I'm creating software that will perform technical analysis on stock data. I'm using single day sessions. I've noticed data where the open, close, high, and low prices are the same. When I pull these day sessions up in a candlestick chart, the session has no real body or shadows, it's just a flat horizontal line. This would make sense if the open. high, low, and close are the same price. I've tried to research this, but had no luck. What is this called? Does this mean this stock didn't trade for that day?
1 Answer
If you are looking at daily data (X number of hours of trading compressed into one data point) and the "open, close, high, and low prices are the same" then:
(1) The stock did not trade that day
(2) There was only one trade all day which met all conditions (O, H, L, C)
(3) You are looking at bad data
If there is a volume number in your data, it will distinguish (1) from (2).
answered Jan 16, 2019 at 12:48
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Note that the Consolidated Tape Association rules mean that only certain trades contribute to OHLC but all trades contribute to Volume. For example, it's possible for only one block trade to have occurred during the day and some after-hours trades. None of these trades would affect OHLC but would affect volume. Repeating the prior close to the current day's OHLC values is known as padding. Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 0:05