Chart
A chart draws where a share's price has been over time, which is the only way to see a trend, a range, or how today's move compares with the past.
A live quote tells you where a price is; it tells you nothing about whether that is high or low, rising or falling, normal or unusual for this share. A chart answers those questions. It shows the price over any period from a single day to many years, so a share that looks cheap after a fall can be seen against where it traded a year ago, and a sharp move today can be judged against how volatile the share normally is.
Each bar or candle on the chart summarises the trading over one period, a minute, an hour, a day, or a week, showing where the price opened, the highest and lowest it reached, and where it closed. Candles colour the bar by whether it closed above or below its open, so the direction of each period is visible at a glance. You can change the bar length, the time range, and the chart type; add volume, moving averages, and other technical studies under or over the price; overlay another symbol for comparison; and draw lines to mark support, resistance, or a trend.
A bar is history. The close of the latest bar is not the current bid or offer, and the chart tells you nothing about the orders waiting in the book. The quote and Level 2 are for now; the chart is for context.
Questions
Can I put two shares on one chart?
Yes. Another symbol can be overlaid on the chart for comparison, as the Bitcoin vs gold page does for those two.
Why does the chart's latest close differ from the quote?
A bar's close is the price at the end of that period, which is history. The quote is the bid and offer available now.
Related pages
| Quote | The quote is the live bid and offer. The chart is the path the price took to get there, which is what makes today's level meaningful. |
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| Chart grid | The chart grid draws this kind of chart for every symbol in a watchlist or portfolio at once, for scanning many shares quickly. |
| Canvas | Canvas lets you place several charts, with notes, on a single board you arrange yourself, for a set of related shares you watch together. |
| Trades | Trades are the individual deals. A bar on the chart is those deals summarised over a period, so the trades list is the detail behind each bar. |