Normal bullish barNormal bearish barLarge bullish barLarge bearish bar
| The candles | Default | CandleStyler |
|---|---|---|
| Up and down body colors solid or hollow fill | ✓ | ✓ |
| Separate outline colors for up and down candles NinjaTrader itself gives both directions one outline color | ✓ | |
| Outline and wick follow the body, or take a color of their own per preset | ✓ | |
| Saved as looks you switch with one click NinjaTrader has chart templates; this is one button in the toolbar, no dialog and no reload | ✓ | |
| Colors by context | ||
| Trend bars closing above the moving average one color, below it another; SMA, EMA, WMA or HMA, 1 to 500 bars | ✓ | |
| Volume shaded by where its volume ranks against the recent bars, or faded when it is light | ✓ | |
| Big bars outsized bars in their own colors; measured in points or as a multiple of ATR | ✓ | |
| Session hours the cash session in one color, overnight bars in another; hours in Eastern time, intraday charts | ✓ | |
| Focus on recent bars the most recent bars in full color — you set how many, up to 200 — older bars dimmed or turned neutral | ✓ | |
| Correct by design | ||
| Never changes your data same bars, same prices; presentation only | ✓ | ✓ |
| Default puts your original chart back one click, nothing left behind | ✓ | |
| Style today only, if you like the current day styled on an intraday chart, the history left as NinjaTrader draws it | ✓ | |
| Yours to set | ||
| Six ready looks Trend Rider, Volume Bars, Laser Focus, Session Highlight, Big Moves Only, Hollow Bars | ✓ | |
| Two you build and name yourself every setting above, in a preset of your own | ✓ | |
| The toolbar is yours too button size, colors, which presets show, which one loads with the chart | ✓ | |
| Free, with free updates no trial, no locked settings, no upsell | ✓ | |
In short: NinjaTrader 8 and a candlestick or OHLC chart. That is all CandleStyler needs.
It styles Candlestick and OHLC charts only. Every other chart style — line, mountain, box, point-and-figure, Open/Close, HiLo bars, Kagi, Line Break — gets a short note and is left alone.
Each of the eight presets carries 37 settings of its own, and 14 more sit under General and Toolbar. The names in bold are the names you will see in the properties panel.
Up body color and Down body color set the candle colors; each fill is solid or hollow, and the body opacity fades them. Outline & wick mode lets the outline and wick follow the body or take one custom color, and Separate up/down outline colors gives up and down bars an outline of their own — NinjaTrader’s own bar colors give both directions one outline.
MA trend coloring colors every bar by its side of one moving average: closes above it take the up-trend color, closes below it the down-trend color. The Trend MA type is SMA, EMA, WMA or HMA and the Trend MA length 1 to 500 bars (50 by default). Trend Rider is this rule on a 50-period EMA, green above and red below; big bars and session hours still override it.
Volume coloring shows each bar’s volume in its color. The Volume effect Gradient keeps the up or down color and shades it by volume, heavier bars deeper and quiet bars paler, ranked against the last 20 bars by default; Opacity fades the light-volume bars instead, down to the lowest opacity you set. The Volume Bars look is the gradient in blue and red over a 50-bar window.
Highlight session hours paints every bar outside the cash session in the Off-hours bar color, so the trading day stands out from the overnight. The session start and end are set in US Eastern time, 9:30 to 16:00 by default, and converted to your chart’s time zone automatically. It works on intraday charts; the Session Highlight look leaves the overnight bars light gray.
Highlight big bars gives the outsized bars their own up and down colors; the Big bar measure is Points or a multiple of ATR(14), which adapts to any market, and the Big Moves Only look uses 1.35× ATR. Focus on recent bars keeps the last 1 to 200 bars at full color and dims the rest, or repaints them in one flat color; Laser Focus is 40 bars, the rest at 22%.
Preset 1 to Preset 6 are the built-in looks (Trend Rider, Volume Bars, Laser Focus, Session Highlight, Big Moves Only, Hollow Bars); Preset 7 (Create your own) and Preset 8 (Create your own) are yours to build and name. Default on load picks the look a chart opens with, Show Default button keeps the one-click way back to your original bars, and Only style today’s bars leaves earlier days as NinjaTrader draws them.
Set the body and the outline, solid or hollow, at any opacity. The wick follows the outline.
Every look is a button above the chart. Default brings your normal bars back.
Example: “I want bars below 4.0 points to be orange, bars above 4.0p to be green/red.”
Body, fill and outline set for up bars and down bars independently.
You might ask: why is this free, what is the catch? There is none. We want to change the market for third-party NinjaTrader tools, and giving our work away is part of how we do it.
To say it plainly: this market is overpriced and full of low-quality tools with missing features and bugs. Vendors charge hundreds of dollars for simple indicators. No indicator, add-on or tool will make you profitable. A good one makes your trading environment better, and you know that already, or you would not be here looking.
Our goal is the highest-quality products we can build, tools that make a real difference on the chart. We get there by testing hard: weeks on live charts before release, feedback from the traders who use them, and a close read of what the forums complain about. We offer a full refund within 14 days, we adapt tools for customers who ask, and we give most of our work away.
