OHLCV

In detail

OHLCV records five values for each time interval — the opening price, the highest and lowest prices reached, the closing price, and the number of shares traded. It is the base dataset behind price charts and nearly every technical indicator. Each carries different information. Open and close bracket the period, and the distance between them is what a candlestick body shows. High and low mark the extremes actually traded, so the gap between them describes how contested the period was. Volume is the one most often ignored and frequently the most informative: a large price move on heavy volume reflects broad participation, while the same move on thin volume often reverses. Some caveats about the data itself. Prices are usually adjusted retroactively for splits and dividends, so a historical series may not match what the screen showed at the time. Daily OHLCV typically excludes pre-market and after-hours trading, which is where a good deal of reaction to earnings happens. And a single interval's numbers say nothing about the path taken within it — the same OHLCV can describe a steady drift or a violent round trip.