The last traded price of a period; the single number most indicators and most traders treat as the period's verdict.
The close is the final print of a bar, session or contract period. It carries more weight than the other three ohlc values because it is where participants were willing to leave their positions overnight or into the next bar.
Most indicators default to closes. A breakout is often only considered valid on a closing basis, meaning price must finish beyond a level rather than merely poke through it during the bar. That rule filters some fakeouts but delays entry and sometimes gives up a large part of the move.
For stocks the official close is set by a closing auction, which is why market-on-close orders exist and why the printed close can differ from the last price you saw on a chart of continuous trading.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
Breakout and retest. Price stalls under the same level several times, pushes above it, then drops back to touch it from above before carrying on. That touch is the retest, where the old ceiling is tried as a floor. A break that falls straight back under it is a false breakout.The parts of a candlestick. One candle sums up a slice of time: the thick real body runs from the opening price to the closing price, and the thin wicks reach out to the highest and lowest prices traded. Colour tells you which way the body ran.
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