The first time a beginner opens TradingView or Zerodha Kite, the chart looks like a wall of coloured rectangles, vertical lines, and noise. It is not. Every shape on the chart is a compact summary of just four numbers: open, high, low, and close.
Once you understand what those four numbers are, every chart type — line, bar, candlestick, Heikin Ashi, Renko — is just a different visual format for the same underlying data.
This guide explains OHLC, the three main chart types, how to choose timeframes, and how to read the volume bars at the bottom — the building blocks every technical trader must master before touching indicators.
The OHLC Foundation
Every stock chart, regardless of type, is built from four numbers per time period:
Open (O): The first traded price of the period (9:15 AM for daily charts on NSE)
High (H): The highest price reached during the period
Low (L): The lowest price reached during the period
Close (C): The last traded price of the period (3:30 PM for daily charts)
For example, on a typical day Reliance might show: Open ₹2,820, High ₹2,855, Low ₹2,810, Close ₹2,845. That single set of four numbers becomes a single shape on the chart — a line dot, a bar, or a candlestick — depending on the chart type you choose.
Why Close Matters Most:
Among the four OHLC numbers, the close is the most important. It represents the consensus value at the end of the trading session, after all institutional desks have placed their final orders. Many technical indicators (moving averages, RSI, MACD) use only the close price as input — not the open, high, or low.
Chart Type 1 — The Line Chart
The simplest chart type. It plots only the closing price of each period and connects the dots with a line.
What you see: A single continuous line showing the trajectory of the closing price
What you miss: Intraday volatility, gaps, the relationship between open and close
Best for: Quick trend assessment, long-term overview, comparing two stocks side by side
If you are looking at a 10-year line chart of HDFC Bank, you can quickly see the long-term direction. If you are deciding whether to buy it next Tuesday, the line chart is almost useless — you need the OHLC detail that a candlestick provides.
Chart Type 2 — The Bar Chart (OHLC Bar)
A bar chart represents each period as a vertical line with two horizontal ticks. The top of the vertical line is the high, the bottom is the low. The tick on the left is the open, the tick on the right is the close.
What you see: All four OHLC values for every period
What you miss: The visual contrast candlesticks provide — bullish vs bearish bars look nearly identical at a glance
Best for: Western traders who grew up on Wall Street; HLOC-only printouts
Worst for: Speed-reading patterns — your eye has to compare two thin ticks per bar
Bar charts have been almost completely replaced by candlestick charts in modern Indian trading platforms. For beginners, skip them.
Chart Type 3 — The Candlestick Chart (The Default Choice)
Originally developed by Japanese rice traders in the 1700s, candlestick charts are now the global standard. They display the same OHLC data as bar charts, but use a filled rectangular body with thin wicks above and below — making bullish and bearish periods instantly distinguishable.
Anatomy of a Candlestick
Body: The rectangular block between the open and close prices
Upper wick (shadow): Thin line above the body, reaching up to the high
Lower wick (shadow): Thin line below the body, reaching down to the low
Colour: Green (or white) = close above open (bullish). Red (or black) = close below open (bearish)
Candlestick charts give you trend, momentum, and reversal signals in one visual language. This is why every serious Indian technical trader on TradingView, Zerodha, Upstox, or Groww uses candlesticks by default. We cover specific candlestick patterns in detail in our candlestick patterns article.
Choosing the Right Timeframe
The same stock looks completely different on a 5-minute chart vs a weekly chart. The chart frame you choose must match your trading horizon.
Timeframe
Each Candle Represents
Best For
1-min / 5-min
1 minute / 5 minutes
Scalpers, intraday traders
15-min / 1-hour
15 minutes / 1 hour
Intraday swing, BTST setups
Daily (1D)
One trading session
Swing traders (days to weeks)
Weekly (1W)
5 trading days combined
Positional traders, long-term entries
Monthly (1M)
One calendar month
Long-term investors, multi-year views
Multi-Timeframe Analysis:
Professional traders rarely look at just one timeframe. The typical workflow: weekly chart confirms the major trend → daily chart finds the swing setup → hourly chart times the precise entry. This top-down approach prevents you from buying a stock that looks bullish on the 15-min chart but is in a clear downtrend on the weekly.
