Bar Graph

A chart with rectangles (each representing a category) placed next to each other in which the length of each rectangle represents the amount of data in each category. For example, the rectangles could represent U.S. states and their sizes may correspond to their GDP.

Vertical Line Chart

A chart that consists of vertical bars, each representing a trading day. The top of each bar represents the highest price of the day, while the bottom represents the lowest price. The closing price is shown by a short, horizontal line to the right of the bar, while the opening price is shown by the same thing to the left of the bar. The vertical axis of the chart shows prices, while the horizontal axis shows trading days. It is also called a bar chart.

bar chart

bar

In technical analysis, a chart pattern indicating the activity of an economic variable, usually a stock price, over time (plotted on the horizontal axis) compared with the value of that variable throughout the same period of time (plotted on the vertical axis). In a bar chart of a stock price, the high and low prices for the period are connected by a vertical line. A short horizontal slash is often drawn across the bar at the closing price. Bar charts are the graphs most frequently used by technicians. Also called vertical line chart. Compare point-and-figure chart. See also line chart, candlestick chart.

Wall Street Words: An A to Z Guide to Investment Terms for Today's Investor by David L. Scott. Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.

bar chart

histogram

a chart that portrays data in pictorial form and shows the relative size of each category in a total by means of the relative height of its ‘bar’ or ‘block’.