
How to Read a Stock Chart
- Observe the Price and Time Axes. Every stock chart has two axes - the price axis and the time axis. The horizontal...
- Look for the Trend Line. This should be pretty obvious, but a good bit of the information you can glean from a stock...
- Identify Trading Volume. In addition to just the trend of the stock's prices, the stock's trading...
How to read stock charts for beginners?
Important things to know when learning how to read a stock chart
- Identify the trend line. This is that blue line you see every time you hear about a stock – it’s either going up or down right?
- Look for lines of support and resistance. The next thing you’ll want to look at is the lines of resistance and support. ...
- Know when dividends and stock splits occur. ...
- Understand historic trading volumes. ...
How do you read a stock graph?
Let me break down the image above with each of the trend lines:
- Line A is the very first line of support shown. ...
- Line B is my first line of resistance. ...
- As you can see with Line C, the stock has bottomed out again, thus creating a new line of support.
- Line D shows the stock price has increased significantly and I’m comfortable establishing this as a new line of resistance.
How to read stock charts for day trading?
How to Read Stock Charts for Day Trading: The day trader’s main working tool is the chart or graph. As you start trading, you first need to learn how to read charts. A chart’s function is to present a stock’s price history to help you determine the stock’s future direction.
How to interpret stock chart?
Stock charts and fundamental analysis may seem to be contradictory. Fundamental investors can benefit from knowing how to read stock charts too. Some of the lower indicators include: Dividend yield; P/E ratio (price-to-earnings) Revenue; Rolling EPS (earnings per share) Your research tool may also let you add secondary indicators like the ...
How do you view a stock chart?
How to read stock market charts patternsIdentify the chart: Identify the charts and look at the top where you will find a ticker designation or symbol which is a short alphabetic identifier of a company. ... Choose a time window: ... Note the summary key: ... Track the prices: ... Note the volume traded: ... Look at the moving averages:
How do you graph stocks?
Graph Basics To set up a graph, label the x-axis, or horizontal axis, time. Label the vertical, or y-axis, price. This ensures that as your line graph moves from left to right, it will represent rises (by moving up) and falls (by moving down) in the price of the stock over time.
How do I see stock trends?
If you study prices over a long period of time, you will be able to see all three types of trends on the same chart. Watch the slope – The slope of a trend indicates how much the price should move each day. Steep lines, moving either upward or downward, indicate a certain trend.
How do you analyze stock quickly?
A common method to analyzing a stock is studying its price-to-earnings ratio. You calculate the P/E ratio by dividing the stock's market value per share by its earnings per share. To determine the value of a stock, investors compare a stock's P/E ratio to those of its competitors and industry standards.
How do you analyze stocks for beginners?
How to do Fundamental Analysis of Stocks:Understand the company. It is very important that you understand the company in which you intend to invest. ... Study the financial reports of the company. ... Check the debt. ... Find the company's competitors. ... Analyse the future prospects. ... Review all the aspects time to time.
How do you predict if a stock will go up or down?
Topics#1. Influence of FPI/FII and DII.#2. Influence of company's fundamentals. #2.1 About fundamental analysis. #2.2 Correlation between reports, fundamentals & fair price. #2.3 Two methods to predict stock price. #2.4 Future PE-EPS method. #1 Step: Estimate future PE. #2 Step: Estimate future EPS.
What is the best stock charting website?
A brief overview of the best free stock chartsTradingview. If you value a stock chart software with great technical and fundamental analysis, then we recommend Tradingview. ... Stockcharts.com. ... FinViz. ... 4. Yahoo!
How do I know if a stock is uptrend?
0:394:05How to Identify Stock Trend Changes - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipSupport and resistance levels an uptrend is defined by the highs and lows forming higher and higherMoreSupport and resistance levels an uptrend is defined by the highs and lows forming higher and higher in other words each higher low could result in a higher.
What is the closing price of a stock?
to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. During regular trading hours, the price will likely fluctuate. The “after hours” price is $125.15, reflecting the price the stock was currently being traded for outside of regular hours.
What does beta mean in stock market?
Beta shows how volatile a stock’s price is compared with the stock market, which may be an indicator of how risky the stock is. If beta is greater than one, the stock has historically been more volatile than the stock market (typically represented by either the S&P 500 or a total stock market index) for the specified period. If beta is less than one but greater than zero, it’s been less volatile than the overall market for that period. As always, though, past performance isn’t indicative of future performance.
