POLL: Do you prefer regular OHLC charts or Candlestick charts?

I'm just curious.

I included the 5-year criterion to see if there is any notable difference between what newer traders prefer and those traders that have been at it a while longer. Please participate in the poll and feel free to post any comments. Thank you.

 

neither

 

Could you elaborate, please? Perhaps you don't use charts of any kind?

 

I follow the bid only.

 

I think the only reason to use OHLC instead of candlesticks is if you trade primarily (or exclusively) based on oscillators. OHLC is more compact. I find OHLC utterly worthless. Candlesticks show everything that OHLC does with the added benefit that you instantly see whether a particular day was an "up" day or "down" day. I use regular arithmetic candlestick charts.

 

I favor OHLC and I don't use any indicators. As for "instantly" seeing whether a particular day (or bar) was an up bar, my OHLC bars turn green when they close up and red when they close down, as I imagine is the case with most people who use OHLC charts. So I don't think that the "instant" thing is a valid argument. Even so, I appreciate your opinion. I have been using OHLC bars from the get-go, but have come to notice that more and more people seem to favor candlesticks. Certainly the poll results thus far support that observation. I just can't quite understand why the most basic configuration, with a little twig at the left and right side of the bar representing the Open and Close, is not preferred by more people.

 

Systems are different. I use bigcharts.com and the bar chart is worthless there. Observe: (image 1) is barcharts image 2 is candlestick

 

Second chart is better for me. Same stock. Candlesticks have more "juice" and are more illustrative.

 

does that mean you view the DOM and if the bid on the DOM is reading...you buy or sell?

 

I have traded for FEWER than 2 years and it depends on the time frame.

1 - 5 min: Bar
15, 30 and 60 minutes: Candlestick
Daily: Candlestick
Weekly: Bar