The Volume Bars — Don't Ignore the Bottom of the Chart
Below the price chart, you will see a row of vertical bars — usually green or red — showing the trading volume for each period. This is the most underrated section of any chart.
Volume tells you how many shares changed hands. A breakout above resistance on volume 3× the 50-day average is a strong signal. A breakout on below-average volume is usually a fakeout that gets sold the next day.
Volume Rules of Thumb
Volume above 50-day average + price moving with the trend: Strong confirmation
Volume below 50-day average + price moving: Weak signal, often reverses
Volume spike + indecision candle (Doji): Often marks a turning point
Sudden volume collapse during a trend: Trend losing steam, watch for reversal
India-Specific Volume Trap:
For small-cap stocks with average daily traded volume below ₹2-3 crore, a single operator can artificially inflate volume to trigger retail FOMO. Always cross-check volume on at least two platforms (NSE official + TradingView) and treat unusual spikes in low-liquidity stocks with extreme caution.
Zerodha Kite — built-in charts with full technical indicators if you have a Zerodha demat
Upstox Pro / Groww — clean mobile-first charts
Investing.com — quick access without account, decent for casual checks
Screener.in — basic charts alongside the financial data you came for
NSE / BSE official sites — clean OHLC data, no indicators but authoritative source
TradingView is the most widely used among serious technical traders globally. If you plan to do anything beyond the basics, learning TradingView is time well invested.
Next Step — Learn Candlestick Patterns
Once you can read a basic candlestick chart, the next step is recognising specific patterns — Doji, Hammer, Engulfing, Shooting Star — that signal reversals and continuations.
OHLC stands for Open, High, Low, and Close — the four price points that summarise any time period on a chart. The Open is the first trade of the period, the High is the highest price reached, the Low is the lowest, and the Close is the final trade. Every candlestick and bar on a chart shows these four numbers visually. Together, they tell you the entire price story of that period in a single shape.
Start with line charts to understand overall trend, then move to candlestick charts for actual analysis. Line charts show only the closing price and are easy to read but hide intraday volatility. Candlestick charts show OHLC plus the relationship between open and close (via colour), making them the most information-rich format. Bar charts (OHLC bars) show the same data but are visually harder to read. Over 95% of Indian traders use candlestick charts in tools like TradingView, Zerodha Kite, and Upstox.
The timeframe depends on your trading style. Long-term investors look at weekly or monthly charts. Swing traders (holding days to weeks) typically use daily charts. Intraday traders use 5-minute, 15-minute, or hourly charts. A common practice is multi-timeframe analysis — looking at the weekly chart for the major trend, the daily for swing entries, and the hourly for precise timing. Never zoom in to the 1-minute chart for a long-term investment decision.
A green (or white) candlestick body means the close was higher than the open — bulls won that period. A red (or black) body means the close was lower than the open — bears won. The size of the body shows the conviction: a large body means a decisive move, a small body means indecision. The thin lines (wicks or shadows) above and below the body show the high and low. The colour convention can be customised, but green = bullish, red = bearish is the universal default.
The volume bars at the bottom of a stock chart show the number of shares that changed hands in each period. Volume is the missing puzzle piece for price — a price move on high volume is meaningful (real conviction); a price move on low volume is often a fakeout. As a beginner rule: ignore any breakout above resistance that happens on volume below the 50-day average — it usually fails.
The best free chart sources for Indian stocks: (1) TradingView (tradingview.com) — institutional-grade charting; (2) Zerodha Kite / Upstox / Groww — if you have an account, full charting tools are built in; (3) Investing.com — quick access without login; (4) Screener.in — basic charts alongside fundamentals; (5) NSE / BSE official websites for clean OHLC data. TradingView is the most widely used among serious technical traders.
📖 New to finance terms? Our glossary covers 150+ Indian finance terms — plain English, no jargon.