Why are bid ask spreads wider?
And when spreads are wider, it may be more difficult for an investor’s trade to be executed, or for the trade to go through at the price they wanted.
What is the spread on a $124.65 ask?
If you see an ask of $124.65, sellers are currently selling for $124.65 per share. Note there’s a $0.04 difference between the two — this is called the bid-ask spread. Generally, when there’s high trading activity with lots of willing buyers and sellers, spreads will be smaller.
Do you get dividends if you buy stock before the ex-dividend date?
In order to receive the company’s dividend for the next period, you’ll have to become a shareholder (that is, buy its stock) before the ex-dividend date. If you buy the stock on or after the ex-dividend date, you won’t get the dividend for that period.
What does the bottom of a stock chart show?
At the bottom of the chart, multiple small and vertical lines show the trend of stock traded volume. Any major news about the company, whether good or bad, increases the trading volume. An increase in volume may also shift the price of the stock quickly.
What are the different types of stock charts?
The following are the basic types of stock charts: 1 Line Stock Charts: One of the basic charts that give the least information. The line is drawn using the closing price for each unit#N#Price For Each Unit Unit Price is a measurement used for indicating the price of particular goods or services to be exchanged with customers or consumers for money. It includes fixed costs, variable costs, overheads, direct labour, and a profit margin for the organization. read more#N#of time. 2 High Low Close Bar Stock Charts: Each bar represents the trading period, with the price being high low and close represented. 3 Open High Low Close Bar Stock Chart: This represents a complete bar chart that includes the open price and close price in the day’s trading. 4 Japenese Candlestick Chart: It is widely used in Japan that gives an excellent insight into the current and future price movement. 5 Volume At Price Stock Chart: This is the new development in the stock chart that shows the volume of trades at a specific price level. 6 Equivolume Stock Charts: These charts provide the Volume at Price in a different manner.
Why does the market capitalization of a company remain unchanged during a stock split?
The company's market capitalization remains unchanged during a stock split because, while the number of shares grows, the price per share decreases correspondingly. read more. ever. When the company’s board of directors opts to provide its earnings share to its shareholders in the form of dividends, the shareholder.
What is the orange line on a stock chart?
It is the orange line that is seen every time on the stock chart that goes up or downright. A stock may take huge dives and/ or make huge climbs. An investor or trader should not react to large drops or huge gains in negative or positive ways. Rather, this trend of the line should be used just to understand what is going on in the market regarding a particular stock. This trend line helps one to analyze further. Any news related to stock will come and go, but when news coincides, there is a dramatic shift in the trend line which needs to be paid attention. Therefore, the trend line should be used as a high line of indicator to invest in stocks.
What is a stock split?
A stock split is a move strategically done by the board of directors of the company to issue additional shares to the public.
What does volume mean in stock chart?
Stock chart volume is the number of shares traded during a time period. It is plotted as a histogram under a chart where volume represents the level of interest in a stock. If a stock is trading low in volume, it means there is low interest in the stock market and vice versa.
What is the resistance level in stock market?
The resistance level in stock charts is the price from which there is no further rise. It is always about the current market price#N#Market Price Market price refers to the current price prevailing in the market at which goods, services, or assets are purchased or sold. The price point at which the supply of a commodity matches its demand in the market becomes its market price. read more#N#. It is a point on the chart where the traders will expect maximum supply for the stock. It is a technical analysis tool that the market participants look at the time of the rising market. It is unlikely of the stock price to rise above the resistance level, consolidate, absorb all the supply, and then see a high decline.
What is stock chart?
In its most basic form, a stock chart is exactly what I said above – a chart with historic prices of a particular stock.
What does dividend mean on stock chart?
At the bottom of the chart, you’ll see if and when the company issued a dividend, as well as if there was ever a stock split: A dividend is when the company (the board of directors) decides to give a portion of its earnings back to its shareholders. If you own the stock, you get a small chunk of the profit.
What is public stock trading?
Public. Public makes stock trading a social event – literally. When you use Public, you’ll have access to a community of investors – both long-time, experienced investors and beginner investors. This allows you to chat with others and get a sense of which investing strategy may work best for you.
