Channel Drawing Tool - Needed Improvements
NinjaTrader Dev Team:
As a price action trader, I use drawing objects all the time. While most of the drawing objects are sufficient for the task, the Trend Channel drawing object is in need some love - it needs to be easier to work with. When applying it to a chart, you are provided 6 points when the object is selected with which the trend can be managed/manipulated. Unfortunately, the points all look the same - they are small white circles. The user has no visual cue as to how they function. Will it make the drawing pivot? Will it draw the entire drawing? Will it expand the width of the channel? Will it draw out the length longer or shorter?
The visual cue you do provide is only visible when you hover the mouse over any one of the six points provided, of which 3 trigger double-arrow mouse cursor views and 3 which trigger quad-arrow mouse views - none of those 'mouse hovering' events provide a significantly clear indication of the dragging function available.
Let's consider each point and I'll address them like this from top left to right and then from bottom left to right.
================================================== ==
CURRENT ADJUSTMENT CONTROLS ON TREND CHANNEL
TOP LEFT: (hovering mouse displays a forward-slash set of arrows)
- performs as expected
TOP MIDDLE: (hovering mouse displays a quad-set of arrows pointing North, South, East West).
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
TOP RIGHT: (hovering mouse displays a back-slash set of arrows)
- lengthens or shortens the entire drawing
- can skew the entire drawing up or down (vertically) from a horizontal level
BOTTOM LEFT: (hovering mouse displays a back-slash set of arrows)
- moves the entire bottom of the channel (without moving the top) and maintaining it's horizontal position LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN.
- enables you to widen or narrow the channel
BOTTOM MIDDLE: (hovering mouse displays a quad-set of arrows pointing North, South, East West).
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
BOTTOM RIGHT:
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
OK.. TEAM... Seriously, you've got 3 points that do the EXACT SAME THING - drags the object around?
That's just terrible and makes the drawing hard to work with. I'm struggling to line up the trend channel with
bars and left with the remaining 3 points do accomplish this? You can do better than this! :-)
Here's the functionality that I recommend...
================================================== ====
RECOMMENDED ADJUSTMENT CONTROLS ON TREND CHANNEL
a) modify the trend channel to have 9 points of control rather than 6 points of control as you would with a vector editor
b) modify the adjustment controls as follows
TOP LEFT:
- No change. The functionality provided works well.
TOP CENTER:
- widen or narrow the channel from a vertical perspective, leaving the bottom of the channel intact.
TOP RIGHT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT.
MIDDLE LEFT:
- Lengthens or shortens the channel horizontally without adjusting the vertical width of the channel
MIDDLE CENTER:
- drags the entire object up, down, left, right without changing length or width
MIDDLE RIGHT:
- Lengthens or shortens the channel horizontally without adjusting the vertical width of the channel
BOTTOM LEFT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT
BOTTOM CENTER:
- widen or narrow the channel from a vertical perspective, leaving the top of the channel intact.
BOTTOM RIGHT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT
The NT Development team may have had good reason to control the drawing as they have since we're dealing with a bar chart and want to simplify for users, but IMO, it's not sufficiently flexible and could be vastly improved with additional control points as well as expanding or modifying the functionality of the points as I've listed above.
Bonus: Moving the mouse 'close to' a corned-based control point but not on the corner-based control point could offer a mouse-icon that enables user to rotate the object, too.
Thank you for your attention to this. I'm certain that there's improvements that can be done and a happy medium established.
Thank you,
Gregory Wexler
As a price action trader, I use drawing objects all the time. While most of the drawing objects are sufficient for the task, the Trend Channel drawing object is in need some love - it needs to be easier to work with. When applying it to a chart, you are provided 6 points when the object is selected with which the trend can be managed/manipulated. Unfortunately, the points all look the same - they are small white circles. The user has no visual cue as to how they function. Will it make the drawing pivot? Will it draw the entire drawing? Will it expand the width of the channel? Will it draw out the length longer or shorter?
The visual cue you do provide is only visible when you hover the mouse over any one of the six points provided, of which 3 trigger double-arrow mouse cursor views and 3 which trigger quad-arrow mouse views - none of those 'mouse hovering' events provide a significantly clear indication of the dragging function available.
Let's consider each point and I'll address them like this from top left to right and then from bottom left to right.
================================================== ==
CURRENT ADJUSTMENT CONTROLS ON TREND CHANNEL
TOP LEFT: (hovering mouse displays a forward-slash set of arrows)
- performs as expected
TOP MIDDLE: (hovering mouse displays a quad-set of arrows pointing North, South, East West).
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
TOP RIGHT: (hovering mouse displays a back-slash set of arrows)
- lengthens or shortens the entire drawing
- can skew the entire drawing up or down (vertically) from a horizontal level
BOTTOM LEFT: (hovering mouse displays a back-slash set of arrows)
- moves the entire bottom of the channel (without moving the top) and maintaining it's horizontal position LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN.
- enables you to widen or narrow the channel
BOTTOM MIDDLE: (hovering mouse displays a quad-set of arrows pointing North, South, East West).
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
BOTTOM RIGHT:
- drags the entire drawn object around without changing the channels length or width
OK.. TEAM... Seriously, you've got 3 points that do the EXACT SAME THING - drags the object around?
That's just terrible and makes the drawing hard to work with. I'm struggling to line up the trend channel with
bars and left with the remaining 3 points do accomplish this? You can do better than this! :-)
Here's the functionality that I recommend...
================================================== ====
RECOMMENDED ADJUSTMENT CONTROLS ON TREND CHANNEL
a) modify the trend channel to have 9 points of control rather than 6 points of control as you would with a vector editor
b) modify the adjustment controls as follows
TOP LEFT:
- No change. The functionality provided works well.
TOP CENTER:
- widen or narrow the channel from a vertical perspective, leaving the bottom of the channel intact.
TOP RIGHT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT.
MIDDLE LEFT:
- Lengthens or shortens the channel horizontally without adjusting the vertical width of the channel
MIDDLE CENTER:
- drags the entire object up, down, left, right without changing length or width
MIDDLE RIGHT:
- Lengthens or shortens the channel horizontally without adjusting the vertical width of the channel
BOTTOM LEFT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT
BOTTOM CENTER:
- widen or narrow the channel from a vertical perspective, leaving the top of the channel intact.
BOTTOM RIGHT:
- Follow the same implementation as you have with the TOP LEFT
The NT Development team may have had good reason to control the drawing as they have since we're dealing with a bar chart and want to simplify for users, but IMO, it's not sufficiently flexible and could be vastly improved with additional control points as well as expanding or modifying the functionality of the points as I've listed above.
Bonus: Moving the mouse 'close to' a corned-based control point but not on the corner-based control point could offer a mouse-icon that enables user to rotate the object, too.
Thank you for your attention to this. I'm certain that there's improvements that can be done and a happy medium established.
Thank you,
Gregory Wexler
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