Bar chart
Family VI · Charts & indicators
Not to be confused with chart pattern, line chart, candlestick chart.
Bar chart is a charting format that plots one vertical bar per trading period, each bar encoding four prices: open, high, low and close. The horizontal axis marks time and the vertical axis marks price, so a sequence of bars shows how price moved from period to period.
How a bar is read
Each bar carries the same four data points, whatever the period length (a minute, a day, a week):
- The high and low are the top and bottom of the vertical line.
- The open is marked by a short horizontal tick on the left of the line.
- The close is marked by a short horizontal tick on the right of the line.
Because the open and close are drawn as side ticks rather than a filled body, a bar chart shows the same information as a candlestick chart but with less visual emphasis on the open-to-close range.
Worked example
One daily bar for a stock:
The bar is drawn as a vertical line from 99.20 to 103.50, with a left tick at 100.00 and a right tick at 102.80. A close above the open is read as a bullish period; a close below the open as a bearish one.
Timeframes and conventions
The period length is chosen by the user, not fixed by the chart type: intraday bars may cover one minute or one hour, while higher timeframes cover a day, week or month. Some charting packages colour bars by direction (close versus open), and some allow the open or close tick to be omitted; these display choices vary by platform and are not part of the definition.
Often confused with
- chart pattern
- A chart pattern is a shape formed by a sequence of bars or candles, such as a head and shoulders or a triangle, whereas a bar chart is the drawing format itself; the visible sign is that a pattern spans many bars, while a bar chart is the individual bar and its axis.
- line chart
- A line chart connects a single price per period, usually the close, into a continuous line, whereas a bar chart shows four prices per period as a vertical range with open and close ticks; the visible sign is the presence or absence of high-low bars.
- candlestick chart
- A candlestick chart is a price chart that plots four values per period—open, high, low and close—as a body with wicks, so each bar shows both the range and the direction of movement.
See also
- forex technical analysis indicators
- price action
- fundamental analysis
- support and resistance
- technical analysis
- fibonacci