Plot Types

You can select your preferred style of bar by clicking on Candlestick in the upper right corner of the chart (default is candlestick).

Open

You can change the plot type and bar settings by right clicking on the chart.

Open

Using the settings you can change the plot type, aggregation (daily below), bar width and bar color.

Plot types include the following:

• OHLC Bars are drawn to show the open-high-low-close. A vertical line is drawn between the highest and lowest price. The horizontal dash extending to the left of the bar represents the open, and the horizontal dash extending to the right of the bar represents the closing price.
  
  

  Colored OHLC Bars and HLC Bars show the price bars in either green or red, depending on the bar's close price relates to the previous close. When green, the close is greater than the previous close; when red, the close is less than the previous close.

  Candlestick Hollow:

  • If Close is greater than previous close, the bar is outlined in black.

  • If Close is less than previous close, the bar is outlined in red.

  • When close is above the open price, the candle is hollow.

  • When close is below the open price, the candle is filled.

  Candlestick Open-to-Close plot the difference between the close of the current bar and the open price of the current bar.

  • If Close is greater than Open, the bar is colored green.

  • If Close is less than Open, the bar is colored red.

  Candlestick Close-to-Close plot the difference between the close of the current bar and the closing price of the previous bar (price change)

  • If today's close is greater than the previous close, the bar is colored green.

  • If today's close is less than the previous close, the bar is colored red.

  Heikin-Ashi, which means average bar in Japanese, is a distinct type of Candlestick charts. They use average ranges to calculate the points of the Candle, which smooths out the chart and in turn provides a clearer view of the trend of the market. Heikin-Ashi are also different from traditional Candlestick charts, in that they take the prior session open and close into account for the open, which in turn removes any gaps between bars on the chart.

  The Heikin-Ashi chart is plotted as a candlestick chart, where the down days are represented by filled bars, while the up days are represented by hollow bars.

  Calculation:

  • Open = (Open of previous bar+Close of previous bar) / 2

  • High = maximum of High, Open, or Close (whichever is highest)

  • Low = minimum of Low, Open, or Close (whichever is lowest)

  • Close = (Open+High+Low+Close)/4

   

  Interpretation:

  • Hollow candles represent an uptrend, with larger hollow bars indicating a stronger uptrend.

  • Filled candles represent a downtrend, with larger filled bars indicating a stronger downtrend.

  Elder-Impulse System: The Elder Impulse System was designed by Alexander Elder and featured in his book, Come Into My Trading Room. According to Elder, “the system identifies inflection points where a trend speeds up or slows down.”

  The Impulse System is based on two indicators, a 13-day exponential moving average and the MACD-Histogram. The moving average identifies the trend, while the MACD-Histogram measures momentum. As a result, the Impulse System combines trend following and momentum to identify trading impulses. This unique indicator combination is color coded into the price bars for easy reference.

  Green price bars show that the bulls are in control of both trend and momentum as both the 13-day EMA and MACD-Histogram are rising. A red price bar indicates that the bears have taken control because the 13-day EMA and MACD-Histogram are falling. A blue price bar indicates mixed technical signals, with neither buying nor selling pressure predominating.
  Read more here.

  Line and Area charts plot only the close for a given bar.
  Renko charts are built using price movement vs. traditional price movement, where one bar is plotted for a specific time period. The chart resembles a series of "bricks", where a new brick is generated when the price moves a specific price amount. By default, Barchart calculates the brick size based on a 14 period Average True Range (ATR), using the Close for brick construction.

  Renko charts have additional parameters you can set by opening the Settings menu and going to the SYMBOL tab. Besides setting color options for the up/down bricks, you may also set

  • Method (ATR) - Choose from Traditional or ATR. Traditional uses the constant Brick Size, where ATR values result in fluctuating brick sizes.

  • Period (14) - the period used to calculate the ATR.

  • Source (Close) - Valid options are Close and High/Low. For more sensitivity, choose the High/Low range. When looking to focus on end-of-day price data, choose Close. 

  • BrickSize (10) - Used with the Traditional Method. The number of points the security must move before a new brick is formed.

Column: Much like Line and Area charts, a Column chart plots a vertical bar for the close.

Base Line: A Base Line chart shows price movements above and below the average price range for the period displayed on the chart. This bar type uses a default setting of 50% (accessible in the Chart Settings by the Bar Type). Values for the base level can be set from 0% (the lowest price shown on the chart) to 100% (the highest price shown on the chart).

Line Break: Similar to Renko and Kagi charts, a Line Break chart is not based on time, but instead they focus exclusively on price movement. They are intended to highlight price movements, and can be helpful in spotting breakouts or finding support and resistance. Using up and down bars (which are referred to as lines), green lines are drawn as long as price continues to rise, and red lines are drawn as long as prices continue to fall. A reversal in line color only occurs when the closing price exceeds the high or low price of the previous two lines.

By default, a Line Break chart is set to use a Line Count of 3 (accessible in the Chart Settings by the Bar Type). A Line Break chart with a Line Count of 3 compares the current closing price to the closing price of the line from 2 period's ago. If the current price is higher, it draws a green (up) line. If the current price is lower, it draws a red (down) line. If the current closing price is the same, no new line is drawn.