Forex Pages: Support and DocumentationFind help and documentation on each page within the Forex tab using the index below. This documentation explains how each page is set up, with tips on how to best use the information.
The Forex Trading Signals is a complete guide of Barchart Opinions for Forex contracts for the Time Frame chosen at the top of the page. The Summary Page links to a detailed page for each Indicator's Buy/Sell/Hold rating.
 The first category on the Summary page—the Overall Opinion—lists the Forex contracts that are at a 100% buy or a 100% sell configuration. The second category—Today's New Indicators—contains the listing of Forex contracts whose indicators have changed to a new buy, sell or hold signal for the time period selected at the top of the Summary page. Each of these lists have a subset of Forex contracts, which can be accessed by clicking on the links in each box.  Time Frame Current | Daily
Indicator Pages When you click the link to view stocks for a specific indicator (the new Buys, Holds, or Sells), you are presented with an Indicator page showing all the ticker symbols in that group. Note: The Indicator page shows each contract's Overall Opinion – the combination of all 13 technical indicators – as well as its combined Short, Medium and Long-Term Opinion for the time period selected on the Summary page. In the example below, you are viewing the forex contracts that have Current New Hold Signals for TrendSpotter. The Opinions shown are NOT just the opinions for TrendSpotter, but rather the overall percentages for all 13 indicators.
Clicking on the $ icon in the Links column will show the performance summary of this trading strategy over the past 5-years:
Views The detailed Indicator pages contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, Cheat Sheet, and Performance pages.
The Main View is initially sorted by Symbol. You can re-sort the page by clicking on any of the column headings: To be included in the Trading Signals page, a Forex Contract must have at least 6-months of history in order to calculate an Opinion and a last month's Opinion.
Hot Forex is a listing of the most volatile forex contracts, ranked by Standard Deviation and compared to their past 20-periods of data (depending on the Time Frame chosen at the top of the page). Hot Forex is initially displayed using the Chart View, which graphs Bullish Movers as green bars (highest
Standard Deviation), followed by Bearish Movers as red bars (lowest Standard Deviation) and shows the top 15 and bottom 15 forex crossrates.
Hint: Use the Main View to see the top 10 specific forex contracts that appear on the Chart View, along with their Weighted Alpha. The Hot Forex page is re-ranked every 10 minutes. During active trading, you will see the latest price data (Last, Change, High, Low) when on the Main, Technical, and Performance Views. Please note that each View may sort the contracts differently resulting in a different ordering of the contracts as presented on the Chart View, and that prices are not automatically updated at 10-second intervals as are other pages on the site. Views The Hot Forex page contain four standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view (other than the Chart View) contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet pages.
Time Frames Current | DailyThere are two time-frames to choose from:
Standard Deviation Price movement on the Hot Forex page is defined in terms of the number standard deviations a contract has moved in the latest trading session. Defining price movement in terms of standard deviations is preferable to using percentage change because using standard deviations puts all the forex contracts on a level playing field. There are categories of forex contracts that are typically more volatile and have larger percentage price changes than other contracts. If we used percentage change to define price movement, then high-volatility forex contracts would always dominate the Hot Forex list and we would miss lower-volatility forex contracts that might have an unusually large movement on a particular day. In order to calculate the number of standard deviations that a contract moves in the latest session, we use the following formula:
In this formula we are simply comparing the latest price change to the standard deviation of the price returns over the last 20 sessions. We are using the "price return" for the daily change because this is how historical volatility is calculated. A "price return" is simply the natural log of the latest close divided by the previous close. Historical volatility is the measure that we use for the comparison in the denominator of our equation because historical volatility is simply defined as the standard deviation of the price returns, factored up to an annualized number. Since historical volatility is typically expressed as an annualized number, we need to reduce it to a daily figure for our daily Hot Forex calculation by dividing it by the square root of 252 (i.e., the approximate number of trading days in a year). Let's look at an example. US Dollar/Chinese Yuan (symbol: ^USDCNY) on the close of Tuesday, August 10, 2010 had the following input figures: 8/10/2010 close was $6.7630, 8/9/2010 close was $6.7583, and the 20-day historical volatility on 8/10/2010 was .53%. Let's calculate how many standard deviations ^USDKRW moved on 8/10/2010:
This indicates that the US Dollar/Chinese Yuan on August 10, 2010 moved by 2.09 standard deviations, which is an unusually large move. According to the normal distribution curve, we would expect a move of more than two standard deviations less than 5% of the time, indicating how unusually large US Dollar/Chinese Yuan’s price change was on August 10. Interpretation
The Forex Market Heat Map provide a quick visual view of how the 30 major forex market rates are performing for the day based on their Percent Change. The Heat Map allows you to scan the cross rates quickly, and click on a cross rate to drill down further.
US Dollar Heat Maps are also available on the Forex Market Pulse page, and every other Major Cross Rates page. The Forex Market Heat Map is updated every 10 minutes throughout the trading day. Forex prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST.
Forex Momentum is a listing of the strongest Forex contracts, ranked by Weighted Alpha over the past 1 year. Forex Momentum is initially displayed using the Chart View, which graphs Bullish Momentum as green bars (highest
Weighted Alpha), followed by Bearish Momentum as red bars (lowest Weighted Alpha) and shows the top/bottom 30 crossrates.
Hint: Use the Main View to see the top and bottom ten specific forex contracts that appear on the Chart View, along with their Weighted Alpha.  The Forex Momentum page is re-ranked every 10 minutes. During active trading, you will see the latest price data (Last, Change, High, Low) when on the Main, Technical, and Performance Views. Please note that each View may sort the contracts differently resulting in a different ordering of the contracts as presented on the Chart View, and that prices are not automatically updated at 10-second intervals as are other pages on the site. Views The Forex Momentum page contain four standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the symbols listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view (other than the Chart View) contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet pages.
