Kite chart types explained
Zerodha Kite offers multiple chart types across its two charting engines, ChartIQ and TradingView. The choice of chart type shapes how price action is visualised: candlestick is the default for most Indian retail traders; line / bar / Heikin Ashi / Renko serve specialised use cases.
This reference covers each chart type available on Kite, the computation behind it, and the situations where it is appropriate.
Candlestick chart
The default and most-used chart type. Each candle encodes four price points for the period (one-minute, five-minute, daily, etc.):
- Open: opening price of the period.
- High: highest traded price of the period.
- Low: lowest traded price of the period.
- Close: closing price of the period.
The body is filled if the close is below the open (red / down candle) and hollow (or green / up candle) if the close is above the open. Wicks (or shadows) extend above and below the body to mark the high and low.
Candlesticks reveal both direction and intra-period range, and the body-to-wick ratio gives a quick read of conviction (long body = strong directional move, long wick + small body = indecision).
OHLC (bar) chart
Encodes the same four points (Open, High, Low, Close) as the candlestick but as a single vertical bar with two small horizontal ticks:
- Vertical bar: from low to high (the period’s range).
- Left tick: opening price.
- Right tick: closing price.
Visually less prominent than candlesticks; preferred by traders who find candle-body colouring noisy. Available on both ChartIQ and TradingView engines.
Line chart
A continuous line connecting the close prices of each period. Hides intra-period range information; useful for trend visualisation over longer horizons (weekly, monthly) where intra-period detail isn’t decision-relevant.
Often used for index charts in journalism for the same reason: it’s the cleanest signal of trend direction.
Area chart
Similar to a line chart but with the area under the line filled. Visually emphasises movement; common in dashboards and reports.
Heikin Ashi
A derived chart type that smooths price action by computing each “candle” from modified Open / Close values:
- HA Close = (Open + High + Low + Close) / 4.
- HA Open = (Previous HA Open + Previous HA Close) / 2.
- HA High = max(High, HA Open, HA Close).
- HA Low = min(Low, HA Open, HA Close).
The result is a sequence of candles that tends to display longer runs of same-colour candles, smoothing whipsaws. Useful for trend traders; less suitable for price-level decisions because Heikin Ashi values do not correspond to actual market prices.
Renko
A time-independent chart type. Each “brick” is plotted only when price moves by a specified amount (e.g., 10 points). The brick is up (green) or down (red) based on direction; time on the X-axis is no longer linear (a brick can span minutes or hours depending on volatility).
Renko strips out noise and emphasises directional moves. Suitable for trend-following strategies; unhelpful for time-sensitive decisions (e.g., expiry strategies on options).
Other chart types
Depending on engine and version, Kite may also offer:
- Hollow candles: candlestick variant where colour reflects close relative to previous close (rather than current period’s open-close).
- Kagi: time-independent reversal-based chart; rare in Indian retail use.
- Point and Figure: column-based, time-independent; specialised use.
- Equivolume: candle width modulated by volume.
Availability of these specialised types is generally on TradingView engine; ChartIQ has a narrower default set.
ChartIQ vs TradingView availability
| Chart type | ChartIQ | TradingView |
|---|---|---|
| Candlestick | Yes | Yes |
| OHLC (bar) | Yes | Yes |
| Line | Yes | Yes |
| Area | Yes | Yes |
| Heikin Ashi | Yes | Yes |
| Renko | Yes | Yes |
| Hollow candles | No | Yes |
| Kagi | No | Yes |
| Point & Figure | No | Yes |
| Equivolume | No | Yes |
TradingView engine is the richer default; ChartIQ is the legacy default. Both are available on Kite web + app.
How to switch chart type
In the Kite chart toolbar, the chart-type selector is the icon usually at the top-left of the chart. Click and select. The new chart type re-renders the existing instrument and timeframe.
For platform-specific steps, see How to switch chart types on Kite .
See also
- Kite TradingView vs ChartIQ engine
- Kite drawing tools
- How to switch chart types on Kite
- How to add indicators on Kite charts
- How to save chart layouts on Kite
- Scales and axis on Kite charts
- Corporate actions overlaid on Kite charts
- Candlestick chart
- Heikin Ashi
- Renko
- Open, High, Low, Close (OHLC)
- TradingView (third-party chart library)
- ChartIQ
- Kite (Zerodha)
- Zerodha
- How to identify breakouts on Kite charts
- How to use Supertrend on Kite
- How to use VWAP on Kite
- How to use RSI on Kite
- How to use MACD on Kite
- How to use Bollinger Bands on Kite
- How to use Fibonacci retracements on Kite
- Volume indicator on indices: limitations
- Continuous-chart data for futures
- OHLC differs daily vs hourly
- Charts differ across Kite platforms
External references
References
- Zerodha support documentation on Kite charting.
- TradingView Charting Library documentation.
- ChartIQ documentation on chart types.