Preferences window

Main chart tab - defines appearance of the main price chart

• fat line chart switch (if checked price chart is drawn bold)
• mark quotations - if checked each quote on line chart is marked with small dot
• logarithmic scale on/off switch
• default style (AUTO- uses candlesticks when continuous quotations are ON (see Information window), or always Line, Candles or Bars)
• Color up/down bars (for traditional bars and candlestick, to define colors use "Color" tab)
• turn on/off short time moving average overlay chart
• turn on/off mid time moving average overlay chart
• turn on/off long time moving average overlay chart
• turn on/off Bollinger bands overlay (Ranges of moving averages and width of Bollinger bands are also definable).
• the type of turnover/volume chart overlay (to switch OFF volume overlay select : Volume bar chart type to "NONE" )

Indicators tab - defines parameters for built-in indicators

• ROC range
• RSI range
• MACD fast and slow average range, signal average range
• Stochastic Slow range
• Ultimate - fast, medium and slow average range
• TRIX averaging range
• CCI range
• Turnover value/volume switch
• Turnover moving average range
• Relative Strength comparison base (reference symbol)

Other indicators - defines parameters for other built-in indicators

• ADX, +DI, -DI range
• Parabolic Stop-And-Reverse: acceleration step and maximum acceleration
• TRIN : fast and slow average for TRIN averages

Charting tab - allows you to modify charting options

• Default number of quotations in a chart - this sets the amount of bars initially displayed in the chart. (in other words it defines "normal" zoom range)
• Blank bars in right margin - defines how many blank bars are added in the right margin (past the last available quote). This blank margin allows you to project studies (trend lines for example) into the future
• Quote selection only by CTRL+LMB - this decides how vertical selection line is invoked. When this box is unchecked - single click on the chart causes display of the selection line, when this box is checked you have to hold down CTRL key while clicking to get the selection line
• Show vertical line between days (intraday)/years(EOD) - this decides if dotted vertical line is displayed on the chart to mark day (in intraday mode) or year (in EOD mode) boundaries
• Use optimized drawing for built-in charts - this turns on faster algorithm for built-in charts. Recommended especially when you work with data that have more than 10000 bars. (see also comments for QuickAFL below).
• Enable QuickAFL(tm) for indicators - this turns on QuickAFL(tm) feature that causes faster charts redraws. QuickAFL works so it calculates only part of the array that is currently visible. If you use this feature and your formulas are script based you should add SetBarsRequired function to your code. Recommended especially when you work with data that have more than 10000 bars. Note: for certain indicators requiring recursive calculation, enabling this feature may lead to small (less than 0.05%) differences in values of indicators (not visible for the eye), due to the fact that not all bars available are included in the calculation.
• Show value labels - this decides if value lables for indicator / price chart lines should be displayed. See basic charting guide for explanation what value label is.
  
• Candlesticks - this setting provides detailed control over the appearance of candlesticks. The distinct color may be used to draw part of the candlestick or entire candle may be drawn in the same color as its interior.
  
• Drawing
  • Return to select mode after drawing - when checked current tool is deactivated after drawing and select mode is entered, when unchecked currently selected drawing tool remains active after drawing (allows to plot one study after another, note that the same effect can be achieved even if this box is checked - it is enough to hold down SHIFT key while drawing and the tool will remain active)
  • Auto-select last drawn object - this useful feature automatically selects recently drawn object. This allows to hit ALT+ENTER to display properties box immediately without need to click on the study, and allows to Copy the study via CTRL+C also without additional click
  • Snap to price % threshold - defines how far price 'magnet' works, it will snap to price when the mouse is nearer than % threshold from H/L/C price
• Miscellaneous
  • Max number of custom indicators - defines how many indicators can be added via Add button in Indicator Builder. This should be set to 1000 or more.

Color tab - allows to define colors for particular chart element.

The controls provide user definable color selection for charts, grid & background.

Palette editor - allows to modify custom colors that can be referenced later via colorCustom0..colorCustom15 constants

Editor tab - controls the appearance and features of AFL editor.

• Use syntax highlighting - when checked editor automatically colorizes your code (different colors/styles for functions, constants, numbers, etc)
• Word wrap - when checked editor wraps the lines if they exceed the width of the editor window
• Auto-change case - when checked the function and reserved variable names are automatically capitalised so if you type bARSSince, editor will change it to BarsSince
• Auto-complete - when checked you will be able to use auto-completion feature (CTRL+SPACE will auto-complete the word)
• Parameter info - when checked the editor will display parameter information tooltip when you type a function name and opening brace
• Font settings - allows you to define AFL editor font face and size
• Colors and styles - allows you to define what colors and styles will be used to mark certain language elements when syntax highlighting is ON.

Data tab - allows you to define default, global values for all databases.

IMPORTANT: some of these settings may get overwritten by PER-DATABASE settings in File->Database Settings window. See explanation in Tutorial: Understanding database concepts.

