbols yourself is the manual route. | Does each remaining line name the perpetual on your fact sheet, not spot, a margin pair or another quote currency, and pass the Markets line's own test? |
Objectives
This step supports one decision: which coins you will chart, and on which candles, before any idea is on the screen. It comes here because the level maps in chapter 5 and every plan after them are drawn on this chart. It uses the Markets and Timeframes lines from your charter and the contract line from your fact sheet.
- Set a decision timeframe and a context timeframe from your charter, and state their ratio.
- Tell a log scale from a linear one on screen, and write down which you use.
- Choose indicators by the question each answers, and label each setting by its source.
- Export a futures list and cut it to the coins on your Markets line.
Every setting here is your choice. The ratio is a convention from Alexander Elder's Triple Screen method, which keeps each chart about five times the next; the pairs the timeframe page lists run from 4 to 7, with weekly over daily at 7. ATR(14) with Wilder smoothing is the published default: Wilder's own definition and the default length on the major charting platforms. Some platforms offer other smoothing, so check the input box. The EMA formula publishes no default length and platforms ship their own, so the 20, 55 and 200 EMA are this manual's references. A length counts candles: 55 spans 55 weeks on a weekly chart and 55 days on a daily one. A template with no indicators is complete. Menus differ by platform, so this chapter names settings, not buttons, and your live screen wins.
Hypothetical walkthrough: a template built from the charter's own lines
Hypothetical walkthrough. Invented prices and an invented outcome, chosen to teach the decision. Not a recorded trade, and not evidence of how often this setup works.
Assume the reader from chapter 1: a charter that says to decide on the daily candle, read the weekly for the larger trend and look once a day just after the daily close, with two coins on one exchange's perpetual list. The charter leaves open the scale, the indicators and the list.
- Contract, decision and context. They match each chart's symbol to their fact sheet. The daily is the decision chart and the weekly the context chart, a ratio of 7, written beside the pair. Assume their platform closes the daily candle at 00:00 UTC and displays UTC. They write that beside "look once a day", because "just after the daily close" means that time.
- Scale. They choose log, since the trendlines page says scale matters over a move that doubles price. Assume the axis shows 50, 100 and 200 with equal gaps between them, which confirms it. They write "log" under the pair.
- Indicators. They write the question first. ATR(14) with Wilder smoothing, a published default, read on the daily chart: what is the average size of recent daily candles, gaps included? A plan can choose a buffer beyond a level as a multiple of it. Volume with an average of the 20 closed candles before the one they are reading, the 20 their own number: did a candle that crossed a level trade more than that average? Every other row stays empty. The indicators overview says an indicator answers a question a plan has already asked, so the rest wait for a plan.
- Saved. They save the template, close the chart, reopen it and compare it with the page. Everything came back.
- Watchlist. They download the exporter's futures list. Assume an invented file of 300 lines with exactly one line for each coin's perpetual. They delete 298 lines, check that the two left name the perpetual, and write the date.
The settings, the two symbols and the dates go on one page. The outcome was chosen to show the charter, not the exporter, setting the scope, and an indicator row left empty on purpose.
Reading list
- Multi-timeframe analysis: the three jobs of a chart, the ratio as a convention, reading only closed candles, and the conflict rule to write before two charts disagree.
- Indicators overview: each indicator's setting, whether it is a published default or this manual's choice, and the habit of writing the question first.
- Volatility: ATR percent for comparing coins. The volatility and volume scanners rank coins by percentage price change over a window you pick, from Binance perpetual prices, and by the change in 24-hour volume against an earlier reading. Neither is ATR, and the volume figure is summed across exchanges, not your contract's own, so check the measure, period and source before comparing a list with your chart. For a few coins, the manual route is ATR percent and the volume bars on the chart you trade.
- Volume: the unit of a bar, why the contract's own volume is the one to read, and a bar against its own recent average. The watchlist exporter writes symbol lists for TradingView by exchange and market type; typing your few symbols into your platform's own list is the manual route.
- Trendlines and channels: read the linear and log section now for what the choice changes over a move that doubles price. The page comes back in chapter 5.
Read the timeframe page first, because the pair decides what every setting counts, then the indicator pages, then the trendlines section on scale. If a coin you wanted is missing from the exported list, check the exchange itself before you edit your Markets line.
This chapter cannot settle what the chart says: the template is empty until levels are marked. It saves the chart. Chapter 5 adds the prices where an idea on each coin would be wrong. A plan then adds an entry, and the stop distance is the gap from that entry to the plan's stop order, which sits beyond the wrong-price by a buffer. Until a plan exists the field on your risk budget sheet stays blank. The question to carry forward: on this chart, at what price would an idea on each coin be wrong? Market structure and Fibonacci has you mark that for each coin on your list.
You should now be able to
- Say which of your two charts holds the plan and which gives context, and state their ratio.
- Tell a log chart from a linear one by the gaps between prices on the axis.
- Write each indicator setting with its source and the question it answers.
- Read volume on the contract you will trade, not spot and not a figure summed across exchanges.
- Cut an exported list down to the coins on your Markets line and check that each names the perpetual.
- Produce: your saved chart template and dated watchlist (pair, scale, indicators, symbols), recorded on one page using the table at the top of this page.