To enter a spread in a Chart Window, enter the first symbol and follow it with a space; next enter an operator: (-) for subtraction, (+) for addition, (*) for multiplication and (/) for division; then another space and, finally, the second symbol.
Here are a couple of examples of this:
ES #F - SP #F
IDC * IBM
11 * INTC / 5 * DELL (11 times INTC divide 5 times DELL)
You also should keep in mind that when you start typing in an Chart Window with a number, it reacts as if you're entering an interval. If the beginning of the symbol you want to use is a number, you need to type any letter and then backspace off the letter, and then enter the symbol.
Do Spreads work on Quote Sheets?
Spreads are currently not compatible with our Quote Sheets.
Are Spreads available for Tick Charts?
In the Chart Window, spreads are currently not compatible with our tick based interval.
Daily vs. Intraday Spreads
For Daily bars, only the OHLC (Open, High, Low, Close) of the bars for each piece of the spread is available. Consequently, the High and Low values for spreads cannot be properly represented as they likely occurred at completely different times of the day. The Opens, Highs, Lows, and Closes are all compared based on the math of the spread, and then the bar is formed as follows:
Open - The results of the math on the opens of each symbol
High - The highest value of all 4 comparisons of each symbol
Low - The lowest value of all 4 comparisons of each symbol
Close - The results of the math on the closes of each symbol
For intraday intervals, we actually pull down 1 minute bars for each of the symbols in a spread and do the same calculations as above, but on each 1 minute bar. The bar results are then compiled into the actual bars of the interval selected by the user.