Most of our tools are free for a reason. We want you to try them, see the quality and the features for yourself, and not spend a dollar with us until you think a tool deserves it. We are a business and we intend to make money, by solving real problems for traders.
So yes, CandleStyler is completely free, no strings attached. If you like it, there are more free tools and paid ones priced well under what is usual in this market. Leave a review if you want to, good or bad, we read every one. If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected].
No card, no license key, no expiry. Nothing to cancel because nothing was started.
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Four ways to make the chart you already trade easier to read. None of them is a signal; the entries, the stops and the discipline are still yours.
Trend Rider colors every bar by its side of the moving average. Green tape, you look for longs; red tape, for shorts. Which side you are on is one glance, not a measurement.
Volume Bars shades each candle by participation: heavy bars print deep, quiet ones pale. A breakout on thin volume stops looking like strength.
Laser Focus keeps the recent bars vivid and fades the rest; Big Moves Only grays out everything except the outsized bars. The chart shows only what is moving.
A scalping look in the session, hollow bars for the evening review, a clean look for screenshots: each with its own button in the toolbar.
Want to restyle your candles? Read the full guide →
Question or idea for improvement? Email us. We reply fast.
Genuinely free — no trial period, no locked settings, no license key, nothing to upgrade to. We sell other indicators; free tools like this one are how we show you the quality of the work first.
Download the zip, then in NinjaTrader 8 go to Tools → Import → NinjaScript Add-On and pick the file. Add CandleStyler to any chart from the Indicators list and a row of preset buttons appears in the chart toolbar — most traders are done in under a minute. The step-by-step guide covers every message NinjaTrader can show and the update rule.
No. Same bars, same prices, same bar width. It only changes how the candles are painted. Default puts back the chart as it was when you added CandleStyler; removing the add-on simply drops the coloring and leaves your current chart settings alone.
Candlestick and OHLC charts of any bar type — tick, minute, volume, range or Renko — on any instrument and any data provider. Every other chart style, from line and mountain to Kagi and Line Break, has no candles to style, so there it shows a short note and leaves the chart alone. The session and today-only rules need an intraday chart.
Trend Rider colors bars by their side of a moving average. Volume Bars shades them by volume. Laser Focus dims everything but the last stretch of bars. Session Highlight colors the cash session and leaves the overnight bars in another color. Big Moves Only grays out all but the outsized bars. Hollow Bars outlines the candles. Two more slots are yours to build and name, with every setting the built-in ones have.
Yes. Every preset carries its own full set of settings: body colors, fill, outline and wick, and each of the context rules with its own colors and thresholds. Colors apply as you change them; switching the trend average’s type or length recolors the older history after the next chart reload. The button keeps the name.
No. It paints colors and recalculates when price changes. If it ever slows your chart noticeably, email us — we want to know.
Yes. Volume coloring with the Volume effect set to Gradient keeps each candle’s up or down color and shades it by volume: heavy bars print deep, quiet bars pale, each ranked against the last Volume average length bars (20 by default). Opacity does the opposite job and fades the light-volume bars instead, down to the Lowest opacity you set. The Volume Bars look is the gradient in blue and red over a 50-bar window. It needs volume data, so it has nothing to show on a feed without it.
Yes. Highlight session hours paints every bar outside the cash session in the Off-hours bar color, so the trading day stands out from the overnight. The window is set in US Eastern time, 9:30 to 16:00 by default, and converted to your chart’s time zone automatically, so it lines up with the US cash session from any country. The Session Highlight look does exactly this, with the overnight bars in light gray. Intraday charts only; Only style today’s bars narrows it to the current day.
Yes, for the basics. NinjaTrader’s own Data Series window lets you pick a color for up bars, a color for down bars, one outline color and one wick color, and a chart template saves them. Our guide walks through it step by step. What those settings cannot do is what CandleStyler adds: colors that follow the trend, the volume, the session or the size of the bar, separate outlines for up and down candles, and looks you switch with one button instead of a template.
No. A chart template saves the whole chart and applies through the Templates menu with a reload; a CandleStyler preset is the candle look alone, one button in the chart toolbar, no dialog and no reload, and a chart holds eight of them. Default on load picks the look a chart opens with, and Default puts your original bars back. Save a chart template with CandleStyler on it and every chart made from that template opens with the buttons.
Email support, answered by the traders who built it. Bugs get fixed — this tool gets the same updates and support as our paid indicators.
Free, no card, no license key. Download it, import it, and the looks are one click away in under a minute.
Not for you if you expect a prettier chart to improve your results. CandleStyler makes trend, volume, bar size and session faster to see; the reading, and the trade, are yours.
Pairs well with Free chart notes add-on (StickyNotes) · Free chart watermark add-on (ChartWatermark) · Free bar counter indicator (ProBarCounter)
Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. CandleStyler is a chart-styling tool only — it is not a trade signal, recommendation, or financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
NinjaTrader®, NinjaTrader.com and associated NinjaTrader marks are registered trademarks and the property of NinjaTrader Group, LLC. UsefulIndicators is listed on the NinjaTrader Ecosystem; NinjaTrader Group, LLC does not endorse or recommend any third-party product.