Open, High, Low, Close (OHLC)

Every trading day produces four prices: the open (first trade of the day), the high (highest price reached), the low (lowest price reached), and the close (last trade of the day). Together these four numbers summarize a full day of trading activity. The close is generally considered the most important of the four because it reflects where buyers and sellers settled at the end of the session.

The gap between the high and low tells you how much the price moved during the day. A wide range means the stock was active and contested. A narrow range means it traded quietly.

When the close is near the high, buyers were in control going into the end of the day. When it is near the low, sellers had the last word. If the open and close are close together but the high and low are far apart, neither side won convincingly — the stock moved around but ended up roughly where it started.