Candlestick Chart
Candlestick Chart
What Is This Report Type?
A Candlestick Chart is a financial chart that displays four data points per time period: Open, High, Low, and Close (OHLC). Each “candle” consists of a rectangular body (showing the range between open and close) with thin lines called “wicks” or “shadows” extending above and below (showing the high and low extremes). The candle body is typically colored to indicate whether the close was higher (green/bullish) or lower (red/bearish) than the open.
Why Is It Used?
Candlestick Charts pack four dimensions of data into a single visual element, making them the standard tool for financial and price movement analysis. Beyond finance, they apply to any domain where tracking the range, opening state, and closing state of a metric over time is valuable—such as inventory levels, energy consumption peaks, or bid/ask spreads.
Key Features and Characteristics
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| OHLC Encoding | Open, High, Low, Close values encoded in one candle per period. |
| Bullish/Bearish Color | Green (or hollow) candles indicate Close > Open; red (or filled) indicate Close < Open. |
| Wicks/Shadows | Upper wick shows the high; lower wick shows the low—revealing intra-period volatility. |
| Body Width | The rectangular body’s height represents the spread between open and close values. |
| Time Axis | Typically plotted on a time axis (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months). |
When to Use It (Use Cases)
- Price Monitoring: Tracking daily high/low/open/close for product prices or commodity costs.
- Inventory Fluctuation: Showing intra-day inventory high, low, opening, and closing stock levels.
- Energy Consumption: Displaying peak, trough, start, and end consumption within each hour or shift.
- Bid/Ask Spreads: Monitoring procurement bid ranges over time in sourcing analysis.
Real-Time Business Example
Scenario: A procurement manager tracks the daily price fluctuations of a key raw material across a 30-day period to identify optimal purchase windows.
Visualization: Each day appears as one candle. Days where the closing price is lower than the opening (price fell) appear as red candles—these are buying opportunities. Days where the price rose appear as green candles. The upper wicks reveal intra-day price spikes, while lower wicks show how far prices dipped. The manager identifies a cluster of red candles in week 3 as the optimal purchase window.
Common Metrics Displayed
- Product/Commodity Prices: Daily OHLC for raw materials, energy, or components.
- Stock or Financial Data: Market price OHLC for any traded instrument.
- Metric Ranges: Any four-value range (e.g., server latency min/max/start/end per interval).
- Inventory Levels: Opening stock, peak, low, and closing stock per day or shift.
User Interactions
| Interaction | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Filters | Filter by date range or asset category to focus the analysis window. |
| Hover / Tooltip | Hovering over a candle reveals exact Open, High, Low, and Close values for that period. |
| Zoom | Drag to select a time range and zoom in for higher-resolution analysis. |
| Pan | Pan left or right to navigate across extended time series. |
| Export | Export to Excel. |
Creation Steps
- Select Candlestick Chart as the report type.
- X-Axis: Drag a date/time field (e.g., Date or Hour).
- Open / High / Low / Close: Map four numeric fields to each OHLC role.