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Types of Charts in Crypto trading

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By Yuriy Bishko Updated November 21, 2022
BikoTrading Academy

The chart is used to display the dynamics of price changes of financial instruments. Charts for technical analysis are plotted in two coordinates – price (usually plotted on the vertical axis) and time (usually plotted on the horizontal axis).

In order to build charts (except tick charts), the following set of data is usually used:
– Period’s opening price (OPEN) – the market price that was formed at the beginning of the trading period;
– Period closing price (CLOSE) – market price which was formed at the end of the trade period;
– HIGH – the highest market price of the period;
– Minimum price of the period (LOW) – the lowest price of the market for the period.

As the time scale of price charts it is accepted to use the following trade periods:

  • 1 minute (1m) / 5 minutes (5m) / 15 minutes (15m) / 30 minutes (30m)
  • 1 hour (1h) / 4 hours (4h) / 12 hours (12h)
  • day (D) / 3 days (3D)
  • week (W)
  • month (M)

Bar chart

Bar chart

We can see an example of a bar chart in the following figure:

Bar chart

Each bar on the chart looks like this:

bar on the chart

If the left line is below the right line it means that the price at the beginning of the period was lower than at the end, or we can say that the market price was rising. If the left line is higher than the right one, it means that the price is falling.

The disadvantage of this method is: although the bar chart allows us to explore the range of price changes within a period, it is not very convenient for visual perception.

Japanese Candlesticks

The chart of Japanese candlesticks looks as follows:

Japanese Candlesticks

The Japanese candlestick chart is very similar to the bar chart, but according to many users, it is the most convenient for visual perception. Like the bar chart, it is also plotted on high, open, close, and low prices.

The distance between the open and close prices forms a rectangle – the candlestick’s jittai (body), which is shaded depending on the ratio of open and close prices. Usually the following rule is used: if the open price is higher than the close price (i.e., the price fell during the analyzed trading period), the candlestick body is painted in dark color, but if the open price is lower than the close price (the price went up during the analyzed trading period), the candlestick body is not tinted.

Line Chart

The closing price (CLOSE) is often used to build a line chart.

Line Chart

This chart has a number of significant disadvantages. As an example, on a line chart it is impossible to even approximately evaluate what is happening within a trading period (whether prices were significantly falling and rising within the period analyzed by the trader, what was the ratio between the closing price and the trading price range). Another disadvantage of usually a line chart is the impossibility to observe the price gaps between the trading periods, although they occur quite rarely.

The advantage of the line chart, however, is that it is convenient for beginners to use it to find the figures of technical analysis.


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