OHLCV

Jana first chooses an exchange, trading pair and interval. A pair tells her what trades for what, such as bitcoin for dollars. Kraken describes Open as the first trade price and Close as the last within the chosen interval. High and Low are the highest and lowest prices reached. Jana can see the range and the change from start to finish without reading every trade. None of these prices is automatically an average or a current offer on the order book. [1]

Besides price movement, Jana wants to know how much actually traded. Kraken reports Volume in the pair’s base asset, so in bitcoin for BTC/USD. Binance also distinguishes volume in the quote asset, dollars in this example, and a separate trade count. Bitcoin quantity, its dollar value and the number of executions are different figures. A large number without a unit does not show how busy the market was; first establish what the source is counting. [1] [2]

Jana finds a different daily candle elsewhere and suspects a mistake. Before deciding, she must compare the time boundaries too. Binance allows intervals to follow timeZone, a time-zone parameter, while startTime and endTime for selecting data still use UTC, the common world time reference. A daily summary starting at a different point can include different trades. The word daily is therefore insufficient: the market, period and meaning of the timestamp must match. [2]

On a live chart, the newest candle can change before your eyes. Kraken’s REST interface, which programs use to request data, always includes the current unfinished interval. Its Close currently means the latest known trade, not a final closing price; volume can still grow too. When Jana compares completed periods, she must distinguish this unfinished candle. Otherwise, she compares settled history with a figure still being formed. [3]

Sometimes an interval is missing. Coinbase warns that history can be incomplete and does not publish candles for periods with no trade events. Jana cannot interpret a blank space as a price collapse to zero. She first needs to determine whether no trading took place or data are missing. Carrying forward the previous price is not a new trade either; if a chart fills a gap this way, that adjustment needs to be identifiable. [4]

Building a chart introduces another trap: the acronym OHLCV does not promise the order of fields in a response. Coinbase lists time, Low, High, Open, Close and Volume. Kraken also distinguishes trade count and VWAP, the average price weighted by the quantity traded. A program must read each field according to that interface’s documentation. Swapping values need not visibly break the chart: it can produce a convincing curve with the wrong meaning. [4] [1]

Kraken’s definitions also let us derive how to combine intervals correctly. Given complete, consecutive, non-overlapping periods for the same market, Jana takes the first Open and the last Close. She selects the highest high for High, the lowest low for Low and adds comparable Volume. Averaging opening prices would yield something else. First she must check chronological order, duplicates and gaps; adding figures cannot recover missing trades. [1]

Coinbase’s summary fields retain neither the full trade sequence nor waiting offers on the book. A candle can show both high and low prices without revealing which came first. When Jana tests a hypothetical order against history, High and Low alone do not establish the order in which price thresholds were touched or whether her order would have filled. OHLCV is a useful view of the past. It does not replace detailed trade records or confirmation of her own order. [4]