|
There are two major
types of price charts. One is a candlestick chart, which
I don't use. There's no major reason for it, just that I
have used bar charts and they work for me, so I am
sticking with them.
When looking at a bar
chart for the first time, it may seem a little
confusing, but it is really quite simple.
A price chart measures
the price action of the commodity over a period of time.
It could be an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly chart.
It could even be longer.
At the bottom of the
chart, running diagonally, is the timeline of the chart.
An hourly chart runs for one day and will give you the
price action for a certain number of minutes or hours. A
daily chart can run for several months or more, but will
give you the price action for each day. A
weekly chart usually runs over a few years and measures
the price action for each week.
On the right side of
the chart, running vertically, is the price of the
commodity. On a futures contract, each cent or point is
valued differently according to the commodity traded. A
good set of charts or a broker can advise you of the
difference.
The actual price of the
commodity is registered on the bar. The "bar"
usually consists of a vertical
line with two short horizontal lines attached. One on
the left and one on the right.
The horizontal line on
the left represents the opening price for the time
period selected, the bottom and top of the vertical line
represent the low and the high, respectively and the
horizontal line on the right represents the closing
price.
Now, by learning how to
read a commodity price chart, you can start looking for
patterns of price on the chart.
|
