Change over time

Open-high-low-close chart (OHLC)

Shows period high and low as a line with side ticks for opening and closing values.

Chart
Price movement
Trend over time

What it answers

What were the opening, closing and extreme values?

Shape: Vertical ranges with side ticks
What it shows: Period range and net direction.

Example

The question

How did the share price open, range and close each day?

Daily share price, March (open-high-low-close bars)

Each bar spans the day’s high and low; the left tick is the open, the right tick the close. Cyan days closed up, pink days down. Price moves from 100 to 119.6.

Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.

When to use it

Use it when

Compact OHLC time-series analysis.

Avoid it when

When tick orientation is unfamiliar without a key.

How to read it

Read the vertical range and left/right open/close ticks.

The data you need

Layout: Wide OHLC table
Fields: Time: date/datetime; Open,High,Low,Close: numbers
One row is: One complete trading or measurement period. What is the grain?
Rules: Require Low <= min(Open,Close) and max(Open,Close) <= High. Sort by time.
Optional: Optional Volume. Define trading calendar and adjusted versus unadjusted prices.
Preparation: Aggregate genuine observations into ordered periods using open/close order and period high/low; align volume and adjusted-price conventions.
Units: Price uses currency per instrument/unit; volume uses traded units. Define period length; price changes and returns have different units.

A wide table: one row per item, with a separate column for each measure or period.

Worked example

Open 100, high 110, low 95, close 105. Left tick marks 100 and right tick 105; total range is 15.

Time	Open	High	Low	Close
2026-01-01	100	110	95	105
2026-01-02	105	112	101	108

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