Sometimes it can be useful to display a price axis on the left-hand side of the price chart. By default, this is not displayed.

Right-click the mouse anywhere around the middle of the price chart - not over the top of an axis.

>From the drop-down menu choose "Show Axis" (see the accompanying screen shot, and click on the diagram for a larger image). Select, or deselect, any of the options listed.

Note that the left price axis that is now displayed shows the same price values as on the right hand axis. This is to be expected when you are displaying only one stock. I find this useful on a larger screen where I am studying price action to the left of the chart. But when you display more than one stock (or index or currency), you can display a different scale of values on one axis compared to the other.

Note that one of the options here is to uncheck the Time Axis option, so that the time axis is not displayed. Now you might not be able to think of any reason why you might do this; but the option is there.

It is possible to display a number of "currency pairs" in BullCharts (17 at last count). Don't forget that when we talk about trading currencies, we are talking about a "currency pair". That is, one currency compared to another; eg. the Australian Dollar and US Dollar.

This question came up in last month's Melbourne User Group meeting, and we demonstrated how to do this.

To display this currency pair in BullCharts, make sure the "Security" toolbar is displayed. When it is not docked with other toolbars around the edge of the BullCharts window, it looks like as in the accompanying screen shot. If this is not displayed anywhere around your BullCharts window, then check on the menu option: View > Toolbars, and see whether the "Security" toolbar option is ticked.

While you are checking this, have a quick look at the many other toolbars that are available. It is easy to tick and untick any of these just to see what they are.

In the Security toolbar field, type in the characters: $.AUDUSD and hit the enter key. It might take a moment, because this data is not stored on your computer, so the BullCharts software needs to send a request over the internet to the web site to get the data, and bring it back to display it.

For a list of other currency pairs, see the BullCharts Help. You can hit the F1 key in BullCharts, then type currencies in the Search field (not the Index field). It should display a list of 17 currency pairs.

BTW - Notice that the "Security" toolbar field is actually a "drop-down" so that you can see a list of recently viewed securities. The number of securities that are displayed in this list can be adjusted - see the menu option: Tools > Preferences > General (tab) and the option "Number of recent symbols". I have mine set to 30.

There are situations where you might want to display two stocks on the one price chart.

For example, you might want to compare the price performance of two banks, and buy the bank that is currently the weaker of the two on the assumption that over the long term they will become similar. That is, you might want to buy the bank that has been under performing the other. (WARNING - This is not a guaranteed strategy, and is not recommended without thorough testing.)

This is a topic known as correlation and pairs trading, where you do some research to see how well two similar stocks perform when compared to each other over the very long term. If your research shows that two particular stocks do correlate each other over the long term, then you might take on the view that they are closely correlated. In which case you might then "pair trade" these two stocks. If you are interested in this topic you should study it some more before implementing such a strategy.

Now, let's say you have correlated two big mining stocks like BHP and RIO. The accompanying chart shows these two stocks over a few months from December 2008 to late March 2009.

To get a chart with two stocks, firstly display one price chart (eg. BHP). Then from the BullCharts menu use: Insert > Security (or hit Ctrl E on the keyboard). In the dialogue box to enter the second security, carefully note all of the following options:

• Parameters tab - the Symbol (ie. security or stock code which can be in index like the XJO, or a global index like "US.^DJA", or a currency pair). Also the Period - you can put a Weekly chart onto a Daily, for example.
• Style tab - Note the Plot type - you can have one plot as a Line and one as Candles. And you can change Line Thickness for a contrast between the two price charts.
• Location tab - By default, this second security will want to go into a New Pane. If you really want it overlaid on top of the first security, then you need to select that price pane here.
• Colour tab - You can change the "Colour Method" (fiddle with this if you are not sure what it does), and also the Colour of the Security. A different colour will help it stand out. In the sample chart shown, BHP is in black, and the second security (RIO) is shown in red.
• Scale tab - This is important if the two securities being charted have different price ranges, as with the BHP and RIO sample here. BullCharts always displays the price of your first security on the right-hand price axis. When inserting a second security, it is wise to select the option "Display new scale on left". But, do note the other options on this list, including "Spread...", and "Relative Strength Comparison".

• BHP is shown in black, and RIO in red.
• Left-hand price axis is RIO, and right-hand is BHP.
• In the title bar across the top of the chart, BHP is named first along with its C-O-H-L price details (as it was the first security I displayed, and RIO was "inserted" on the BHP price chart). The details in green "+0.930 +2.98%" are the price change since the previous bar in dollars and percentage. As it is a daily chart, these are the changes since yesterday's Close.
• Along the right of the title bar, RIO is named, and its C-O-H-L price details in the colour that matches its price chart (in red).
• Unfortunately, BullCharts cannot at this stage set the two price charts to be exactly on top of each other at a specific date. What it does do is simply fit the two charts as best as possible into the chart window - this is something that BullCharts is good at. So, be careful when looking at the actual price range of the two securities. You can see on this chart that BHP is ranged from about $27 to $33.50 (about $6.50) while Rio has ranged from about $32 up to about $52 (about $20). So just keep this in perspective. It would be good if both could be set to the same "range" with just an offset for one of them.