Marketiva is a foreign exchange (forex) dealer where people can start trading with as little as $1 and learn how to successfully participate in the largest financial market in the world.Before you start trading it is the most important to practice with virtualmoney. We suggest you to trade with virtual money for as long as possible,before trading your own real funds. In the learning process, technicalanalysis and reading of charts have a very important place. Please allow meto provide you details on how to read charts at Marketiva:

CHARTS IN MARKETIVA - BASICS

A price chart represents a sequence of prices plotted over a specific timeframe. On the chart, vertical axis (referred to as y-axis) represents theprice scale and the horizontal axis (x-axis) represents the time scale.Prices are plotted from left to right, so the most recent price value isplaced on the furthest right.

Four most popular charts styles are implemented in the Streamster:

Line Chart

Line chart, often referred to as Fever chart, is one of the most commonforms of graph, particularly favored by scientists, with data pointsdisplayed against X and Y axes and all the points connected with a singleline. The points themselves are not shown.

Alternatively, all the datapoints may be shown and a line drawn which doesn't necessarily go throughthem all but which gives a reasonable "best fit" to them all.

Line HL Chart

Line chart is the easiest chart to read and it clearly illustrates trend ofthe market. The drawback of Line chart style is that it does not show howvolatile market is in specific period. Two grey lines on Line HL (High /Low) chart, one above and other under base line, show High and Low value ina period of time. If all three lines are almost "glued" together, market inthat period had low volatility and vice-versa.

Bar Chart

Bar chart is graphic representation of price action using a vertical bar.Each vertical bar shows four values:- Highest price during a period - value at the top of the line,- Lowest price during a period - value at the bottom of the line,- Opening price is shown as a horizontal line on the bar's left side, and- Closing price is shown as a horizontal line on the bar's right side.

Bar charts can be effective for displaying a large amount of data: Linechart is not suitable if High and Low values are used in analysis andCandlestick chart takes a lot of room on graph, making it harder to "read"and analyze.

Candlestick Chart

The Japanese began using technical analysis to trade rice in the 17thcentury, but the US version initiated by Charles Dow at the beginning of20th century popularized it in technical analysis. Charles Dow developed theDow Theory from his analysis of market price action in the late 19thcentury.Each candlestick is composed of a vertically standing rectangle (body) andvertical lines (shadows).

The rectangle indicates the open and close oftrading periods. If the body of a candlestick is white, the close price ofthe period was higher than it was when it opened. A black body signifies aclosing price lower than the price at the opening of the period. Highest andlowest values of a period are shown as value at the top and bottom of theshadows.Compared to traditional bar and line charts, many traders considercandlestick charts easier to interpret. Each candlestick gives arepresentation of price action. Trader can compare the relationship betweenthe open and close as well as the high and low in that period and get thevital information about the market: White (hollow) candlesticks indicatebuying pressure, while black (filled) ones indicate selling pressure.

TIMESCALE

Charts can be displayed for any time period in which prices are available,ranging from 5 minutes to one month. Traditionally, the most popular timechart intervals are hourly and 4-hour intervals, however, it is also commonto use smaller time intervals such as 30 minutes, 15 minutes, and even 5minutes.

CONCLUSION

One chart style is not necessarily better than the other. They all show samedata, but each method will provide its own unique interpretation, with itsown benefits and drawbacks mentioned above.Which charting method to use, will depend on your personal preferences andon your trading style. One advice is to limit the number of charts,indicators and styles you use and that once you choose a particular chartingmethodology, you should stick with it and learn how best to read thesignals. Constant changing, may cause confusion and undermine your trading.