Traders use trading charts to track the movement of the market and analyze possible buying and selling opportunities. In order to retrieve information precisely it is crucial to learn the chart type and understand them. There are many type of charts and each of them serves its own purpose. In this discussion, we will look into the three different type of bar chart, line chart and candlestick chart.
Bar chart
Bar charts are also called open-high-low-close (OHLC) charts as it shows the open, the high, the low and the close on the bar. Bar charts are developed from lines with added details for each data point. It includes high, low, as well as the opening and closing price.The extreme highs and lows of the trading period can be found on the vertical line. The horizontal line to the left indicates the opening price whilst the right shows the closing price. Every single bar shows a segment of time depending on whether you are looking at a hourly, a daily or a monthly chart. For example, if you are looking at the daily chart, each bar represents the trading price activities in that day. The opening price is the price at the market opening and the closing price is the last price of the same day. If you are looking at the monthly chart, the opening price is the price of the market opening, on the first day of the month and the closing price is the last trading price in that same month. A green bar shows that the buyers were stronger than sellers whilst the red bar shows the sellers were stronger than the buyers.
In the following is the example of a bar chart for spot gold. 
Line chart
Line charts are the most basic and simplest form of charts where one continuous line is drawn from one closing price to another closing price. See below in the chart example, where a smooth line is easily identified. Line chart does not indicates the high,low and opening prices but shows the closing price movement over a period of time. Closing price is always weighed as the most important piece of information compared to opening, high and low price. A line chart ignores all the “noises” of the trading activities within the day but only records the closing price where the market participants are willing to hold their positions overnight.
Following is the example of a line chart for spot gold
Candlestick chart
Candlestick charting evolved in Japan around 1750 AD. Candlestick chart is similar to bar chart. The characteristic is similar however many preferred candlestick bar for the prettier graphic format. Both of them show the same datas which are open, high, low and close.
Candlestick chart appears to be more visual graphical with the candle shape as the body rather than a line. The green candle body shows price is rising up whilst the red candle body shows price is going down. The high and low ranges above and below the candle are referred to as the shadow.
Following is the example of a candlestick for spot gold
As conclusion, The type of chart use to analyse a particular stock is up to personal preference. However, master and using more than one is beneficial for different strategy. Overall, some elements like trading strategy, personal preference, investment goal and trading period should be considered when choosing a suitable chart. Please sign up to our online tutoring class if you are serious and seeking on how to improve your technical analysis skill!
