How to disable MSChart candlestick's automatic "PriceUp/Down" colors and fill when needed?

Question

Is there ANY ways possible to manipulate, maybe even override the way the candlestick charts are colored?

What I'm trying to do, should look like this:

What happens here, is that the candles are filled with its color when the "Open" prices are higher than "Close" prices, and black when it's the other way around.

But this isn't possible in MS Chart? I was thinking about creating another candlestick series on top of the other, and get filled boxes from that, but it wouldn't work, since MS Chart automatically uses the "PriceDown/Up" colors. ...See my answer below.

Here's the code I use and which doesn't work the way I would like to:

DataPointCollection dpcCandle = Series[Candle].Points;
DataPointCollection dpcPrice = Series[Price].Points;

int candleCount = dpcCandle.Count;

dpcCandle.AddXY(time, high);
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[1] = low;
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[2] = open;
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[3] = close;

if( candleCount > 1 )
{
    Color col;
    float oldClose = (float)dpcCandle[candleCount-1].YValues[3];
    float oldOpen = (float)dpcCandle[candleCount-1].YValues[2];

    dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderWidth = 1;

    // Determine color
    if( oldClose <= close) // Price up!
        col = Color.ForestGreen;
    else // Price down...
        col = Color.Red;

    // Determine fill
    if( open < close )
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = Color.Black;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = col;
    }
    else
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = col;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = col;
    }

    if( oldOpen.Equals(close) )
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = dpcCandle[candleCount-1].Color;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = dpcCandle[candleCount-1].BorderColor;
    }
}

Well, it works, but the result looks like this:

...with these settings:

Series[Candle]["PriceUpColor"] = "Black";
Series[Candle]["PriceDownColor"] = "Black";

And when I change those to these:

Series[Candle]["PriceUpColor"] = "ForestGreen";
Series[Candle]["PriceDownColor"] = "Red";

...I get this ugly mess for a result:

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Ok, so I was able to do workaround which includes a total of three two Candlestick Serieses... It's kinda ugly, but it does what I wanted.

The setup:

// ****************************
// Candlestick setup
Series[Candle].ChartType = SeriesChartType.Candlestick;
Series[Candle]["OpenCloseStyle"] = "Triangle";
Series[Candle]["ShowOpenClose"] = "Both";
Series[Candle]["PriceUpColor"] = "Black";
Series[Candle]["PriceDownColor"] = "Black";
Series[Candle]["PointWidth"] = "0.75";

Series[CandleGreen].ChartType = SeriesChartType.Candlestick;
Series[CandleGreen]["OpenCloseStyle"] = "Triangle";
Series[CandleGreen]["ShowOpenClose"] = "Both";
Series[CandleGreen]["PriceUpColor"] = "ForestGreen";
Series[CandleGreen]["PriceDownColor"] = "Red";
Series[CandleGreen]["PointWidth"] = "0.75";
Series[CandleGreen].BorderColor = Color.Transparent;

// ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Then I did this:

DataPointCollection dpcCandle = Series[Candle].Points;
DataPointCollection dpcCandleG = Series[CandleGreen].Points;
DataPointCollection dpcPrice = Series[Price].Points;

// Point count
int candleCount = dpcCandle.Count;

// Add the new point
dpcCandle.AddXY(time, high);
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[1] = low;
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[2] = open;
dpcCandle[candleCount].YValues[3] = close;

// Add the hacks...
int g = dpcCandleG.AddXY(dpcCandle[candleCount].XValue, 0);
        dpcCandleG[g].YValues[1] = 0;
        dpcCandleG[g].YValues[2] = 0;
        dpcCandleG[g].YValues[3] = 0;

if( candleCount > 1 )
{
    float oldClose = (float)dpcCandle[candleCount-1].YValues[3];
    float oldOpen = (float)dpcCandle[candleCount-1].YValues[2];

    dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderWidth = 1;

    // Determine color
    if( oldClose <= close) // Price up!
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = Color.ForestGreen;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = Color.ForestGreen;
    }
    else // Price down...
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = Color.Red;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = Color.Red;
    }

    // Determine fill
    if( open > close )
    {
        if( dpcCandle[candleCount].Color == Color.Red )
        {
            dpcCandleG[g].YValues[2] = open;
            dpcCandleG[g].YValues[3] = close;
        }
        else if( dpcCandle[candleCount].Color == Color.ForestGreen )
        {
            dpcCandleG[g].YValues[2] = close;
            dpcCandleG[g].YValues[3] = open;
        }
    }

    if( oldOpen.Equals(close) )
    {
        dpcCandle[candleCount].Color = dpcCandle[candleCount-1].Color;
        dpcCandle[candleCount].BorderColor = dpcCandle[candleCount-1].BorderColor;
    }
}

Result:

Answer 2

Setting PriceUpColor and PriceDownColor is necessary and correct. Why do you set any other colors?? All candle coloring should happen automatically!

If you want to style the vertical bar in a Series "price" of a Chart chart1 you can do it by setting the DataPoint.Color like this:

chart1.Series["price"].BorderWidth = 4;
foreach(DataPoint dp in chart1.Series["price"].Points)
{
    dp.Color =  (dp.YValues[2] > dp.YValues[3]) ? Color.CadetBlue : Color.Pink;
}

I took the code and the data from this post by zeFrenchy. Here is the result:

I added the loop after adding the data. But you can do it while adding points as well..