What happens when a stock splits?
Many times when a stock split happens, more people invest (since the share price is often lower) which increases demand and, in many cases, the overall share price. 4. Understand historic trading volumes. At the very bottom of the chart, you can see many small, vertical lines.
Can I read stock charts?
A great starting point is being able to read and understand stock charts. Yes, that doesn’t sound all that exciting, but doing this gives you an advantage when you want to truly analyze a stock to buy. In the article, I’ll break down the essentials of a stock chart and explain the key things you need to focus on.

Stock Chart Construction – Lines, Bars, Candlesticks
The Importance of Volume
- Volume appears on nearly every stock chart that you’ll find. That’s because trading volume is considered a critical technical indicator by nearly every stock investor. On the chart above, in addition to showing the total level of trading volume for each day, days with greater buying volume are indicated with blue bars and days with greater selling volume are indicated with red …
Basic Volume Patterns
- There are four basic volume patterns that traders typically watch as indicators. High volume trading on Up Days – This is a bullishindication that a stock’s price will continue to rise Low volume trading on Down Days– This is also a bullish indication since it indicates that on days when the stock’s price falls back a bit, not many investors are involved in the trading. Therefore, …
Using Technical Indicators
- In analyzing stock charts for stock market investing, investors use a variety of technical indicators to help them more precisely probable price movement, to identify trends, and to anticipate market reversals from bullish trends to bearish trends and vice-versa. One of the most commonly used technical indicators is a moving average. The moving averages that are most frequently applied …
The Importance of The 200-Day Moving Average
- The 200-day moving average is considered by most analysts as a critical indicator on a stock chart. Traders who are bullish on a stock want to see the stock’s price remain above the 200-day moving average. Bearish traders who are selling short a stock want to see the stock price stay below the 200-day moving average. If a stock’s price crosses from below the 200-day moving av…
Trend and Momentum Indicators
- There is virtually an endless list of technical indicators for traders to choose from in analyzing a chart. Experiment with various indicators to discover the ones that work best for your particular style of trading, and as applied to the specific stocks that you trade. You’ll likely find that some indicators work very well for you in forecasting price movement for some stocks but not for othe…
Analyzing Trends
- When reviewing a stock chart, in addition to determining the stock’s overall trend, up or down, it’s also helpful to look to identify aspects of a trend such as the following: 1. How long has a trend been in place?Stocks do not stay in uptrends or downtrends indefinitely. Eventually, there are always trend changes. If a trend has continued for a long period of time without any significant c…
Identifying Support and Resistance Levels
- Stock charts can be particularly helpful in identifying support and resistance levels for stocks. Support levels are price levels where you usually seeing fresh buying coming in to support a stock’s price and turn it back to the upside. Conversely, resistance levels represent prices at which a stock has shown a tendency to fail in attempting to move higher, turning back to the downside…
Conclusion – Using Stock Chart Analysis
- Stock chart analysis is not infallible, not even in the hands of the most expert technical analyst. If it were, every stock investor would be a multi-millionaire. However, learning to read a stock chart will definitely help turn the odds of being a successful stock market investor in your favor. Stock chart analysis is a skill, and like any other skill, one only becomes an expert at it through practice…
Step 1 – Identify The Trend Line
Step 2 – Look For Lines of Resistance and Support
- The next step is to read a chart of the resistance and support lines. The levels are the price at which the stock remains for a particular time. The support level is a cost below which stock is improbable to fall, while the resistance level is the level or price above which a stock price is unlikely to go. The resistance and support level is unlikely to change unless there is a drastic shi…
Step 3 – Know When The Dividend and Stock Split occurs.
- At the bottom, in a stock chart, one can see if and when the company has issued a dividendDividendDividends refer to the portion of business earnings paid to the shareholders as gratitude for investing in the company’s equity.read more and a stock splitStock SplitStock splits refer to the process whereby a company increases its number of shares, reducing the per-share …
Step 4 – Understand Historic Trading Volumes
- At the bottom of the chart, multiple small and vertical lines show the trend of stock traded volume. Any major news about the company, whether good or bad, increases the trading volume. An increase in volume may also shift the price of the stock quickly. Chart 4 In the above example, the company announced a dividend, and accordingly, one can easily identify a spike in traded vol…