Stock Market Graph

A stock market graph (or chart) visually shows a security’s price movement over time. Common chart styles include line charts, bar charts and candlestick charts. Volume bars show trading activity and help confirm price moves.

Reading the basics

• X-axis: Time (minutes, hours, days, months).
• Y-axis: Price (dollars or other currency).
• Candlesticks: Show open, high, low and close for a period — the “body” shows the open/close range and the wicks show highs/lows.
• Volume: Confirms strength of moves — higher volume gives more credibility to price moves.

Quick tips

Start with a single time-frame (daily for long-term investors; intraday for traders), look for trends, and learn a few common patterns (support/resistance, trendlines, moving averages) before adding more indicators.

See a beginner walkthrough: Investopedia — How to Read a Stock Chart and Investopedia — Candlestick Charts.

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