Reading US Stock Charts

What this topic covers

This site is built around real-time chart analysis for crypto and stocks. Where the chart analysis course covers candles and indicators themselves, this topic covers the conditions under which a US stock chart is drawn. The same moving average or the same candle looks different depending on when the market opens and closes, how far a price can move in a day, and when earnings come out. Putting Korean stocks and the stock-linked products on crypto exchanges side by side makes those differences much easier to see.

Why US stock charts need their own lessons

Three things feel unfamiliar when you watch US charts from Korea. First, the market opens during the Korean night, and daylight saving time shifts the clock by an hour twice a year. Second, there is no ±30% daily limit like the one on Korean stocks, so the candle after an earnings report can be far longer. Third, pre-market and after-hours trading is sometimes included in the chart and sometimes left out. Without knowing this, it is easy to misread gaps and long wicks, especially if you are used to crypto charts that never stop.

Key concepts

These ideas come up again and again across the guides. Knowing the names up front makes everything else connect more easily.

• Regular and extended hours: pre-market and after-hours trading is thin, so prices can jump more
• Gap: the empty space between one close and the next open, where news from the closed hours is priced in at once
• Relative strength: a stock's price divided by an index, showing whether it is stronger or weaker than the market
• Sector: a group of companies in similar businesses; the S&P 500 is split into 11 sectors
• Adjusted prices: past prices corrected for dividends and splits, which is why old numbers on a chart can change

Reading order

Each guide builds on the ones before it. Guides 1 to 3 cover time and rules, the conditions a chart is drawn under. Guides 4 to 6 cover the big forces that move US stock charts: earnings, indexes and sectors. Guides 7 to 9 explain the marks those forces leave on a chart, such as gaps, volume around options expiration and adjusted prices. Guides 10 and 11 close with currency and weekends, which matter most to investors in Korea and to crypto users. If you are new, start with guides 1 and 2, then pick whatever interests you. Guides 12 to 15 cover the timetable you need when watching live: the overnight US session and Korean chip stocks, data release times, pre- and after-market trading, and index futures. Guides 16 to 19 cover reference points worth keeping beside a chart, such as leveraged and inverse ETFs, 52-week highs and lows, Korea's alternative trading system and the VIX, and guides 20 to 22 finish with the frame you need for live watching: watchlists and multi-chart layouts, how the three major US indexes are built, and the first 30 minutes of the regular session.

Common misconceptions

A few misunderstandings come up often when people first look at US charts. Clearing them up early makes the later guides easier.

• No price limit means constant wild swings: large caps usually move little, and big candles mostly come with events like earnings
• The pre-market price is the opening price: trading is thin, and the price can change a lot once the regular session opens
• A stock product on a crypto exchange is the same as the stock: it follows the price, but the rights and structure differ
• If the index rises, my stock rises: sectors and individual stocks inside an index often go separate ways

Check it with this site's live tools

You can check what these guides describe on real prices using this site's stock tools. The world markets overview shows indexes, currencies and which markets are open right now on a single screen, and the stock comparison tool rebases several stocks and indexes to 100 on the same day so you can compare their paths. The sector heatmap shows sector trends, the large-cap scanner shows indicators for major Korean and US stocks, and the buy and sell signals tool shows each indicator's rule alongside its past record. Prices may be delayed, and any rating a tool shows is the output of a fixed rule, not an opinion.

Things to keep in mind

The guides in this topic are educational material on how to read charts, not investment advice. Please do not read them as a suggestion to buy or sell anything. The stocks and indexes mentioned are examples for reading charts, and prices and returns are deliberately left out. Trading hours, price limits, taxes and the way overseas stocks are traded can all change, so check the official information from the exchange and your broker before you trade. Also remember that stock-linked products on crypto exchanges are regulated differently from country to country and carry heavy leverage risk.

The twenty-two guides

Read in this order, the guides take you from the conditions that shape a US stock chart to the marks left on it.

• US Stock Market Hours: Regular, Pre-Market and After-Hours Sessions in Korean Time
• How Korean and US Stock Charts Differ: Price Limits, Trading Hours and Tick Sizes
• Stock-Linked Products on Crypto Exchanges: How Round-the-Clock Prices Work and What Can Go Wrong
• Earnings and the Stock Chart: Pre-Market and After-Hours Reports and the Gaps They Leave
• Reading an Index and a Stock Together: The S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Relative Strength
• Reading Sector Trends: Sector Rotation on a Chart
• Reading Gaps on US Stock Charts: Gap Ups, Gap Downs and Gap Fills
• Volume, Dollar Volume and Price Action Around Options Expiration in US Stocks
• Adjusted Prices and Stock Splits: How Dividends and Splits Change a Chart
• Exchange Rates and US Stock Charts: Reading the Dollar Chart Next to Won Returns
• Weekends and 24-Hour Trading: When Crypto Moves and Stocks Stand Still
• Reading US Chip and Tech Stocks Alongside Samsung Electronics and SK hynix
• US Economic Data Release Times and Charts: Jobs and Inflation Reports in Korean Time
• How to Read US Pre-Market and After-Hours Stock Charts
• Using Stock Index Futures to Read the Overnight Market
• The Trap in Leveraged and Inverse ETF Charts: Daily Rebalancing and Volatility Decay
• Reading 52-Week Highs and Lows: Where Price Sits in Its One-Year Range
• Korea's Alternative Trading System and Longer Trading Hours: What Changes on the Chart
• The Fear Index (VIX) and Stock Charts: Reading Expected Volatility Alongside Price
• Watching US Stocks with a Watchlist and Multi-Chart Layout
• Nasdaq vs. S&P 500 vs. the Dow: How Each Index Is Built
• Reading the Overnight Gap and the First 30 Minutes of the Regular Session on US Stock Charts