Inserting Line Studies Tools on the MetaTrader 4 Platform

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

Line Studies in MT4

The button key can be used to insert the following on XAUUSD Trading charts:

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

A trader may need to draw any of these line studies on XAUUSD 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 XAUUSD Trading chart when a trader wants to mark a particular point in a chart, maybe to mark the time they bought a xauusd instrument or sold a xauusd. To insert this vertical line on a XAUUSD Trading chart, one will open the insert menu, as shown above, then click on the 'Vertical Line' option - to select this, the cursor will also change to show vertical line icon and then select the point on the chart where you want to draw this line.

Insert a Vertical To a Gold Chart in MetaTrader 4

Horizontal Line

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

Drawing a Horizontal Line in MT4

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

Trend Line

This is one of the most commonly used technical analysis tool in xauusd trading. To draw this trend line a trader can access this button key from the insert menu. An upwards trend-line in MT4 is shown below.

Trend Line Drawn in MetaTrader 4

To draw a trend line a trader has to have two points & join these points with the trend line and then extend it as displayed above.

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

Trend Line by Angle

The next option is to draw a trend by angle, this one looks exactly like the ordinary 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 example let use "Trend Line" study, if you want to edit its properties then you can select it by double-clicking on it, then right click on the it & 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 "Trend Line Properties", the following pop up window will appear.

From this menu one can rename the trendline, 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, & then select okay.

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

Parameters

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

Visualization

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

Customizing Tools MetaTrader 4 Studies