The whole library
16 articles
Clear filtersTimeframes and Multi-Timeframe Analysis
A chart's timeframe is how much trading each bar summarizes. It decides what is signal and what is noise, and the same price series can give contradictory readings on different timeframes, both correct.
Linear and Logarithmic Price Scales
On a linear scale equal distances mean equal dollars; on a logarithmic scale they mean equal percentages. Over long spans the two produce genuinely different pictures.
Chart Styles: Candles, Bars, Line, Area and Heikin-Ashi
Each style discards something different. Knowing what a style is throwing away is what stops it from misleading you.
Adjusted and Unadjusted Prices
Historical prices are routinely restated so that splits and dividends do not appear as real moves. This is correct, and it means the chart does not show what the stock actually cost.
Extended-Hours Data on a Chart
Whether a chart includes premarket and after-hours trading changes its bars, its gaps and every indicator computed from them.
Drawing Tools and How to Use Them
Drawings are a record of an analysis, and they are also the easiest way to convince yourself of something that is not there.
Chart Layouts and Saved Templates
A layout is a saved way of looking. Fixing it in advance is what makes comparisons across securities and across time meaningful.
Real-Time and Delayed Market Data
Market data is licensed, and a delayed feed is a licensing outcome rather than a technical one. Knowing which you are looking at matters for anything time-sensitive.
Renko and Point and Figure
Two chart styles that remove time from the horizontal axis entirely. A new mark appears only when price moves a defined amount.
Bar Replay and Reviewing Your Own Decisions
Stepping through a chart bar by bar, with the future hidden. It is the only charting tool that addresses hindsight directly.
Price Alerts
A price alert is a notification sent when a stock reaches a level chosen in advance. Its underrated function is that it lets a decision be made before the moment it applies.
What a Stock Alert Service Is
A stock alert service sends a notification when something specific happens in a stock: a price level is reached, a scan condition is met, or an analyst publishes a setup with its levels.
Stock Scanners and Screeners
A stock scanner tests a whole market against conditions such as price, volume, relative volume or gap size, and returns the stocks that match. The result is a shortlist to study on a chart.
Comparison Overlays and Ratio Charts
Plotting two securities together, or dividing one by the other. The second is more informative and is used far less.
Workspaces and Comparing Several Securities
Several charts on one screen. The value comes from them being configured identically, which is the only thing that makes the comparison real.
Reading Someone Else's Chart
A published chart carries a set of choices that are rarely stated. Establishing them is the first step in reading it, and most of them change what it appears to say.