• Data source: defines default data souce (for databases that do not specify other source in File->Database Settings)
• Local data storage: default setting for external databases (this setting gets overwritten by File->Database Settings). If "Enabled" then external data are cached in local files. If "Disabled" then local files do not store external data.
• In-memory cache (symbols) - defines how many symbols data should be kept in RAM (for very fast access)
• Number of bars to load - default setting for external databases (this setting gets overwritten by File->Database Settings). Defines how many bars should be loaded from external data souce and kept in AmiBroker. Examples: 10-years EOD: 2600, 60-days intraday 1-minute: 30000 (approx)
• Limit number of saved quotations - if this option is ON AmiBroker will save database with limited number of quotations. This prevents the database from growing too much
• Max. number of saved quotations - this is the limit itself. Preferable 300 or higher for EOD databases, 3000 or higher for intraday
• Default database path - this defines the path to the database that is loaded on startup. If such database does not exist it will be re-created at startup time.

Intraday tab - provides settings for intraday charting

• Custom time intervals - allow to define your own N-minute or N-hours intervals (available later from View->Intraday menu)
• Custom N-tick chart settings - allow to define your own N-tick charts (available later from View->Intraday menu)
• Align custom minute bars to regular market hours - when checked AmiBroker will trim pre-market custom interval bar so new bar will begin exactly when trading hours start. Trading hours can be set per-database in File->Database Settings->Intraday settings. Let's say that we have 45-minute bars. Without this setting we would bet bars starting at 9:00, 9:45, 10:30, 11:15 etc. When this is turned on and trading starts at 9:30 we have guarantee that bars will be aligned to 9:30: 8:45, 9:30, 10:15, 11:00
• Time compressed bars show bar's end date/time - decides if we want bar end time displayed or bar start time displayed. Lets say that 30 minute bar covers 9:00:00..9:29:59. When it is unchecked AmiBroker will display time of this bar as 9:00, when checked it will display 9:29
• Realtime chart refresh interval - defines interval between automatic chart refreshes in real-time mode. By default charts are refreshed every 3 seconds but in very volatile market you may prefer to set it to 1, so charts are refreshed every second in real-time mode.

• Price data tooltips
  if checked small tooltips will appear when you hover over the chart displaying selected bar date, prices / indicator values
• Show interpretation in tooltip
  if checked data tooltips will include also interpretation text that is normally displayed in the Interpretation window.
• Data tip auto-hide timeout
  defines how many seconds data tooltip should remain on the screen if you don't move your mouse.
• Add full name to ticker in the ticker box
  when checked the ticker box displays not only symbol but also full name of the issue
• Add full name to ticker in the tree
  when checked the workspace tree displays not only symbol but also full name of the issue
• Thousand separator
  defines thousand separator for number displayed on charts and all list-views.
• Decimal places in RT quote window
  defines how many decimal places should be displayed in Real Time quote window.
• Axis font
  defines font face and size to be used for chart axis and text tool
• No minimum size for resizing dialogs
  when checked it allows to size dialogs below the minimum size (so some controls become invisible)
• Display plugin activity
  when checked AmiBroker displays information about accessing data plugin in the status bar
• Case sensitive ticker symbols
  when checked ticker symbols are case sensitive. In other words INTC and Intc and iNTc are considered DIFFERENT. This is required for some Canadian symbols for example. Please use with caution. If your exchange do not use case-sensitive tickers please make sure it is UNCHECKED.
• Auto-arrange charts
  if this option is on chart windows are scaled and arranged to fit the screen after every opening/closing chart window.
• Auto-tile multiple chart windows
  when checked multiple chart windows are always tiled vertically on every resize of the main application window.
• Ask to save changed data
  when checked AmiBroker asks if you want to save modified data on exit. When unchecked AmiBroker saves modified data without asking.
• Save on exit: Preferences, Templates, Layouts
  controls which settings should be saved automatically on exit

Alerts tab - It allows to define e-mail account settings, test sound output and define which parts of AmiBroker can generate alerts via AlertIF function.

E-mail settings page now allows to choose among most popular authorization schemes like: AUTH LOGIN (most popular), POP3-before-SMPT (popular), CRAM-MD5, LOGIN PLAIN.

Enable alerts from checkboxes allow you to selectively enable/disable alerts generated by Automatic analysis, Commentary/Interpretation and custom indicators.

Keyboard tab

Allows you to define and/or modify keyboard shortcuts for menu items / commands.

To assign a shortcut key

On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the Keyboard tab.

In the Categories list, select the menu that contains the command to which you want to assign the shortcut key.

In the Commands list, select the command to which you want to assign the shortcut key.

Put the cursor in the Press New Shortcut Key box, press the shortcut key or key combination that you want, and click Assign.
If you press a key or key combination that is invalid, no key is displayed. You cannot assign key combinations with ESC, F1, or combinations such as CTRL+ALT+DEL that are already being used by your operating system.

If you press a key or key combination that is currently assigned to another command, that command appears under Currently Assigned To.

To delete a shortcut key

On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the Keyboard tab.

On the Categories, and Commands lists, select the location for the shortcut key you want to delete.

In the Current Keys list, select the shortcut key you want to delete and click Remove.

To reset all shortcut keys to their default values

On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the Keyboard tab.

Click Reset All.