How to Take a Chart Screenshot an AI Can Actually Read
Which timeframe to pick, what needs to be in the frame, how to capture your screen on a phone or computer — and why a sloppy screenshot usually ends in a "stay out" answer.
7 min readAuthor: Soslan KasaevЭта статья на русском
A good chart screenshot for AI is one clean chart and nothing else: candles visible, price scale on the right, time scale at the bottom, and at least 30–50 recent candles. No open menus, no notifications, no cropped edges. You can grab one from any broker or exchange app — on a phone it's usually a two-button press.
Below: how to set up the chart, how to capture it on different devices, exactly what TrendX accepts, and why a poor screenshot is the most common reason for a "stay out" answer.
Heads up. Binary options trading is high risk: you can lose your entire stake. This article explains how to use the service and is not investment advice. The AI analyzes an image — it doesn't know the future.
Why screenshot quality matters
The AI sees exactly what's in the image and nothing more. It isn't connected to your broker and has no idea what was off-screen. If there are only a handful of candles, the price scale is cut off, or a pop-up covers half the chart, there simply isn't enough to work with.
In that case, the honest answer is "stay out" — there's not enough information to find an edge. That's the right behavior, but it's frustrating to get it just because the frame was bad. The good news: a good frame takes about a minute of prep.
Step 1. Set up the chart
Match the timeframe to your trade
The timeframe is how much time each candle represents. The rule is simple: it should fit the length of your trade.
Trade length | What to capture |
|---|---|
1–3 minutes | 1-minute candles |
5–15 minutes | 1- to 5-minute candles |
30–60 minutes | 5- to 15-minute candles |
a few hours | 15-minute to 1-hour candles |
If you're planning a 5-minute trade and screenshot the daily chart, the analysis will be about a completely different move.
Show enough history
Zoom so that roughly 30–80 candles are on screen. Fewer, and there's no context for where price came from. More, and candles shrink to thin lines and the detail disappears.
Use candles, not a line
If your app is set to a line chart, switch to candlesticks. Each candle shows the open, close, high and low — four times the information of a single point on a line. New to candles? Start with our candlestick patterns guide.
Indicators are optional — just don't overdo it
If you like RSI, MACD or moving averages, keep them on. But two or three indicators beat eight: when lines cover the whole screen, the candles get hard to see. Our guides to RSI, MACD and moving averages cover the popular ones.
Clear the clutter
close the asset picker and settings menus;
dismiss notifications and tooltips;
hide the open-trades panel if it covers the candles;
use full-screen chart mode if your app has one.
Step 2. Take the screenshot
Android
On most phones: press Power + Volume Down at the same time. Many models also offer a three-finger swipe down or a Screenshot tile in the quick-settings panel.
iPhone
Face ID models: Side button + Volume Up;
models with a Home button: Home + Side (or Top) button.
A thumbnail pops up in the corner — tap it to crop out any stray toolbars before saving.
Desktop
Windows:
Win + Shift + S, drag over the area you want; the capture lands on the clipboard and can be saved from Snipping Tool.macOS:
Cmd + Shift + 4, drag over the area; the file is saved to your desktop. PressCmd + Shift + 4then Space to capture a single window.
On a computer, it's best to capture just the chart area with both scales rather than the whole screen.
Which apps work
Any of them. TrendX isn't tied to a particular broker or exchange: screenshots from a broker's mobile app, a web platform, an exchange app or a charting service all work. What matters is that the image actually shows a chart.
Step 3. Check the frame before uploading
Run through this quick list:
candles are visible — not an empty area or a menu;
the price scale is visible (usually on the right);
the time scale is visible (usually at the bottom), so the timeframe is clear;
there are 30–80 candles on screen;
the most recent candle isn't hidden behind buttons or panels;
the image is sharp — not a photo of another screen.
On that last point: photographing your monitor with your phone is the single most common source of trouble. Glare, moiré patterns and tilted angles can make price levels hard to read. A real screenshot always wins.
What TrendX accepts
Just the facts about how the service works:
Formats: JPG, PNG or WebP.
Size: up to 8 MB. A typical phone screenshot is far smaller, so you'll rarely get close.
Storage: the screenshot itself is not stored.
Not a chart? If the image turns out not to be a chart, the analysis isn't deducted from your count. Uploaded a cat photo or a chat screenshot by accident — you've lost nothing.
Your first analysis is free, so you can see how it works on your own chart.
What you get back
The AI answers with one of three options: Up, Down or Stay out, along with a confidence level, the factors it spotted on the chart, and the risks.
The confidence level is not your chance of winning — it reflects how consistently the clues on the image line up. "Stay out" appears when those clues conflict or there's not enough to go on. Why that's a useful answer rather than a cop-out is covered in why "stay out" is sometimes the best trade.
Common mistakes
Zoomed in too far. Eight giant candles on screen — no trend, no levels.
Zoomed out too far. Three hundred hairline candles — the last few minutes are lost.
Cropped price scale. Without it, there's no sense of how big the moves are.
A menu over the chart. The asset list or stake panel is the usual culprit.
A photo instead of a screenshot. Glare and distortion get in the way.
A stale screenshot. You capture, think for ten minutes, then upload — the market has moved on. For short trades, capture right before you analyze.
Timeframe mismatch. Analyzing the hourly chart for a 1-minute trade answers a different question.
Bad frame vs. good frame
Bad: a phone screenshot with three notifications across the top, the stake panel open at the bottom, 12 one-minute candles, and a cropped price scale. The AI has too little to see, and the honest answer will be "stay out — not enough data."
Good: same asset, full-screen chart, 1-minute candles, about 50 of them visible, price scale on the right, time along the bottom, RSI added underneath. That's enough to assess direction, momentum and the spots where the clues disagree.
The difference is thirty seconds of prep.
The short version
Match the timeframe to your trade length.
30–80 candles in frame; candles, not a line.
Both scales visible, menus closed.
A real screenshot, not a photo. JPG, PNG or WebP up to 8 MB.
Upload right away, while the chart is still current.
Ready? Upload your first screenshot — the first analysis is free.
Binary options trading carries a high risk of losing money. This material is for educational purposes only and is not investment advice. Every trading decision, and its consequences, is yours alone.