How to read stock charts in Moomoo (candles, volume, MA) — for beginners

Open any stock in Moomoo and the first thing you see is a chart. Coloured lines, green and red bars, and small numbers along the edge. Plenty of people close it straight away, thinking it is only for “traders”.

The chart is really just the price’s story told as a picture. This tutorial teaches you to read that story, one part at a time.

Screen map: six parts of a stock page

⤢abcde

1. aPrice
2. bHigh/Low/Vol
3. cMA
4. dVolume
5. ePeriod

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1. Price and change. The last price, and how much it moved today. Green is up, red is down.
2. High, Low, Volume. The day’s highest and lowest price, and how many units changed hands.
3. The MA row. Each moving average’s value on the last day. Each number’s colour matches its line on the chart.
4. The price chart. Each small bar is a “candle”. Small labels show the highest and lowest price in the period shown. In this example, 12.073 and 8.853. (Why is 8.853 different from the 52wk Low in the quote? See the box below.)
5. Volume. The bars under the chart. One bar per candle.
6. Period. Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or hours and minutes.

1. Candles: one bar, four prices

Each candle sums up the price movement over one period. Pick Daily and one candle equals one trading day.

• The body (the thick box) spans the open price to the close price.
• Green candle: the close was higher than the open. The price rose in that period.
• Red candle: the close was lower than the open. The price fell.
• The wicks (the thin lines above and below) show the highest and lowest price reached.

A long wick means the price travelled far, then turned back before the period ended. A short body means the price closed close to where it opened.

2. Period: Daily, Weekly or Monthly

The period you pick changes the chart completely, even for the same stock.

For long-term investors, Weekly or Monthly is usually more honest. A daily chart is full of small moves that mean nothing long term, and one red day can make you panic for no reason.

The period buttons sit on the row below the chart. Tap Weekly, and each candle becomes one week.

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1. 1Weekly
2. 21D chart (today only)

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At the far left of that row is a small 1D icon. It opens a chart of today’s trading day only, as a line that moves minute by minute. Many people land on this chart first and feel the price is moving far too fast. For long-term investors, the 1D chart is rarely useful, so switch back to Daily or Weekly.

One more thing: pinch the chart with two fingers to zoom in or out. Swipe left to see further back.

3. MA lines: an average that smooths the noise

The coloured lines running across the candles are MAs (moving averages).

• MA5 is the average closing price of the last 5 candles. On Daily, that is 5 trading days, roughly a week.
• MA10, MA20 and MA30 work the same way, for 10, 20 and 30 candles.

A short MA (MA5) follows the price closely and wiggles a lot. A long MA (MA30) is smoother and slower to change. When the price stays above a long MA for a long time, the price is trending up. When it stays below, the trend is down.

That is all an MA tells you: direction. It does not tell you why, and it does not promise the direction will continue.

Remember too that an MA counts candles, not days. On a Daily chart, MA30 is about six weeks of trading. On a Weekly chart, MA30 becomes 30 weeks, more than seven months. So if you’re a long-term investor looking at the Weekly chart as suggested in Part 2, the same MA lines instantly give you a longer view.

In the MAYBANK example, the MA row shows MA5 10.484, MA10 10.540, MA20 10.576 and MA30 10.635, while the current price is 10.380. The price sits below all four lines. That means over the past month or so, the price fell more than it rose. It is a description, not a forecast.

4. Volume: how many people are trading

The bars under the chart show volume, the number of units that changed hands in each period. Their colour follows the candle above.

A bar that is suddenly much taller than usual means something happened that day. For example financial results, a dividend announcement, or big news. If you see a large price jump, look at the volume bar below it. A price move on high volume is usually backed by many people. A price move on low volume turns back more easily.

5. Dotted lines and other markings

On the Daily MAYBANK chart above, the horizontal dotted line sits at the last price, about 10.380. On other chart types, lines and labels can mean something else, so check the number at the end of the line first. Moomoo can show several other lines and markings. Tap the icon at the far right of the period row to open the More menu, then Chart Markings:

The More menu and Chart Markings

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1. 1Chart Markings

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1. Your average cost line

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The three most useful for beginners:

• Position Cost Line — your average cost line. Turn it on if you already hold the stock. You see at once whether the current price is above or below your cost.
• Corporate Actions — small blue dots under the chart for dividends, share splits and rights issues. They explain why the price sometimes drops sharply on one day (for example the ex-dividend date).
• High & Low Prices — labels for the highest and lowest price in the period shown.

In the same More menu, Line Type can switch the candles to a plain line. If candles feel too busy, a line chart is enough to see the long-term direction.

Coming from forex or MT5?

If you’re used to trading forex in MetaTrader (MT4 or MT5), Moomoo’s charts won’t feel strange. In the same More menu, there’s Indicators to add technical indicators to the chart, and Draw to draw your own lines. Tap the icon at the far right of the period row to open that menu.

⤢ab

1. aTechnical indicators
2. bDrawing tools

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But what you buy in Moomoo is very different from a forex pair or a CFD:

• The shares are yours. When you buy a stock or ETF, the units are held in an account in your name, and you’re entitled to dividends. It isn’t a contract on a price difference with your broker.
• No leverage when you buy with cash. If the price drops 10%, your holding drops 10%. There’s no margin call forcing you out, as long as you don’t use a margin loan.
• The market isn’t open 24 hours. Forex runs almost 24 hours on weekdays. Bursa opens in the daytime on working days, and the US market opens at night Malaysia time (until 31 October 2026, 9:30pm to 4am; from 2 November, 10:30pm to 5am). Prices can jump between yesterday’s close and today’s open when there’s news.
• Chart patterns aren’t a guarantee. The technical indicators you use in forex can be added in Moomoo, but short-term trading is still hard to win. Studies of day traders show the vast majority lose money. Read trading versus long-term investing before bringing a day-trading style to shares.

One trap for ex-forex traders: margin in Moomoo is switched on by default, so an order bigger than your cash turns straight into a loan.

What a chart CANNOT tell you

• Whether the company is good. A chart shows price, not profit, debt or the future of the business. For that, read the Company tab.
• Tomorrow’s price. A line that rose for a year can fall next month. Past patterns are not promises.
• Whether the price is cheap. A stock that has fallen 30% can fall another 30%. Low compared with last year is not the same as cheap compared with what the company is worth.

Use the chart to understand what has happened, and fundamentals to understand why. To see a whole sector’s moves at once, try the Heat Map. To compare several stocks or ETFs on one chart, use Compare.

This is a guide to using the app, not financial advice and not a buy or sell signal.