Beginner Question on Line Charts

[tellerd66]

Hi Guys,

I often notice that on yahoo finance and Interactive brokers, the line chart does not hit the listed high or low of the day.

I thought line charts were supposed to include every print for the day? Is this not the case?

 

[tommcginnis]

"...supposed to hit every print..."
Oh god no. Your single line would be a mere blur through the millions of trades in a day, and market price info would be slowed to molasses as everyone, in essence, applied for by-tick timeXsales data. So, how to speed things along?

4 data points are collected for each defined cut of time -- the opening price, the high, the low, and the closing price -- ye ol' OHLC. Of those four, on which would you base a single line?

The Open is the least relevant -- if the defined cut of time is a 1-day 'candle', then the open would put your line chart a full market day behind.
The High is not relevant -- it's just a momentary thing...and EVERY other trade was less than that!
The Low? What if the price was climbing all day?
So we're left with the Close -- which handily enough, is also the *latest* information for that time period. ("Yayyyyy!")

 

[Scataphagos]

You could have a line chart of the highs or of the lows. Most line charts are for the close of some period.

 

[padutrader]

for the close

yep line charts show the close

 

[murray t turtle]

You could have a line chart of the highs or of the lows. Most line charts are for the close of some period.

%% Yes, that ;
+ YHOO has many errors.........................................................