Chart School / Reading Charts
Chart anatomy and axes
Lesson 1 of 14 · about 1 min read, plus practice · Glossary
A price chart places time on the horizontal axis and price on the vertical axis. A line often joins closing prices; it leaves out movements within each period. Read the symbol, venue, currency, interval and adjustment setting before interpreting a shape. A linear scale spaces equal dollar changes equally. A logarithmic scale spaces equal percentage changes equally. The same history can look very different when the scale or visible date range changes.
Worked fictional example
Fictional River moves from $10 to $20, then $20 to $30. Each rise is $10, but the percentage rises are 100% and 50%. A linear chart gives those rises equal height.
On a small screen, scroll the chart horizontally to read every label.
Observation order / daily periods →
Accessible data table and chart description
Separate fictional daily OHLCV illustration for Chart anatomy and axes. Hollow body: close at or above open; filled body: close below open. Table provides exact values.
| Date UTC | Open | High | Low | Close | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-01 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 100 |
| 2024-01-02 | 10 | 13 | 9 | 12 | 120 |
| 2024-01-03 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 14 | 0 |
| 2024-01-04 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 160 |
| 2024-01-05 | 16 | 19 | 15 | 18 | 180 |
| 2024-01-06 | 18 | 21 | 17 | 20 | 200 |
Legend: hollow body = close ≥ open; filled blue body = close < open. Wick = low to high. Direction is also readable from the table, without color.
What could invalidate this interpretation?
A claim that a steeper line proves faster percentage growth fails if the chart uses a linear scale or a changed date range.
A counterexample
A flat closing-price line can hide large intraperiod swings. A closing line alone cannot establish that trading was calm.
Check your understanding
Further learning
Original FinanceFD explanations and drawings. For additional context, see Fidelity’s overview of technical analysis, Fidelity’s RSI guide and Investor.gov’s investing introduction.
Learning progress
Complete and sync all 32 lessons—18 Money Basics (beginner, intermediate, and expert across six topics) plus 14 Chart School—with one FinanceFD passkey account to earn a one-time 3-day Premium Membership trial. It does not require a payment method, start a charge, or renew automatically. If Premium is already active, the reward begins after that access ends. One reward per account.
If you are signed in to your FinanceFD passkey account, completed lesson IDs are saved there. Otherwise choose Sync with Passkey. Browser-only progress is merged only when you choose to sync; quiz answers and calculator entries are not saved. You can clear synced progress here.