Bar chart definition

A bar chart is a price chart that shows the open, high, low, and close of an instrument for each time period. Each bar covers one interval, such as a minute, an hour, a day, or a week.

Each bar is a vertical line marking the full price range of the period. The top is the highest traded price, the bottom is the lowest, the left tick is the opening price, and the right tick is the closing price.

Traders read bar charts for price direction, volatility, trends, reversals, and support and resistance. A bar chart carries more detail than a line chart because it shows the full range and the open, and it differs from a candlestick chart by using ticks instead of filled bodies.

Bar chart Example

You open a 1-hour bar chart for EUR/USD. One bar reads:

- Open: 1.0850 - High: 1.0880 - Low: 1.0835 - Close: 1.0870

EUR/USD opened at 1.0850, reached 1.0880, dropped to 1.0835, and closed at 1.0870 in that hour. The close sits above the open, so the bar shows an upward move for the period.