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What is an OHLC bar chart?

In one line: An OHLC bar chart shows each period as a line from high to low, with a left tick for the open and a right tick for the close.

Trading glossary · Updated 2026-10-21

How to read one bar

OHLC stands for open, high, low, close.

• The vertical line: from the period's high (top) to its low (bottom).
• Left tick: the open, where price started.
• Right tick: the close, where price ended.

If the right tick is higher than the left, price closed up. If lower, it closed down. Many platforms also color up bars green and down bars red.

A simple example

A 1-hour bar for a stock:

• Open: $45.20 (left tick)
• High: $46.00 (top of the line)
• Low: $44.80 (bottom of the line)
• Close: $45.70 (right tick)

The bar is $1.20 tall. The close tick sits above the open tick, so the hour closed up 50 cents.

A Candlestick shows exactly the same 4 prices. It just draws the gap between open and close as a filled box, called the body.

Why it matters

Bars and candles carry the same information. Some people like bars because they take up less room. Others find candles easier, because the body jumps out.

Either way, you can see the whole range of each period. That's what a Line chart can't show. You need the high and low to place a sensible Stop loss.

A common mistake

Missing where the close sits. On a bar chart the close is a tiny tick and easy to overlook. But the close matters most. In our method, only a close past a level counts as a real break. A bar whose line pokes past a level but whose right tick closes back inside is like a candle Wick: a poke, not a break.

For the full picture of reading price, see how to read stock charts and how to read candlestick charts.

Questions