How to Read a Price Chart

The two axes

Every price chart shares the same structure: time along the horizontal axis and price along the vertical axis. Changing the timeframe changes the story the chart appears to tell, which is why comparing multiple timeframes is standard practice.

Candlesticks

A candlestick summarises four values for one time period: the open, high, low, and close. The body spans open to close; the wicks show the extremes reached during the period.

A long upper wick indicates price traded higher during the period but did not hold there. That is a description of what happened, not a signal about what happens next.

What charts can and cannot do

Charts record the outcome of the decisions of many participants. They are a record, not a forecast. Studying them builds vocabulary for describing market behaviour — trend, range, volatility, momentum — which is the real purpose of technical study in an educational setting.