What is OHLC
OHLC stands for open, high, low and close: the first, highest, lowest and last price of an instrument during a set period. That period is called the timeframe and can be a minute, an hour, a day, a week or longer.
An OHLC chart draws each period as a bar or a candle. A bar is a vertical line from low to high, with a left tick at the open and a right tick at the close. A candle shows the same prices. The body runs from open to close, and the thin lines above and below it, called wicks or shadows, reach the high and the low. See Candlestick Patterns for how traders read candle shapes.
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Worked example (hypothetical)
Take an hourly bar on XAUUSD (gold against the US dollar). No real prices are used here.
- Open: the hour starts with the price at level O.
- Low: sellers push the price down to level L, which sits below O.
- High: buyers then lift it to level H, which sits above O.
- Close: the hour ends at level C, below H but above O.
The candle is bullish, because the close is above the open. Its body runs from O up to C. It has an upper wick from C to H and a lower wick from O down to L. The full height of the bar, H minus L, is the range for that hour. Averaging that range over many days gives the average daily range.
Where you see OHLC
- Trading platforms. MetaTrader shows the open, high, low and close in the Data Window and in the tooltip when you hover over a bar. You can switch between bar, candle and line views. A line chart usually connects only the closes. See MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 and MT WebTerminal.
- Data exports and APIs. Price history files usually come as columns: date/time, open, high, low, close, and often volume (OHLCV).
- News and exchange reports. Daily market tables list the open, the session high and low, and the close. Headlines often compare the close with the previous close.
Precise definition and edge cases
- The price source matters. On many forex and CFD platforms, bars are built from bid prices. The ask side, and so your real entry price on a buy, sits higher by the spread. Exchange charts are built from traded prices instead.
- Server time sets the bar. A daily bar opens and closes at the platform's server midnight. Two providers using different time zones will show different daily OHLC for the same market.
- Close is not always the settlement price. On futures exchanges, the official settlement price can differ from the last trade. Stock closes often come from a closing auction.
- Gaps. A bar can open well away from the previous close, for example after a weekend.
- Live bars change. The current bar's high, low and close keep moving until the period ends.
- Spikes. A brief spike can set the high or low for the whole bar even if the price traded there for only a moment.
- Adjusted data. Stock histories may be adjusted for splits and dividends, so old OHLC values will not match the prints from that day.
OHLC only describes past prices. It does not predict the next bar. Leveraged CFD and forex positions can lose money fast, whatever the chart shows. See Risk management.
Related terms
Frequent questions
What does OHLC mean?
It means open, high, low, close: the first, highest, lowest and last price in a chosen period.
Is an OHLC chart the same as a candlestick chart?
Both use the same prices. Bars mark the open and close with side ticks, while candles show them as a body.
Why does my daily candle differ from another website's?
The two sources may use different server time zones, bid versus traded prices, or adjusted data.
Does OHLC include volume?
Not by itself. Data that adds volume is often labelled OHLCV.