Chart Annotation Skill
When to use
You want to call out a technical level, a pattern, or an event on a stock's price chart. Drawing directly on the chart is almost always clearer than describing it in prose. Reach for this skill whenever you would otherwise say "look at the level around 205" or "notice the downtrend from October to December".
MarketView is the app's live, trading-chart style price chart page (pan, zoom, switch timeframes). You do not need the user to be on it to annotate. If they are, the drawing appears on their live chart immediately. If they are in any other chat, the same drawing renders as a clickable preview card that expands into MarketView — so annotate freely whenever it helps, then mention the user can click it to open the full chart.
This skill provides two tools:
draw_chart_annotation— add a single annotation to a chart.manage_chart_annotations— list, remove, or clear annotations.
Interactive chart vs. a Python chart (deliverable)
There are two ways to show price information visually — pick by what the user needs:
- This skill (interactive). Annotations land on the live, pannable MarketView chart (or a preview card that opens it). Best when the user just wants to see and explore a level, pattern, or event themselves — quick, in-the-moment, nothing to hand off.
- A Python chart (deliverable). A static image you render with code and embed in a report or document. Best when the output is a deliverable the user keeps, shares, or exports — a research note, PDF, or deck.
The two aren't exclusive: draw on the live chart for a quick look, render a Python chart when it belongs in a written artifact, or do both.
Charts are identified by SYMBOL:timeframe
Every annotation belongs to a chart identified by its ticker + timeframe
(e.g. NVDA:1day) — that pair is the chart's id:
- Pass the same
symbol+timeframeagain to add to / edit that same chart (annotations accumulate on it). - Use a different ticker or timeframe to start a separate chart — so
you can draw several charts in one turn (e.g.
AAPL:1dayandAAPL:1hour, orAAPL:1dayandMSFT:1day), each rendered as its own preview.
Always pass the ticker the user is discussing. timeframe defaults to
1day; set it to match the interval the user is viewing (one of 1min,
5min, 15min, 30min, 1hour, 4hour, 1day). Annotations are scoped to
that one chart instance — a line drawn on NVDA:1day does not appear on
NVDA:1hour.
Time format (any annotation with a time field). Pass ISO 8601 datetimes
(e.g. 2024-11-14T00:00:00Z) aligned to a bar on the chart — for daily bars,
midnight UTC of that day is safest. A time that doesn't land on a bar still
renders but may look offset. Applies to trendline, marker, vertical_line,
text, event, and fib_retracement.
Reacting to a user's chart selection
A <chart-selection> block in the user's turn means they selected something on
the chart and sent it to you. Its selection_type is one of:
region— a time×price box. Bounds come as a time range + price range, with the OHLCVbarsinside it.price_level— a single horizontal price they tapped.
The user may send several blocks in one turn — treat each independently.
A block may carry a User note: line: that is the user's own comment about
that selection (separate from their message text) — let it steer what you
look for there.
Analyze each bounded area (lean on the supplied bars and/or your market-data
path), then, when it helps, draw your read back onto the same symbol +
timeframe with draw_chart_annotation — a rectangle over a region, or a
price_line at a price_level. Each block already spells out the matching
draw_chart_annotation(...) call; adjust it to the level or zone your analysis
actually lands on.
Picking the right variant
draw_chart_annotation takes an annotation object discriminated by its
type field.
price_line — horizontal level
Use for anything flat on the y-axis: support, resistance, a target, a stop, an analyst price target, a 52-week high.
json{ "type": "price_line", "price": 205.0, "label": "Resistance 205", "style": "dashed" }
trendline — two anchor points
Use to connect two (time, price) points on the chart: channel tops,
pattern boundaries, connecting highs/lows across dates.
json{ "type": "trendline", "point1": {"time": "2024-10-16T00:00:00Z", "price": 145.2}, "point2": {"time": "2024-12-20T00:00:00Z", "price": 138.7}, "label": "Descending trend" }
marker — single-bar event
Use for a callout at one specific date: earnings beat, entry signal, news event, grade change.
json{ "type": "marker", "time": "2024-11-14T00:00:00Z", "shape": "arrowUp", "position": "belowBar", "text": "Earnings beat" }
shape options: arrowUp, arrowDown, circle, square.
position options: aboveBar, belowBar, inBar.
vertical_line — a moment in time
Use to mark a single date across the whole chart: an earnings date, a split, an FOMC meeting, the start of a move.
json{ "type": "vertical_line", "time": "2024-11-14T00:00:00Z", "label": "Earnings", "style": "dashed" }
rectangle — a zone
Use for supply/demand zones, consolidation ranges, or any box over a
region of the chart. point1 and point2 are two opposite corners (the
fill is translucent so candles stay visible).
json{ "type": "rectangle", "point1": {"time": "2024-10-16T00:00:00Z", "price": 150.0}, "point2": {"time": "2024-11-20T00:00:00Z", "price": 140.0}, "label": "Demand zone" }
text — a free-floating label
Use for a callout that isn't tied to a marker or level. Anchored at a
(time, price) point.
json{ "type": "text", "time": "2024-11-14T00:00:00Z", "price": 205.0, "text": "Breakout" }
event — news/event badge with detail
Use when a callout needs more than a one-line label: an earnings report, an
acquisition, an analyst upgrade, a product launch. Anchored at a (time, price) point, it shows a short title badge on the chart; the detail (a
few sentences) is revealed on hover (desktop) or tap (mobile). Prefer this
over marker/text when you want to explain why the event matters.
json{ "type": "event", "time": "2024-11-14T00:00:00Z", "price": 205.0, "title": "Q3 earnings beat", "detail": "Reported EPS of $1.40 vs $1.25 consensus and raised full-year guidance ~5%. Shares gapped up the next session on the print and the brighter outlook." }
fib_retracement — Fibonacci levels
Use to map retracement targets of a move. Pass the two ends of the swing (e.g. swing low → swing high); standard levels (0, 0.236, 0.382, 0.5, 0.618, 0.786, 1.0) are drawn between them automatically.
json{ "type": "fib_retracement", "point1": {"time": "2024-10-16T00:00:00Z", "price": 100.0}, "point2": {"time": "2024-12-20T00:00:00Z", "price": 200.0}, "label": "Oct–Dec move" }
Managing annotations
manage_chart_annotations covers list / remove / clear_all:
python# See what's there manage_chart_annotations(symbol="NVDA", action="list") # Remove specific ones (get ids from `list`) manage_chart_annotations(symbol="NVDA", action="remove", ids=["ann_ab12..."]) # Wipe everything for the symbol manage_chart_annotations(symbol="NVDA", action="clear_all")
removerequires a non-emptyidslist. The tool will reject an empty call.clear_allmust not be givenids. Useremovefor partial deletion.- Existing chart primitives the user set up themselves (52W high, analyst target lines, earnings markers) are not managed by this skill and are never touched by clear_all.
Tips
- Short labels. Chart space is tight — aim for a few words ("Resistance 205", "Entry", not "Strong resistance level we should watch"). Put the reasoning in the chat message, not the label.
- One annotation per tool call. If you want three levels, call
draw_chart_annotationthree times. - Clean up stale work. If you drew provisional levels and the
conversation moved on, offer to
clear_allbefore drawing a fresh set. - No need to flag your drawings. Agent-drawn items render with a subtle dashed style, so the user can already tell them apart from their own — you don't have to call out which annotations you added.
