Same price data, three outfits.
Closes only
Ticks for open/close
The crowd favourite
Line chart
Connects the closing prices. Great for seeing the big picture and drawing clean levels.
Bar chart (OHLC)
Each bar shows open (left tick), high, low and close (right tick). Lots of info, a bit hard on the eyes.
Candlestick chart
Same info as bars, but with a coloured body between open and close. Bull candles and bear candles jump out instantly. That's why almost everyone uses them, and why they get a whole level in this school.
Wick says
Candlesticks were developed in Japan centuries ago to trade rice. Rice traders, now charting EUR/USD. History is wild.
Key takeaways
- Line = closes only; bar and candle = open, high, low, close.
- Candles make buyer vs seller control easy to see.
- Use line charts to spot clean levels.