Skip to content
All library documents

Interpreting High–Low and Open–Close Price Ranges

Article Quant Q&A · Author: Nok Imchen
Read the original

Summary

The discussion distinguishes two simple price differences over a bar or other observation period. The high–low range is the period’s highest price minus its lowest price, so it is nonnegative and describes the span of observed prices. The open–close difference compares the opening and closing prices and indicates the net direction and size of the move over that interval.

These quantities are not the bid–ask spread, which measures the gap between quoted buying and selling prices. The brief answer provides no examples, market data, or discussion of how these measures behave across sampling intervals. Its stated sign interpretation for the open–close difference is reversed: a negative close-minus-open value means the close was below the open, while a positive value means it was above. Neither measure alone identifies the path prices took within the period or the transaction costs a trader would face.

Key ideas

  • The high–low range is calculated as the period high minus the period low.
  • The open–close difference compares the closing price with the opening price.
  • A negative close-minus-open difference indicates that the close was below the open.
  • Neither price difference is the same as the bid–ask spread.

Tags

EquitiesStatisticsMarket microstructure
Full text
# What is (High-Low) and (Open-Close) spread?


# What is (High-Low) and (Open-Close) spread?












Spread is the difference between Bid and Ask. I'm confused what is High-Low Spread and Open-Close spread?

## Answer by zuiqo (score 3, accepted)

https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/8479

It's simply the difference between the two values.

High-Low gives you an idea about the total price movement over the tick period, Open-Close gives you an indication of the direction of the move. If Open-Close is negative, the price went up, and vice versa. High-Low obviously is always positive.

Shown in full with attribution under the source's licence. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Stack Exchange)

This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.