Trading knowledge libraryCandlestick Charts vs Bar Charts vs Line ChartsPrice Action
Price Action
Candlestick Charts vs Bar Charts vs Line Charts
A candlestick, a bar and a line are three ways of drawing the same prices, and they do not keep the same amount. This paper shows you one real hour drawn all three ways, the widest day of 2025 as hourly candles, the same day as bars and as a line drawn from the same numbers, and the three keys that switch between the drawings on your platform.
Every chart type starts from the same four prices for each period: where it opened, the highest it went, the lowest it went, and where it closed. A candlestick draws the open and close as a body — green if the close is higher, red if lower — and the high and low as thin wicks above and below. A bar draws the same four as one vertical line with a tick to the left for the open and to the right for the close. A line chart keeps the close and leaves the other three out. At 13:00 on 3 April 2025 the euro against the dollar reached 1.11461 and closed 94 pips under it — a pip is the fourth decimal place, the smallest step most people count in — and on a line chart that hour is a dot.
The widest day, as candles
The 3rd of April 2025 was the widest day of the year, 341 pips from low to high. As hourly candles it is a rise through the morning, a spike at 13:00 to 1.11461 that closed 94 pips lower, an afternoon that reached toward the high twice more, and an evening fall. Each candle carries its hour's four prices, so the reach of every hour is on the screen. The next figure draws the same 24 bars the other two ways.
