READING FINANCIAL DATA
Understand the numbers before trusting a financial chart.
Charts reveal patterns but never tell the whole story. Learn the data, context and limits before drawing conclusions.
Open the chart-reading guideREADING SKILLS
Four skills for reading financial charts
Source quality ladder
Primary dataSecondary dataAnalysisOpinion
Watch how scale changes the story
Wide scale
Narrow scale
The same values can look different when an axis begins at a different point.
MYTHS & REALITY
Common claims and more careful interpretations
A rising chart always means a strong economy
Check the definition, measure and period
A decline always means trouble
A decline may reflect temporary factors
Volatility always means the same risk
Assess it with context and time horizon
GLOSSARY
Useful data vocabulary
TrendTrend
VolatilityVolatility
ScaleScale
IndicatorIndicator
ContextContext