Bar Chart

Stock trading dictionary: meaning, example and how traders use it.

Last updated: October 17, 2026

Definition: Bar chart, in stock trading, is a price chart in which each period is shown as a vertical line from the low to the high, with a small left tick marking the open and a right tick marking the close. It is also called an OHLC chart.

How a bar chart works

Each bar summarizes trading over one period, which can be a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or longer. The vertical line spans the period's high and low. A short horizontal tick on the left shows the opening price, and a tick on the right shows the closing price.

If the right tick is above the left tick, the price closed higher than it opened. Many platforms also color bars, typically green or black for up periods and red for down periods, to make direction easier to scan. A volume histogram is often displayed beneath the price bars.

Example: reading a single daily bar

Suppose a hypothetical stock's daily bar has a left tick at $48.20, a low of $47.50, a high of $51.00, and a right tick at $50.60. The stock opened at $48.20, dipped to $47.50, rallied to $51.00, and closed at $50.60.

The range was $3.50, and the close near the top of the bar suggests buyers were in control into the end of the session. A bar with the same range but a close near $47.60 would tell the opposite story: an early rally that sellers fully reversed.

Comparing several bars in sequence adds context. A string of bars with rising lows and closes near their highs points to steady demand, while a sudden bar with a range two or three times the recent average often marks a news event, a breakout, or a turning point that deserves a closer look before acting on it.

Bar chart vs candlestick chart

Candlestick charts display the same four prices but draw a filled or hollow body between the open and close, which makes the relationship between those two prices stand out visually. Bar charts are more compact and some traders find them less cluttered when viewing many periods at once. Neither contains more information; the choice is a matter of preference.

Other formats include line charts, which plot only closing prices, and point-and-figure charts, which ignore time and track only significant price changes.

How traders use bar charts

Bar charts are a standard tool in technical charting. Traders read the position of the close within the range, compare range sizes to gauge volatility, and look for patterns such as inside bars (a range within the prior bar's range) and outside bars (a range that engulfs the prior bar). They also use sequences of bars to identify trends, support, and resistance. Quotelinks' chart tool can display price history in several of these formats.

Frequently asked questions

What does OHLC stand for?

OHLC stands for open, high, low, and close, the four prices each bar on a bar chart represents for its time period.

Which is better, a bar chart or a candlestick chart?

Both show the same data. Candlesticks emphasize the open-to-close move visually, while bar charts are more compact; the choice is personal preference.

How do you read a stock bar chart?

The top and bottom of each bar mark the high and low, the left tick is the opening price, and the right tick is the closing price for that period.

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For information only, not investment advice. See the disclaimer.