Terminal Trading Chart

A terminal-based trading chart that visualizes price action with volume-weighted buy/sell pressure. Each candlestick is displayed as a vertical column where green (top) represents buying pressure and red (bottom) represents selling pressure, with glyph thickness indicating volume intensity.

Based on the original concept by Fabrizio Schiavi designed in 2016. Developed using Claude and Deepseek AI.

Features

• Real-time price data from Yahoo Finance
• Color-coded buy/sell pressure (green top = buying, red bottom = selling)
• Volume-weighted glyphs (thicker = higher volume)
• Automatic date labels (start/middle/end of period)
• Support and resistance level detection
• Works in any terminal with ANSI color support

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• pip package manager

Install required libraries

pip install yfinance pandas

Download the script

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fabrizioschiavi/terminal-trading-chart/terminal_chart.py
chmod +x terminal_chart.py

Usage

Basic syntax

python terminal_chart.py [TICKER] [PERIOD] [INTERVAL]

Examples

# Bitcoin vs Euro - last 60 days, daily candles
python terminal_chart.py BTC-EUR 60d 1d
Apple stock - last 90 days, daily candles
python terminal_chart.py AAPL 90d 1d
S&P 500 - last 6 months, weekly candles
python terminal_chart.py ^GSPC 6mo 1wk
Euro/USD Forex - last 30 days, hourly candles
python terminal_chart.py EURUSD=X 30d 1h
Demo mode (synthetic data, no internet required)
python terminal_chart.py DEMO

Parameters

TICKER

The financial instrument symbol. See Finding Tickers below.

PERIOD

Valid period strings:

| Period | Description | |--------|-------------| | 1d | 1 day | | 5d | 5 days | | 1mo | 1 month | | 3mo | 3 months | | 6mo | 6 months | | 1y | 1 year | | 2y | 2 years | | 5y | 5 years | | 10y | 10 years | | ytd | Year to date | | max | Maximum available |

INTERVAL

Valid interval strings (some have Yahoo Finance limits):

| Interval | Max Period | Description | |----------|------------|-------------| | 1m | 7 days | 1 minute | | 2m | 60 days | 2 minutes | | 5m | 60 days | 5 minutes | | 15m | 60 days | 15 minutes | | 30m | 60 days | 30 minutes | | 60m | 730 days | 60 minutes (1 hour) | | 90m | 60 days | 90 minutes | | 1h | 730 days | 1 hour | | 4h | 730 days | 4 hours | | 1d | Unlimited | 1 day | | 5d | Unlimited | 5 days | | 1wk | Unlimited | 1 week | | 1mo | Unlimited | 1 month | | 3mo | Unlimited | 3 months |

Note: When using intraday intervals (1m, 2m, 5m, 15m, 30m, 60m, 90m), the period is automatically capped to the maximum allowed by Yahoo Finance.

Finding Tickers

Yahoo Finance does not provide an official complete ticker list, but here are reliable resources:

Recommended Ticker Lists

• Yahoo Finance Ticker Lookup - Official search tool
• NYSE Listed Securities - Official NYSE directory
• All the tickers of the world - Free Ticker Database

Common Ticker Formats

| Asset Class | Format | Examples | |-------------|--------|----------| | US Stocks | Direct symbol | AAPL, MSFT, GOOGL, TSLA, AMZN | | Crypto | SYMBOL-USD or SYMBOL-EUR | BTC-USD, ETH-USD, BTC-EUR | | Forex | CURRENCYX or CURRENCY=X | EURUSD=X, GBPUSD=X, JPY=X | | Indices | ^SYMBOL | ^GSPC (S&P 500), ^IXIC (NASDAQ), ^DJI (Dow Jones) | | European Stocks | Add exchange suffix | NESN.SW (Nestlé), SAP.DE (SAP) | | Mutual Funds | Add -X suffix | VFIAX-X, FXAIX-X |

Tips for finding tickers

• Visit Yahoo Finance
• Search for your asset in the search box
• The ticker will appear in the URL or search results
• For international stocks, use the exchange code (e.g., .L for London, .DE for Germany)

Understanding the Chart

Color Coding

• 🟢 GREEN cells (top) = Buying pressure (close near high)
• 🔴 RED cells (bottom) = Selling pressure (close near low)

Glyph Thickness (Volume Indication)

| Glyph | Unicode | Volume Level | Description | |-------|---------|--------------|-------------| | │ | U+2502 | Normal | Volume < 2× median | | ┃ | U+2503 | High | Volume ≥ 2× median | | █ | U+2588 | Very High | Volume ≥ 3× median |

Other Symbols

• ⋅ (U+22C5) = Grid point (background)
• ∙ (U+2219) = Resistance or support level detected

Reading the Chart

Each column represents one candlestick:

• Height = High-Low range
• Green portion = Percentage of buying volume
• Red portion = Percentage of selling volume
• Glyph thickness = Total volume intensity

Troubleshooting

"Empty DataFrame" error

Solution 1: Update yfinance

pip install yfinance --upgrade

Solution 2: Use a different interval/period combination

# Try daily instead of intraday python terminal_chart.py AAPL 30d 1d

Solution 3: Check ticker format

# Try different formats python terminal_chart.py BTC-USD 60d 1d   # instead of BTC-EUR

"Missing columns" error

Cause: Yahoo Finance sometimes changes response format

Solution: Clear cache and retry

rm -rf ~/.yfinance_cache python terminal_chart.py AAPL 60d 1d

Terminal shows garbled characters

Solution: Ensure your terminal supports UTF-8 and ANSI colors

• macOS/Linux: Most terminals work out of the box
• Windows: Use Windows Terminal or enable VT100 emulation:

# Run in PowerShell as Administrator
  Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\console" -Name "VirtualTerminalLevel" -Value 1

Slow download or timeout

Solution: Use longer intervals or shorter periods

# Use weekly instead of daily python terminal_chart.py AAPL 6mo 1wk

Advanced Usage

Custom chart height

Edit the chart_height parameter in the render() function call (default is 32 rows).

Save output to file

python terminal_chart.py AAPL 60d 1d > chart.txt

Create alias for quick access

Add to your ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc:

alias chart='python /path/to/terminal_chart.py'

Then use:

chart AAPL 60d 1d

Credits

• Original concept: Fabrizio Schiavi (fsd.it)
• Data provider: Yahoo Finance via yfinance library
• Python implementation: Terminal Trading Chart project

License

MIT License - Free for personal and commercial use

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please submit issues and pull requests on GitHub.

Happy trading!