Understanding bar charts
Bar charts are one of the most used chart types along with lines and candlesticks. They are popular in the industry due to their simplicity, providing you with a clear visualization of the open, close, high, and low prices.
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What is a bar chart?
Each bar consists of a vertical line, commonly referred to as the range: it represents the price range of an asset, with the top indicating the highest price at which a trade occurred and the bottom showing the lowest price.
The horizontal lines to the left and right of the vertical line represent the open and close prices of the current time period.
Bars are usually colored to provide an extra layer of information: green bars denote upward movements, and red ones are for downward movement.
Bars vs candles
Along with candlesticks, bars are one of the basic chart types many traders use. While both chart types display similar price information, each of them has its own benefits and limitations.
Bars
- Display open, high, low, and close prices, and can be configured to display only HLC — some traders consider open prices less important
- Take up less space on the chart and can be more suitable to use with overlay indicators and drawing tools
- May appear more suitable for trades focused more on price extremes than on open and close prices
Candles
- Can be a bit complex for beginners due to the many available candlestick patterns
- Take more time to learn
Enabling the chart type
On Supercharts, open the chart type menu on the upper toolbar and select "Bars."
Settings
You can customize bars by adjusting their colors, assigning the type to bullish or bearish, and toggling the display of opening prices.
To do this, find the gear button on the top toolbar, and open the "Symbol" tab.
The first section, "Bars," lists settings specific to this chart type:
- Color bars based on previous close: With this setting on, the color of each bar will be determined by whether its close price is higher (green) or lower (red) than the close price of the previous bar, rather than by the bar's own open and close prices.
- HLC bars: Disables the opening prices.
- Up color / Down color: Change the colors for bullish or bearish bars.
- Thin bars: Adjust the thickness of the bars for better visibility.
Bar charts in a nutshell
Bars are both simple and comprehensive. They represent high, low, close, and open prices of the asset, and work with both chart patterns and candlestick patterns.
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