Weighted Alpha Barchart's "Weighted Alpha" indicator allows traders to quickly spot commodities that have shown a strong rally over the past 1 year and which may continue to rally. Alpha is a measure of how much a contract has risen or fallen over a 1-year period. Barchart.com takes this Alpha (i.e., the measure of how much a contract has changed in the 1-year period) and weights this, assigning more weight to recent activity, and less (0.5 factor) to activity at the beginning of the period. Thus the weighted alpha is a measure of 1-year growth with an emphasis on the most recent price activity. A Forex contract whose price has risen over the 1-year period will have a positive Weighted Alpha. A Forex contract whose price has not changed in the period will have a small Weighted Alpha and a Forex contract whose price has dropped over the period will have a negative Weighted Alpha. The Weighted Alpha is limited in the amount it may change from one day to the next, thus eliminating large price jumps from the calculation.
The Forex Highs / Lows pages show the 5-Day, 1-Month, 3-Month, 6-Month, 12-Month, or Year-to-Date Percent Change from the same period's High or Low price for major forex crossrates, or for the forex market selected at the top of the page (Australian, British, Canadian, Euro FX, Japanese, Swiss, or US Dollar).
On the Main View, when you hover over one of the High or Low price or percent fields, you will see the date on which the new price or percent was made.  If the contract reaches a new High or Low price for the given period during the current trading session, the price and its corresponding percent is Bolded on the page as shown here:  The page initially shows a list of all major crossrates. Using the category links at the top of the page, you can select from specific currency groups (Australian, British, Canadian, Euro FX, Japanese, Swiss, or US Dollar). The page allows you to re-sort the data displayed by clicking on any of the column headings: 
The Forex Highs / Lows page is updated every 10 minutes throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) However, highs and lows for the given periods (and their corresponding percents) are not updated on the page until the site performs its 10-minute update. The page contains three standard views, and FlipCharts are available for the contracts listed on the page. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet.
The Forex Major Rates page gives you a snapshot of the forex market's major rates. The major cross rates are shown at the top of the page. Hover over the table to get a sense of a currency's cross rates. Click on any cell to go directly to that cross rate's quote page.
The Major Forex Rates page is updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Forex prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST. The Major Cross Rates page presents prices in three standard Views. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet for every forex symbol listed.
Note: Trading hours for a Forex trading day are 16:00 - 15:59 Central Standard Time (CST).
Barchart.com provides forex quotes for the seven major rates: Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Swiss Franc, British Pound, Euro, US Dollar, and Japanese Yen.
The Forex Market pages are updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Forex prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST. Individual pages for the major rates show a Heat Map at the top (prices quoted against the US Dollar) with the latest prices shown below. Each cross-rate page presents prices in three standard Views. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet for every forex symbol listed.
Note: Trading hours for a Forex trading day are 16:00 - 15:59 Central Standard Time (CST).
The All Forex Rates page provides a link to view forex cross rates for every currency that Barchart.com carries. Simply click on the link of the currency that you wish to view, and you'll be directed to a page that contains all cross-rates for that currency.
The Forex Rates pages are updated every 10 seconds throughout the trading day. You will see new price data appear on the page every 10 seconds for the first minute you visit the page, as indicated by a yellow "flash". (Prices are updated every 1 minute thereafter.) Forex prices are delayed 10 minutes, per exchange rules, and trade times are listed in CST. Individual pages for the forex rates with three standard Views. My Barchart members also have the option to display the data using any Custom View you've created, and the data can be downloaded to Excel. Each view contains links to the Detailed Quote, Chart, Opinions, and Cheat Sheet for every forex symbol listed.
Note: Trading hours for a Forex trading day are 16:00 - 15:59 Central Standard Time (CST).
The US Dollar Forex Heat Map provides a quick visual view of how the six major rates are performing on the day, as compared to the US Dollar. The Forex Heat Map allows you to scan the markets quickly, compare rates against the USD, and click on a cross rate to drill down further.
US Dollar Heat Maps are available on the Forex Market Pulse page, and every other Major Cross Rates page. A full Heat Map containing the 30 major market rates is also available in the Forex Market Pulse section.
US Dollar Forex Heat Maps are updated every 10 minutes throughout the trading day. Note: Trading hours for a Forex trading day are 16:00 - 15:59 Central Standard Time (CST).
The Currency Converter allows you to convert an amount from one currency to another.
Simply enter the amount, and select the "from" and "to" currency.
News and Commentary on the Forex Markets is provided by a number of sources:
The Advanced Forex Screener allows you to search through Forex commodity contracts using unlimited filters that you apply. When you first load the page, all Forex symbols are shown. Other screener options include:
As you select a filter to apply to the list, the number of forex contracts that match your criteria are displayed on the screen. You can continue to apply as many filters as necessary until you achieve the desired results. Available filters include:
To drill-down in any of the screener programs, you will apply a Filter. Filters may change depending on the Instrument Type of the screener (U.S. Equities, Sectors, ETFs, Forex, etc.).
IMPORTANT! Always click the "Show Results" button to view the symbols found by the screener with the filters you've chosen. As you add filters to the screener and click the Show Results" button, a list is formed at the bottom of the screen with your results. For most filters, a column will also be added to the list to show the applicable data. You may remove the symbol Name or Last Price by unchecking the boxes at the top of the screener.
To remove a filter from a screener, click the To Save the screener, click the "Save as New" link just above the "Show Results" button. You will be asked to give the screener a name.
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Go to the 
to the left of the screener, or click the "Clear All Filters" link to remove all the filters and start again.