Vertical lines with open and close ticks. The minimalist alternative to candlesticks.
A free, animated ohlc bar chart you can read here or embed on any website, from Scrollchart.
OHLC Bar Chart
Each OHLC bar is a vertical line spanning the full price range of a trading period. The top of the line marks the session high; the bottom marks the session low. A short horizontal tick on the left side marks the opening price; a tick on the right side marks the closing price. The bar is colored to indicate direction: one color (typically green or a lighter accent) when the close is at or above the open, and a contrasting color (red or a stronger accent) when the close is below the open.
To read a single bar: find the left tick to see where price opened, the right tick to see where it closed, and the vertical extent to see how widely price ranged during the session. A bar where the close tick is near the high of the range and well above the open tick signals strong buying pressure. A bar where the close tick is near the low and below the open signals selling pressure.
OHLC bars encode exactly the same four data points as candlestick bodies plus wicks but use less ink. They are preferred by some traders and analysts who find the tick-mark format faster to scan at high density, and by publications where color printing is unreliable, since the open/close relationship reads from tick positions rather than body color alone.
Editorial pages where a quick visual replaces a wall of text
Content-marketing posts that need a clean, branded illustration
Source & accuracy
This ohlc bar chart is an editorial illustration built to represent the concept accurately. Where it shows figures, they are typical or representative values chosen to make the relationship clear, not a single underlying dataset. The diagram and its explainer are reviewed and maintained centrally, and updated over time as understanding improves.
Minimalist encoding of four price points
An OHLC (Open-High-Low-Close) bar chart uses vertical lines to show the daily price range and small ticks to mark the open and close. The line spans from low (bottom) to high (top), and a small horizontal tick on the left marks open while a tick on the right marks close. This design packs four numbers into minimal horizontal space, making it ideal for viewing many days at once.
Comparing OHLC bars to candlesticks
Both OHLC bars and candlesticks convey the same four data points, but candlesticks use a colored rectangle body between open and close, making them more visually distinctive. OHLC bars are thinner and less visually 'noisy,' which some prefer for crowded daily charts. Candlesticks dominate financial markets, but OHLC bars remain standard in scientific and engineering contexts where color distinction matters less.
Interpreting tick placement and line length
A line with ticks far apart (long wick) indicates a large intraday price move. Ticks close together (short wick) or at the endpoints (no movement from open/close to high/low) suggest limited volatility. If the left tick (open) is below the right tick (close), price moved upward during the period. If left is above right, price fell. This visual logic scales well for viewing months or years of daily bars.
Embed this diagram
Add this animated ohlc bar chart to your own site. Copy one line of HTML, or use the embed builder for theme and sizing options.
Reference
What this is
A free, embeddable, animated ohlc bar chart for any website.
Who uses it
Data journalists, Researchers & academics, Content marketers, News organizations.
How to embed
Copy one line of HTML. No signup. No watermark. Works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, Substack, plain HTML.
File size
iframe embed, ~80 KB gzipped (loads on demand, does not block your page paint).
License
Free forever. Editorial explainer text included; updated centrally over time.
Copy the universal HTML snippet, the WordPress shortcode, or an iframe fallback -
see the WordPress plugin page for details. Any format keeps
the same Core Web Vitals profile and the same explainer text.
By embedding, you acknowledge the diagram and explainer text are served from scrollchart.com and may be updated from time to time to reflect new research or to link to relevant sources within the explainer.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I get a free animated "OHLC Bar Chart" for my website?
Scrollchart provides "OHLC Bar Chart" as a free, embeddable animated diagram you can add to any website with one line of HTML. No signup is required and there is no watermark. The diagram and its explainer text are served from scrollchart.com, so the embed stays current without any maintenance on your end.
How do I embed a ohlc bar chart in a blog post or article?
Paste the one-line HTML snippet from the Scrollchart diagram page into your post editor. It works in WordPress, Webflow, Ghost, and plain HTML with no plugin required. The animated diagram and its explainer text load from scrollchart.com and render directly in your page DOM.