To The Moon

Speaker: K-Yong Kan, Investment Representative at Tiger Brokers, opens Trading 101 Part 2a by showing first-timers how to read the three main chart types, why support and resistance form, and how trendlines turn them into moving levels.

[About the Speaker]

K-Yong Kan is an Investment Representative at Tiger Brokers, the front-line contact for clients with questions about markets, trading and their accounts. After working with clients who wanted to learn but weren't sure which information to trust, he built the Trading 101 series to teach trading and investing skills step by step. Part 2a, Chart Patterns & Candlesticks, sits in the series' Technical Analysis module.

[The Hook]

Information about trading is everywhere, and it is hard to know what is worth listening to. K-Yong's answer is a series that builds skills one layer at a time, because in his view trading is a process, not a single result: a big win one day followed by a bigger loss the next is not skill. His first topic was the picture most people associate with trading: the chart.

[Line, Bar, Candlestick: Three Ways to Draw the Same Price]

A chart is a visual record of price movement, the footprint of demand and supply for an asset. There are three main kinds:

• Line chart — plots the closing price of each period (each minute on a one-minute chart, each day on a daily chart). It shows the general trend best and keeps the picture clean, for example making it obvious that a market is stuck in a range. The trade-off: it hides what happened inside each period, so it suits longer-term views better than short-term traders who want to see volatility.

• Bar chart (OHLC) — shows the open, high, low and close of each period. A taller bar means more volatility and a shorter bar means less, so bars that expand in a trending market can signal strength, or a market switching from a range to a breakout.

• Candlestick chart — a variation of the bar chart that shows the same four prices, with a coloured body that makes it easier to read. It is the most commonly used chart today. K-Yong shared that candlesticks are said to have been invented by rice merchants in Japan to track prices. They also make the gaps between periods easy to see, and since most markets don't trade around the clock, those gaps can affect sentiment and trades.

Which one should you use? K-Yong's answer: there is no rule, it is a personal choice. He uses line charts to see the overall trend and momentum, and candlesticks for price detail and for spotting patterns.

[Support and Resistance: Demand and Supply on a Chart]

K-Yong's analogy was orange juice. What is the lowest price you would pay for a glass? "Free" sounds nice, but the seller won't sell below cost (by his estimate, a glass costs under 50 cents to make), and no buyer will pay a million dollars for one either. A trade happens where buyer and seller meet, and the chart records those trades.

• Support — a zone where buyers are willing to step in, so price tends to bounce. Think of it as a floor.

• Resistance — a zone where sellers step in and price struggles to push higher. Think of it as a ceiling.

Both are zones, not exact lines. They matter because traders use them to decide when to enter and exit. Buying into a price that has dropped below support can mean catching a falling knife, while a break above resistance may signal a change in narrative worth following.

Why do these levels work? K-Yong gave two reasons:

• Structural — a rule, regulation or issuer-set price creates a floor or ceiling.

• Behavioural — more common: enough people agree on what is a fair price at that level.

They also change, because narratives and the economy change ("change is the only constant"). And roles can reverse: a broken support can become resistance, and a broken resistance can become support.

[Trendlines: Levels That Move]

Because people's view of a "fair price" keeps moving, support and resistance move too. In a trending market they form a channel, and you can draw trendlines along it.

• Two points draw a line, three points confirm it. The more touches, the stronger the line.

• A valid uptrend makes higher highs and higher lows; a valid downtrend makes lower highs and lower lows.

• K-Yong stressed which line matters most: the support line in an uptrend, the resistance line in a downtrend.

• A lower low in an uptrend (a change of structure) may signal a change of trend, and a trendline break can make the opposite direction worth considering.

[Key Takeaways]

• A chart is a picture of buyers and sellers. Line, bar and candlestick show the same price at different levels of detail.

• There is no single best chart. Choose based on whether you need the trend or the detail.

• Support and resistance are zones, not lines. Use them to plan entries, exits and stop-losses.

• Trendlines are moving support and resistance. Two points draw one, three confirm it.

[Call to Action 🎯]

1. Open a chart of a stock you follow and switch between line, bar and candlestick views. Which shows the trend best? Which shows volatility best?

2. Mark one support zone and one resistance zone on it.

3. Drop a comment: which chart type do you prefer, and why?