Custom timeframes: any chart interval such as 45m, 3h, 2D or 3M
Custom timeframes in SuperCharting: add any interval such as 45 minutes, 3 hours, 2 days or 3 months, how the bars are built and where each bar starts.
A custom timeframe is a chart interval that you choose yourself instead of picking from a fixed list: 45 minutes, 3 hours, 2 days, 3 months, 20 seconds, or range bars of 50 ticks. In SuperCharting you add one from Add custom interval… at the top of the interval menu, and it then sits in the menu like any built-in interval, ready to star as a favourite.
The built-in intervals
The interval button next to the symbol opens a menu grouped by unit:
| Section | Intervals |
|---|---|
| Ticks | 1, 10, 100, 1000 ticks |
| Seconds | 1, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 seconds |
| Minutes | 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 minutes |
| Hours | 1, 2, 3, 4 hours |
| Days | 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months |
| Ranges | 1, 10, 100, 1000 ranges |
Ticks and seconds are built from live quotes and have their own guide: second and tick charts.
Adding a custom interval
The Add custom interval dialog has a number box and a unit menu. The units and the largest number each takes:
| Unit | Range | Example | Shown as |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seconds | 1 to 59 | 20 | 20s |
| Minutes | 1 to 1,440 | 75 | 75m |
| Hours | 1 to 24 | 6 | 6h |
| Days | 1 to 366 | 2 | 2D |
| Weeks | 1 to 52 | 2 | 2W |
| Months | 1 to 12 | 4 | 4M |
| Ranges | 1 to 10,000 | 50 | 50R |
The new interval joins its section of the menu in order of length and is saved with your settings, so it is there on every device. Click the star on its row to put it on the top toolbar as a favourite. An interval the menu already has, such as 4 hours, is simply selected.
How custom bars are built
No feed sends 45-minute or 2-day bars directly, so SuperCharting builds them from the finest interval that fits evenly:
- Minutes and hours come from the largest native minute interval that divides them: 45 minutes from 15-minute bars, 2 minutes from 1-minute bars, 3 hours from 1-hour bars.
- Multi-day bars come from daily bars, multi-week from weekly bars and multi-month from monthly bars.
- Ranges come from 1-minute history: each range bar spans the same number of price ticks, drawn with the Range chart type.
Where each bar starts
Intraday custom bars start at the session open of the market, as traders expect:
| Market | First bar of the day starts at |
|---|---|
| NSE and BSE | 09:15 IST |
| MCX and currency derivatives | 09:00 IST |
| US stocks | 09:30 New York |
| Forex, CFDs and metals | 17:00 New York |
| Crypto | 00:00 UTC |
So a 45-minute NSE:NIFTY chart has bars at 09:15, 10:00, 10:45 and so on, and a 3-hour XAUUSD chart has bars at 17:00, 20:00 and 23:00 New York time. The last bar of the day can be shorter if the session does not divide evenly.
Multi-day bars count trading days, so a 2-day bar pairs Friday with Monday rather than with an empty weekend; crypto, which trades every day, counts calendar days. Multi-week bars start on Monday. Multi-month bars count from January, so 3 months is a calendar quarter and 12 months a calendar year.
A new custom interval first loads 6,000 bars of the underlying interval, and scrolling back loads more, up to 40,000 bars per chart.
How to add a 75-minute chart in SuperCharting
- Open the chart, for example NSE:RELIANCE.
- Click the interval button next to the symbol.
- Choose Add custom interval…, the first row of the menu.
- Type
75in the number box and choose Minutes from the unit menu. - Click Add. The chart switches to 75 minutes and the button reads 75m.
- Open the menu again and click the star next to 75 minutes to keep it on the toolbar.
For the standard intervals there are shortcuts too: Ctrl + 1 to Ctrl + 8 switch to 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 1 day, 1 week and 1 month.
Example: an interval that fits the NSE session
The NSE cash session runs from 09:15 to 15:30, 375 minutes. A 75-minute interval cuts it into exactly five bars (09:15, 10:30, 11:45, 13:00 and 14:15), so each day looks the same and the last bar is never a stub. A 125-minute interval gives three equal bars. Traders who find 1 hour too noisy and 1 day too slow often settle on one of these. On gold, a 4-hour chart starting at 17:00 New York gives six bars per trading day.
Using custom intervals well
- In a multi-chart layout with Interval sync on, a custom interval applies to every chart at once.
- Indicators and strategies calculate on the custom bars exactly as on built-in ones, and the Bar Replay steps one custom bar at a time.
- Non-time types such as Renko are built from the custom bars too, so Renko on 45 minutes reacts differently from Renko on 15 minutes. See Renko, Kagi, Line Break and Point & Figure.
- Ticks cannot be added as a custom unit; the menu offers 1, 10, 100 and 1000 ticks.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a limit on how many custom intervals I can add?
The dialog does not set a number. Each one is kept in your settings and appears in its section of the menu.
Why does my 2-hour NSE chart start at 09:15 and not 09:00?
Intraday bars are aligned to the market's session open, which is 09:15 IST for NSE.
Can I delete a custom interval?
Custom intervals stay in the menu once added; you can unstar one so it leaves the toolbar.
Why does the 1-week interval sit under Days?
The menu follows the familiar layout of other charting sites, where days, weeks and months share one section.