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Getting started · 6 min read

Reading a chart

If charts have always looked like a wall of red and green confetti, this page is for you. Ten minutes here and every chart in BreakoutScan (and everywhere else) will make sense.

One candle = one slice of time

A chart is made of candles. Each candle summarizes what the price did in one slice of time — one minute, one day, one week, depending on the timeframe you pick. Four numbers, one picture:

High — the top price reachedClose — where the price endedOpen — where the price startedLow — the bottom price reachedGreen: closed higher than it openedRed: closed lower
Anatomy of a candle. The thick part (the body) spans open→close; the thin lines (wicks) show the extremes.
  • Green candle: the price ended the slice higher than it started. Buyers won that round.
  • Red candle: it ended lower. Sellers won.
  • Long wick: the price visited an extreme but got pushed back — often a sign of a fight at that level.

Timeframes

The buttons above the chart (1m … D W M) set how much time each candle covers. Day traders live on minutes; investors think in days and weeks. When you’re starting out, the daily view (D) is the calmest place to learn — each candle is one full day.

The lines we draw for you

On most platforms, traders draw their own trend lines. BreakoutScan draws them automatically wherever it detects a pattern: support (a level where falls kept stopping) in green, resistance (where rises kept stalling) in red. You can also add your own lines with the drawing tools — they’re saved to your account per ticker, so they’re still there tomorrow.

Good to know
Hover any candle and a readout shows its exact open, high, low, close, and volume. Volume — the number of shares traded — is the bar chart along the bottom: tall bars mean lots of participation, which makes a move more meaningful.