Advanced Charting : Candlestick/Stock Charts

Hi All,

In this article I am going to plot a candlestick chart in tableau . A candlestick chart (also called Japanese candlestick chart) is a style of financial chart used to describe price movements of a security, derivative, or currency. Each “candlestick” typically shows one day; so for example a one-month chart may show the 20 trading days as 20 “candlesticks
It represents all four important pieces of information for that day: the open, the close, the high and the low. Being densely packed with information, they tend to represent trading patterns over short periods of time, often a few days or a few trading sessions.
Let get started and create one in tableau .

Step 1: Import the excel file into tableau . The excel file has the values open, high, low, close , Spread High-Low and Spread Close-Open for a stock on a particular date.

Step 2 : In the worksheet tab bring the measures Low Price and Open Price to the Rows shelf. Click on SUM(Open Price) and select dual axis.

Step 3: Go to edit axis for both the measure and uncheck the include zero check box.

Step 4: Select default aggregration as average for both the measures

Step 5 : Under marks select All and then change the default chart type to Gantt Bar.

Step 6 : Click on AVG(Low Price) under marks and place the measure Spread High Low in the size . Click on size and reduce it to minimal.

Step 7 : Click on AVG(Open Price) under marks and place the measure Spread Close-Open in the size . Click on size and set it to be thickker.

Step 8: Bring the date into filter box . Select Relative Date > Range Of dates > Ok.

Step 9: Show quick filter for date.

Step 10 : Bring the Dimension date to the Column and then select Day from the dropdown.

Step 11: Create a calculated field For Colour : [Spread Close-Open]>0 to change the colour of the bars .

Step 11: Under the marks card Select AVG(Open Price) and place the created dimension For Colour in the Colours tab. Change the colour of False as Red and True as Green.