What it draws
Copies a selected span of historical bars and lets you paste that exact price shape anywhere on the chart, typically ahead of current price. It is used to visualize the 'history repeats' hypothesis by overlaying a past episode onto the present.
How to draw it
- Pick Bars Pattern from the left toolbar (Projection group).
- Two clicks bound the source range: click at the first bar and again at the last bar of the pattern you want to capture. The copied bar shape then anchors where placed and can be dragged, mirrored or flipped from its settings.
How traders use it
- Copy the bars from a previous base/breakout episode and lay them over the current base to compare structure bar by bar.
- Use the mirror/flip options to test the inverse scenario of a past move.
- Project a past consolidation's duration forward to estimate how long the current one might take to resolve.
- Scale and position the pattern so its start aligns with the analogous bar in the present structure.
Settings reference
Double-click the drawing (or use its floating toolbar → gear) to open settings:
| Setting | Control | Possible values | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Color | color | any color (theme color picker) | #05B878 | Tint color of the copied bar pattern. |
| Line Width | select | 1px | 2px | 3px | 4px | 2px | Stroke thickness of the drawing’s lines and outlines. |
| Line Style | select | Solid | Dashed | Dotted | Solid | Dash pattern used for the drawing’s lines. |
| Opacity % | slider | 5–100 | 35 | Opacity of the ghosted pattern bars overlaid on the chart. |
| [Tab] Text — Text | checkbox + textarea | on/off, with a multiline text box for the label content | off (on when the drawing already carries text) | Enables an attached text label on the drawing; typing in the box auto-enables it and updates the label live. |
| [Tab] Text — Text Color | color | any color | same as the drawing’s line color | Color of the attached text label. |
| [Tab] Text — Font Size | select | 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 48, 64, 72 | 14 | Point size of the attached label text. |
| [Tab] Text — Bold | checkbox | on/off (B toggle button) | off | Renders the label in bold. |
| [Tab] Text — Italic | checkbox | on/off (I toggle button) | off | Renders the label in italics. |
| [Tab] Text — Word Wrap | checkbox | on/off | off | Wraps long label text onto multiple lines instead of one long line. |
| [Tab] Text — Text alignment (vertical) | select | Top | Middle | Bottom | Top | Vertical placement of the label relative to the drawing. |
| [Tab] Text — Text alignment (horizontal) | select | Left | Center | Right | Center | Horizontal placement of the label relative to the drawing. |
| [Tab] Coordinates | number + datetime | one row per anchor point: price (number, step 0.05) and local date/time | the drawing’s current anchor values | Edits anchor geometry numerically — changing a point’s price or time moves the drawing live on the chart. |
| [Tab] Visibility | checkbox + number range | interval buckets: Ticks; Seconds 1–59; Minutes 1–59; Hours 1–24; Days 1–366; Weeks 1–52; Months 1–12; Ranges (each bucket has an on/off checkbox, most also a from–to range) | visible on all intervals | Per-timeframe visibility rules — untick a bucket to hide the drawing on those chart resolutions, or narrow the from–to range within a bucket. |
Editing & managing
- Move / adjust: drag the drawing or any anchor handle; magnet mode snaps points to OHLC values.
- Clone / lock / hide / delete from the floating toolbar or right-click menu.
- Templates: save the current style from the settings dialog and reapply it to new drawings.
- Every action is undoable (⌘Z / Ctrl+Z).
Watch out for
- Visual analogs are seductive but carry no statistical weight — two similar-looking histories can resolve in opposite directions.