OHLC (Open-High-Low-Close)

OHLC BarOpen-High-Low-Close

The four prices that summarize a trading period — open, high, low, and close — the raw data behind every candlestick and bar chart.

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Formula

Range = High - Low
Body = |Close - Open|
Upper Wick = High - max(Open, Close)
Lower Wick = min(Open, Close) - Low

OHLC stands for the four prices that define any trading period: the Open (first traded price), the High (highest price reached), the Low (lowest price reached), and the Close (last traded price). Together they compress an entire session into four numbers.

These four values are the raw input for the two dominant price charts. A candlestick draws the body between open and close and the wicks out to the high and low. An OHLC bar draws a vertical line from high to low, with a left tick marking the open and a right tick marking the close. Same data, different glyph.

Why each price matters:

The open and close together show net direction and conviction — a close far from the open is a decisive session.
The high and low mark the session's extremes, defining its range and the levels that were tested and rejected.
The close is usually treated as the most important of the four — it is the price the market agreed on after a full session of two-sided trading, and most indicators (moving averages, RSI, MACD) are calculated from closes.

Every candlestick pattern in this category is, at bottom, a relationship between the OHLC values of one or more periods.

Example

A daily bar prints Open 100.00, High 104.50, Low 99.20, Close 103.80. Range = High − Low = 104.50 − 99.20 = 5.30. The body (open to close) = 103.80 − 100.00 = 3.80, a bullish candle since the close is above the open. The upper wick = High − Close = 104.50 − 103.80 = 0.70; the lower wick = Open − Low = 100.00 − 99.20 = 0.80. A wide body with small wicks: a decisive up day.

#anatomy#charting#basics

Related Terms

Technical Analysis

Bar Chart

A chart showing each period's open, high, low, and close as a vertical bar with left and right tick marks.

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Candlestick Patterns

Bullish Candle

A candle where the close is higher than the open, indicating net buying pressure during the period.

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Candlestick Patterns

Candlestick Chart

A price chart that draws each period as a candle — body between open and close, wicks to the high and low — showing the session's battle at a glance.

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Candlestick Patterns

Real Body

The rectangular portion of a candle between the open and close prices — the core visual measure of session conviction.

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Candlestick Patterns

Wick

The thin lines above and below a candle's real body, marking the session's high and low extremes beyond the open/close range.

Beginner

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