Why Different Charts Exist
Different charts show different things. Some are great for spotting patterns. Others are better for seeing trends. Picking the right chart can make your analysis much clearer.
Candlestick Charts
This is the most popular chart type. Each "candle" shows four prices: the opening price, the highest price, the lowest price, and the closing price for a time period. Green candles mean the price went up. Red candles mean it went down.
Best for: Spotting patterns like reversals and breakouts. Most traders use candlestick charts as their default.
Heikin-Ashi Charts
Heikin-Ashi means "average bar" in Japanese. These candles use a special formula that smooths out the price, making it easier to see the overall trend. A string of green candles means a clear uptrend. A string of red means a downtrend.
The trade-off: you can't read exact prices from Heikin-Ashi candles because they use averages. Best for: Seeing the direction of a trend without all the day-to-day noise.
Renko and Point & Figure Charts
Renko charts use bricks that only show up when the price moves a set amount. Time doesn't matter — a brick might take one day or one month to form. This creates very clean trends.
Point & Figure (P&F) charts use X's for price rises and O's for price drops. Like Renko, they ignore time completely. Both are great for seeing clear trends and finding price targets. Best for: Filtering out noise and seeing pure price movement.
Volume Profile and Seasonality
Volume Profile shows how much trading happened at each price level. Areas with lots of volume become "walls" — prices tend to stop or bounce there. It's great for finding where a stock is likely to find support or resistance.
Seasonality charts show patterns over months and years. For example, some stocks tend to go up in December most years. This helps with timing when to buy or sell. Best for: Volume Profile = finding support/resistance. Seasonality = timing.