Financial Charts

The {talib} package ships with a charting system built on two backends: plotly (interactive, default) and ggplot2 (static). Charts are composed in two steps: create a price chart with chart(), then layer on indicators with indicator().

Getting started

chart() takes any OHLCV object coercible to a data.frame. The package includes three built-in datasets—BTC, NVDA, and SPY—used throughout this vignette.

talib::chart(
  x = talib::NVDA
)

The chart title defaults to the name of the object passed to x. Override it with the title argument.

talib::chart(
  x = talib::BTC,
  title = "Bitcoin (USDC)"
)

Chart types

Two chart types are supported via the type argument: "candlestick" (default) and "ohlc".

talib::chart(
  x = talib::BTC,
  type = "ohlc"
)

Adding indicators

Use indicator() to attach technical indicators to the most recent chart(). Indicators that overlay on price (e.g., Bollinger Bands, moving averages) are drawn on the main panel. Indicators with their own scale (e.g., RSI, MACD) are drawn in sub-panels below.

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::RSI)
}

Multiple sub-panel indicators stack vertically. The main chart occupies 70% of the height by default (controlled by talib.chart.main).

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::BBANDS)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Combining indicators on one panel

By default, each sub-panel indicator (RSI, MACD, etc.) gets its own panel. To merge multiple indicators onto the same panel, pass them as calls to indicator():

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(
    talib::RSI(n = 10),
    talib::RSI(n = 14),
    talib::RSI(n = 21)
  )
}

Each indicator keeps its own arguments and receives a distinct color from the active theme’s color palette. This works with any number of indicators—and they don’t have to be the same type:

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(
    talib::RSI(n = 14),
    talib::MACD()
  )
}

Combined panels and regular panels can be freely mixed in the same chart:

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::BBANDS)
  talib::indicator(
    talib::RSI(n = 10),
    talib::RSI(n = 14),
    talib::RSI(n = 21)
  )
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
}

Note: the syntax matters. indicator(RSI, n = 14) passes a function and arguments separately (single indicator). indicator(RSI(n = 14), RSI(n = 21)) passes calls (combined panel). A single call like indicator(RSI(n = 14)) also works and is equivalent to the single-indicator form.

Standalone indicators

If no chart() has been called, indicator() can plot an indicator on its own—but you must supply the data argument explicitly.

{
  ## clear any existing chart
  talib::chart()

  ## plot MACD by itself
  talib::indicator(
    FUN  = talib::MACD,
    data = talib::BTC
  )
}

Clearing the chart state

Calling chart() without arguments resets the internal charting environment. This is useful when you want to start a fresh chart or plot a standalone indicator after a previous chart() call.

{
  ## first chart
  talib::chart(talib::NVDA)
  talib::indicator(talib::RSI)
}

{
  ## reset and start fresh
  talib::chart()

  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
}

X-axis labels

Internally, the charting system uses integer positions (1:nrow(data)) on the x-axis for efficient alignment between the main chart and sub-panels. By default, the axis shows these integer positions or the row names of the data.

Pass a vector to the idx argument to display custom labels (e.g., dates).

{
  talib::chart(
    x   = talib::BTC,
    idx = rownames(talib::BTC)
  )
}

Subsetting indicators

The subset argument lets you apply an indicator to a specific range of the data without subsetting the data itself. This is useful for comparing different indicators across different time windows.

{
  talib::chart(
    x   = talib::BTC,
    idx = rownames(talib::BTC)
  )

  talib::indicator(
    talib::BBANDS,
    subset = 1:nrow(talib::BTC) %in% 50:100
  )

  talib::indicator(
    talib::ACCBANDS,
    subset = 1:nrow(talib::BTC) %in% 101:151
  )
}

Themes

The package includes a theme system that controls candle colors, background, text, grid, and the color palette used for indicator traces. Eight built-in themes are available; three of them (bloomberg_terminal, limit_up, bid_n_ask) are designed to remain distinguishable under the most common color-vision deficiencies. See ?chart_themes for the full accessibility breakdown.

Setting a theme

Use the $ accessor on set_theme for tab-completion, or pass the theme name as a string.

## equivalent ways to set a theme
talib::set_theme$payout
talib::set_theme("payout")

## list available theme names
talib::set_theme()

Themes persist across charts until changed. Set the theme before calling chart().

Default theme

The default theme uses a dark background with cyan and blue candles.

{
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Hawks and Doves

A light theme with neutral grays.

{
  talib::set_theme$hawks_and_doves
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Payout

A dark theme with teal and orange accents.

{
  talib::set_theme$payout
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

TP Slapped

A bright theme with teal and red candles on a light background.

{
  talib::set_theme$tp_slapped
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Trust the Process

A light, muted theme with earthy tones.

{
  talib::set_theme$trust_the_process
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Bloomberg Terminal (colorblind-friendly)

A dark theme inspired by the Bloomberg Terminal interface. Orange bullish candles paired with neutral-gray bearish candles — the orange/gray pair separates cleanly under deuteranopia, protanopia, and tritanopia. The colorway is the Okabe-Ito qualitative palette.

{
  talib::set_theme$bloomberg_terminal
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Limit Up (colorblind-friendly)

A dark monochrome theme that encodes direction with luminance only. Light-gray bullish candles vs dark-gray bearish candles — the contrast is large enough to remain unambiguous under all three CVD types and even under full achromatopsia.

{
  talib::set_theme$limit_up
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Bid n Ask (colorblind-friendly)

A light theme with the classic blue-vs-red trading pair. Steel-blue bullish and tomato-red bearish candles separate well under deuteranopia and protanopia (the most common CVD forms, affecting roughly 8% of males); separation under tritanopia is weaker but still readable.

{
  talib::set_theme$bid_n_ask
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 7)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 14)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 21)
  talib::indicator(talib::SMA, n = 28)
  talib::indicator(talib::MACD)
  talib::indicator(talib::trading_volume)
}

Custom color overrides

Pass named color arguments to set_theme() to override individual theme properties on top of a base theme.

{
  talib::set_theme(
    "payout",
    background_color = "#000000",
    bullish_body     = "#00FF00",
    bearish_body     = "#FF0000"
  )
  talib::chart(talib::BTC)
  talib::indicator(talib::RSI)
}

The full set of overridable properties: bullish_body, bullish_wick, bullish_border, bearish_body, bearish_wick, bearish_border, background_color, foreground_color, text_color, threshold_color, gridcolor, and colorway (a vector of up to 10 colors for indicator traces).

Chart options

Global options control layout and display behavior. Set them with options() before calling chart().

Option	Default	Description
`talib.chart.backend`	`"plotly"`	Charting backend: `"plotly"` or `"ggplot2"`
`talib.chart.slider`	`FALSE`	Add a range slider below the x-axis (plotly only)
`talib.chart.slider.size`	`0.05`	Height proportion of the range slider
`talib.chart.legend`	`TRUE`	Show the legend
`talib.chart.scale`	`1`	Font scale multiplier
`talib.chart.main`	`0.7`	Main chart height as a proportion of the total (when sub-panels are present)
`talib.chart.modebar`	`NULL`	Show the plotly modebar (`TRUE`/`FALSE`/`NULL` for auto)

{
  options(
    talib.chart.slider = TRUE,
    talib.chart.scale  = 0.8,
    talib.chart.main   = 0.6
  )

  talib::chart(talib::SPY)
  talib::indicator(talib::RSI)
  talib::indicator(talib::BBANDS)
}