Arrow

The arrow cursor is the default pointer style for most chart interactions. It provides a familiar northwest-pointing arrow that clearly indicates the active click target. Use it for everyday navigation of menus, dialogs, object libraries, and any interaction where pixel-precision is not the primary concern.

While the arrow cursor may seem trivial compared to specialized tools like the crosshair or dot cursor, understanding its hotspot behavior and appropriate use cases helps you choose the right cursor for each task, improving both speed and accuracy in your chart workflow.

The arrow cursor has its hotspot at the upper-left tip of the arrow. When you click, the action is registered at that tip rather than the center of the icon or any other point. This means the actual click target is offset approximately 4-6 pixels up and to the left of where the arrow appears to point visually.

This offset is standard across operating systems and UI frameworks. It makes the arrow well-suited for general UI interaction (where the offset is consistent and predictable) but less ideal for precision chart work. For price-level placement, the dot cursor or crosshair magnet provide greater accuracy.

• Navigating toolbar menus and settings panels.
• Interacting with dialog boxes and configuration forms.
• Selecting items from the drawing object library and watchlist.
• Resizing chart panels by dragging divider borders.
• General-purpose chart interaction where pixel precision is not critical.
• Opening right-click context menus on drawings and indicators.

There are several scenarios where switching away from the arrow cursor improves your workflow. When placing drawings that require anchor point accuracy, switch to the dot cursor. When reading price values, enable the crosshair. When editing text labels, the text I-beam cursor automatically replaces the arrow.

1. 1
   Default state

   The arrow cursor is active by default when no drawing tool is selected. It returns automatically after placing a drawing.
2. 2
   Click to select

   Click on a drawing, indicator, or UI element to select it or trigger an action.
3. 3
   Right-click for menus

   Right-click with the arrow cursor to open context menus on drawings, indicators, and the chart background.
4. 4
   Return to arrow

   Press Esc to return to the arrow cursor from any drawing tool or active cursor mode.

The arrow cursor serves as the anchoring state in the chart's tool lifecycle. When you select a drawing tool, the cursor changes to that tool's specific cursor. After placing or cancelling the drawing, the cursor returns to the arrow. Understanding this cycle helps you build efficient workflows where you rarely need to manually switch between tools.

The arrow cursor provides visual feedback beyond its static shape. When hovering over clickable elements such as toolbar buttons, menu items, and dialog controls, the arrow may change to a hand pointer to indicate interactivity. When hovering over panel dividers and resizable edges, it changes to a resize cursor. This contextual feedback is unique to the arrow cursor — specialized cursors like the dot or crosshair do not provide this contextual information.

On multi-monitor setups with different DPI scaling, the arrow cursor may appear at different sizes on each display. The chart application uses the operating system cursor, so it respects the OS-level cursor scaling settings. If the arrow appears too small or too large on a secondary display, adjust the OS cursor size settings rather than the chart application settings.

On touch-enabled devices, the arrow cursor is replaced by a touch indicator when the screen is tapped. The touch indicator behaves like the arrow cursor hotspot — the tap point is the equivalent of the arrow tip. For pen input (stylus), the arrow cursor is typically hidden and replaced by a small dot or ring that follows the pen position, providing a more natural hand-eye coordination experience for precision input.

If the arrow cursor disappears or behaves unexpectedly, several factors may be at play. Screen recording software sometimes hides or replaces the system cursor with its own overlay. Remote desktop connections may not render the cursor correctly. Virtual machine environments may capture the cursor for guest OS integration. In these cases, switching to the dot cursor (which is rendered by the chart application rather than the OS) often restores cursor visibility.

Many drawing tools temporarily replace the arrow cursor with a tool-specific cursor. For example, the trendline tool shows a crosshair with a small line icon, the Fib tool shows a crosshair with a percentage symbol, and the text tool shows an I-beam cursor. These tool cursors indicate that you are in placement mode rather than selection mode. Pressing Esc returns you to the arrow cursor and cancels the placement. Understanding which cursor corresponds to which tool helps you quickly identify your current interaction mode.

The arrow cursor appearance may vary slightly between browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge) due to each browser's cursor rendering engine. The shape, size, and anti-aliasing can differ. These differences are cosmetic only — the hotspot position and click behavior are consistent across all browsers. If cursor appearance consistency matters for your workflow, consider using the application's custom-rendered dot cursor, which looks identical on all platforms.

• 1.Cursor customization — Chart settings documentation
• 2.Dot cursor reference — Cursor tools
• 3.Drawing tool overview — Chart tools documentation
• 4.Keyboard shortcuts reference — Platform shortcuts
• 5.Touch & pen input guide — Platform documentation