The Chart Types

we need a charting technique that displays this information in the most comprehensible way. If not for a good charting technique, charts can get quite complex. Each trading day has four data points’ i.e the OHLC. If we are looking at a 10 day chart, we need to visualize 40 data points (1 day x 4 data points per day). So you can imagine how complex it would be to visualize 6 months or a year’s data.
As you may have guessed, the regular charts that we are generally used to – like the column chart, pie chart, area chart etc does not work for technical analysis. The only exception to this is the line chart.
The regular charts don’t work mainly because they display one data point at a given point in time. However Technical Analysis requires four data points to be displayed at the same time.
Below are some of the chart types:
1. Line chart
2. Bar Chart
3. Japanese Candlestick
The focus of this module will be on the Japanese Candlesticks however before we get to candlesticks, we will understand why we don’t use the line and bar chart.
3.2 – The Line and Bar chart
The line chart is the most basic chart type and it uses only one data point to form the chart. When it comes to technical analysis, a line chart is formed by plotting the closing prices of a stock or an index. A dot is placed for each closing price and the various dots are then connected by a line.


The bar chart on the other hand is a bit more versatile. A bar chart displays all the four price variables namely open, high, low, and close. A bar has three components.
1. The central line – The top of the bar indicates the highest price the security has reached. The bottom end of the bar indicates the lowest price for the same period.
2. The left mark/tick – indicates the open
3. The right mark/tick – indicates the close