Bar Chart
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Key Takeaway
A bar chart is a price chart that uses vertical bars to display an asset's open, high, low, and closing prices for each selected time period.
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What Is Bar Chart?
A bar chart is a price chart that uses vertical bars to display an asset's open, high, low, and closing prices for each selected time period.
How Bar Chart Works
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a bar chart in crypto trading?
A bar chart in crypto trading is a price chart that displays four pieces of information for each time period: the opening price, the highest price reached, the lowest price reached, and the closing price. This data is shown through a vertical bar with two small horizontal ticks — one on the left side indicating the open, and one on the right indicating the close. The top and bottom of the bar represent the high and low respectively. Bar charts are also known as OHLC charts, named after the four values they display each period.
What is the difference between a bar chart and a candlestick chart?
Bar charts and candlestick charts display exactly the same price data — the open, high, low, and close for each period — but use different visual formats. A bar chart uses a vertical line with two short horizontal ticks to represent OHLC data. A candlestick chart uses a colored rectangular body with thin lines called wicks extending above and below. Candlestick charts are generally more visually intuitive because the colored body immediately shows whether price closed higher or lower than it opened, making trend direction easier to read at a glance without dissecting individual ticks.
Are bar charts still used in crypto analysis?
Yes, bar charts remain actively used in crypto analysis, though candlestick charts have become the dominant format for most retail traders. Many professional traders and institutional analysts continue to prefer bar charts because they are less visually cluttered, making it easier to focus on precise price levels rather than colored patterns. Popular platforms like TradingView allow users to switch between bar and candlestick views instantly. Learning to read bar charts is worthwhile because the underlying OHLC data is identical to candlesticks, reinforcing your understanding of price structure and market behavior more broadly.
Common Misconceptions About Bar Chart
Bar charts and candlestick charts show different types of price information.
Bar charts and candlestick charts display exactly the same price information for each period: the open, high, low, and close. The only difference is the visual presentation style. A bar uses a vertical line with two ticks, while a candlestick uses a rectangular body and wicks. The underlying data is identical. This means any price insight derived from candlestick analysis — identifying wide versus narrow ranges, or comparing open and close levels — can equally be derived from reading a bar chart with the same OHLC values.
The length of a bar on a bar chart represents the trading volume for that period.
The length of a bar on a bar chart represents the price range for that period — specifically, the distance between the highest and lowest price reached. A long bar means price traveled a wide distance from top to bottom during that session, indicating high volatility. A short bar means price movement was contained within a narrow range. Trading volume is a completely separate data element, displayed as its own set of bars along the bottom of the chart below the price bars, and should never be confused with bar height.
Bar charts are outdated and have been fully replaced by candlestick charts.
Bar charts have not been replaced — they remain a legitimate and actively used charting format, particularly among professional traders with backgrounds in traditional financial markets where OHLC bars were the historical standard. Institutional platforms and Bloomberg terminals still display bar charts by default. While candlestick charts have become the preferred format for most retail crypto traders due to their visual intuitiveness, bar charts offer identical analytical capability and are often preferred on multi-indicator chart setups where visual simplicity reduces clutter and improves readability.