Your first chart
Only complete closed bars are used. Load the symbol again to refresh. An ongoing Friday is not yet a completed daily bar; it enters history after complete data is published. Cryptocurrencies have their own daily sessions, including weekends.
The platform calculates the loaded, completed history of the selected instrument. Daily, weekly and monthly bars are available. This is a workspace for studying history: readings update when data is loaded. A calculation needs enough history; otherwise part of its line appears later or its field remains empty.
- Choose a symbol: For example, MSFT. Preserve exchange suffixes in the exact ticker; availability and history depth depend on the provider.
- Select interval and history: Day, Week or Month defines one bar. Select a history length and press Load.
- Keep one understandable study: Begin with Clean bar chart and then enable one indicator. Add extra annotations gradually.
What SW Phase Count shows
SW Phase Count checks completed bars in sequence and marks completed stages of a move. An observation such as “price has been rising for a while” gains a specific reference: which comparisons have qualified and which are still developing. It helps identify a part of the chart that deserves closer attention.
Labels for an upward sequence appear above price; those for a downward sequence appear below it. Their position identifies the sequence being studied. It does not, on its own, tell you to open an immediate trade in the opposite direction.
A practical reading sequence
Start with the interval and price direction. Locate the most recent completed sequence and see how many bars have elapsed since it. Compare subsequent prices with nearby previous highs and lows. If the price risk reference is enabled, assess price against that reference under the selected preset.
Keep the calculated label separate from your own decision. SW Phase Count does not choose your acceptable loss, position size or execution time. The platform supports independent study of a loaded snapshot of completed bars.
Practice: check your understanding on one chart
Keep the daily timeframe and record the latest loaded date. Find a 9 or 13 on an earlier closed bar. Reload the same timeframe and distinguish an updated available history from a changed calculation profile.
What the completed observation should contain
Daily timeframe, latest available date and mark date are three separate observations.
Primary sources
Sources explain the mechanics and limitations; the editorial examples use invented numbers rather than market quotations.
Your next practical step
Open the linked help page, repeat the steps on one instrument, and record the symbol, timeframe, profile and observation date so that the result can be checked again.
Open the first-chart instructions ↗