How to read a crypto price chart

A price chart shows what happened. It doesn't tell you what will happen next. Reading one well is about understanding the past clearly, not predicting the future.

Candlesticks

Each candle covers one slice of time, like one hour or one day. It shows four prices: where the price opened, the high, the low, and where it closed.

• The thick part (the body) runs from open to close.
• The thin lines (wicks) show the high and low.
• Green (or hollow) usually means it closed higher than it opened. Red means lower.

Timeframes

The same coin can look calm on a weekly chart and wild on a five-minute chart. Always check which timeframe you are looking at before drawing any conclusion. Longer timeframes smooth out the noise.

Volume

The bars along the bottom show how much was traded in each period. A big price move on tiny volume means fewer people took part. Volume shows activity, not direction.

Moving averages

A moving average is the average closing price over a set number of periods, such as 50 days, drawn as a line. It smooths the price so the general trend is easier to see. It always lags behind, because it is built from past prices.

Common traps

• Patterns are not promises. Shapes that "worked before" fail often.
• Screenshots can be cropped to tell any story. Check the full chart and the timeframe.
• Anyone selling "sure" chart signals is a red flag. We never give buy or sell signals.

Want to practise? Open any coin on our Markets page and look at its chart with these four ideas in mind.