I have a bunch of enhancement requests for the charts. I entered some of them in the TWS Feature Poll.
My main requirements for charts is easy to use UI, fast charts, and good data. I don't use complex indicators.
I currently don't use the IB charts because they are just pitiful compared to QCharts, Esignal, or just about any other charting package.
I would like to see IB improve in this area. I'd like to dump QCharts (owned by esignal now) and avoid the $140/month I'm paying for them. QCharts itself is a stagnant software which hasn't had any major changes in years now, but it still beats the pants of IB's charts.
I summarized some of my requests here:
http://fleance.fastmail.fm/tws_feedback.html
#1095 Charts: Need To cache data To improve responsiveness
==> This is absolutely required inorder to get the response time reasonable. In addition, IB's data server needs to have improved response time and maybe allow more requests based on commissions like they did for # of active quote rows.
#1097 Charts: Charts should maintain a constant spacing and candlestick width.
==> This is absolutely required in my mind. I hate it when the width of the candle wicks changed because I changed the pixel width of the chart or the time range, even though each bar still represents the same unit in time, e.g. min. The charts look ugly to boot when they try to dynamically size the wick width. (See examples).
#1098 Charts: Toggles need to be preserved with settings.
#1099 Charts: Cursor focus lost on contract page when chart is refreshed.
There are also many cosmetic improvements that could be done, e.g.
provide an outline to the candle wicks like most other charting packages have.
I prefer black on white (or light grey) charts rather the white on black that IB uses. It would be nice if IB allowed you to save / load the Chart colors and provide a default for black on white along with the standard white on black.
The Chart toolbar should be organized into smaller clusters of functionally like general toolbar, config toolbar, drawing toolbar, window toolbar, etc. So it makes it easier to hide groups of buttons when you don't need them.
IB had done a good job with the HotKeys, and you can configure them on the ChartTrader window attached to the chart. But, I would also like to add Mouse Shortcuts for clicking on the chart itself, e.g. control-left-click to close position or double-click to open chart properties. Or Key shortcuts like left-arrow to scroll time period left and right-arrow to scroll time period right., an and CTRL+right-arrow to scroll to present.
Also, it would be nice to click-and-drag on the chart to scroll it in time. Currently, you have to click the "Shift Time Period" button to do this, and it feels kind of clunky.
The chart currently is an a CrossHair mode, and when you click the mouse, this TimeSales Popup window appears which is very annoying because it doesn't close automatically. If you want a popup, it should be in an internal frame on the chart not a separate window.
Is that enough for you?
