Chart School / Reading Charts
Timeframes and gaps
Lesson 3 of 14 · about 1 min read, plus practice · Glossary
An interval determines what each candle summarizes: minutes, days or longer. An upward hour can sit inside a downward month. Compare equal intervals and compatible trading sessions. A price gap means the next opening price differs from the preceding close; missing timestamps may instead reflect a market closure, a halt, missing observations or a feed problem. Investigate the source rather than filling missing prices with invented trades. Stocks and continuously traded crypto have different session conventions.
Worked fictional example
Fictional River closes Friday at $100 and opens Monday at $106. The missing weekend candles can be valid for a stock market. The opening price gap is $6; it need not close immediately.
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 Timeframes and gaps. 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 | 100 | 101 | 99 | 100 | 100 |
| 2024-01-02 | 100 | 102 | 99 | 101 | 120 |
| 2024-01-03 | 101 | 102 | 99 | 100 | 0 |
| 2024-01-04 | 100 | 107 | 99 | 106 | 160 |
| 2024-01-05 | 106 | 107 | 104 | 105 | 180 |
| 2024-01-06 | 105 | 109 | 104 | 108 | 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 conclusion about a gap fails if adjusted prices, session settings or missing observations explain the difference.
A counterexample
A five-minute rise while the daily series falls does not make either chart wrong: they describe different horizons.
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
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