How to View Price Plot Styles

There are seven price plot styles to choose from and each has its own unique properties that you can control. Chart price plots are the most basic part of technical analysis. It’s important to know what each plot style is, how they differ and why one might be preferable to another.

Line Chart

Plots a line connecting the closing value of each period (daily, weekly, etc.)

Since Mutual Funds report the NAV (net asset value) only once per day (at the close) the daily chart will always display as a line graph.

OHLC Bar

Short for "Open, High, Low, Close", this plot style shows the open, high, low and closing prices for the selected time frame.  On a daily chart, for example, the vertical line represents the day's range with the top of the line being the high for the day and the bottom being the low. The horizontal bar on the left side represents the day's open and the bar on the right side is the close. For charts other than daily charts, the vertical bar represents the range for the time period (3-day, weekly, etc.) and the open and close lines represent the open and close of the period.

HLC Bar

Short for "High, Low, Close", this plot style shows the high, low and closing prices for the selected time frame. On a Weekly chart, for example, the vertical line represents the week's range with the top of the line being the high for the week and the bottom being the low. The horizontal bar represents the week's close.

Candlestick

Candlestick charts show the open, high, low, and close for the period (day, week, 15 minute, etc.). The candlestick has two elements, the body and the wick. The body is the thick part of the candle and represents the range between the opening and closing prices. Traditionally, if the close is higher than the open, the body will be hollow. Conversely, if the open is higher than the close, the body will be solid. The wick shows the day's range when either the high or the low falls outside the range of the close and the open.

Optional: Candlesticks can be colored either on the basis of Net Change (change from the previous bars close) or Open-to-Close.

Bar Chart

Also known as a "bar graph", this is a chart with rectangular bars which are proportional to the values they represent. This plot is not typically used to plot prices since a Line chart will give you the same information and not clutter up the chart as much.  Bar charts are more widely used to plot volume and indicators like a MACD histogram which has values above and below zero.

Area Chart

Similar to the Line plot style, except the Area plot style includes a shaded area below the line.

Heiken-Ashi

Similar in appearance to traditional candle stick charts, Heiken-Ashi candles use calculated values from the current price data and data from the previous bar.

Note: Heikin-Ashi candles are plotted using calculated data, not the actual open, high, low and close data. Because of this you will see different close values for different time frames and they will often not coincide with traditional candle stick charts. Please see this article for more information on Heiken-Ashi Candles