How to Create a High-Low (HiLo) Chart

What is a High-Low (HiLo) Chart

High-Low or HiLo charts are very similar to Range Column charts: they show the intervals between ups and downs for pairs of values. We consider them here derived from Candlestick or OHLC stock charts, and show the vertical column bars as thin sticks.

When used directly on high and low stock values, high is always on top. However, when used on generic pairs of values, the high below low use cases can be represented with the alternative low color.

Steps to Create a High-Low (HiLo) Chart

Start Visual Xtractor or Data Xtractor. Connect to a database. Create or design a SQL query. Run the query and check the results.

1. Display and enable the Chart query builder.
2. Select one numeric data column as Stock Charts – Stock Low.
3. Select another numeric data column as Stock Charts – Stock High.
4. Select one optional column as chart Label.

High-Low Stock Chart Demo Query

This is a great alternative to learn about and play with this type of chart, if you don’t want to create it from scratch. Typical HiLo Stock charts use the same color for all sticks, as high is always higher than low.

Look for the ready-to-use single-series HiLo Chart generated query under the Queries > Demo Queries > Charts > Stock Charts folder. Click on the “add demo queries” command link, if not already there.

The generated demo queries must work for any database, with no restriction. They use constant values generated on-the-fly and your database SQL engine, but do not depend on data from your tables, and never alter your database in any way.

Generic HiLo Chart

With random high and low values, the sticks with high below low may use a different color. The sample chart below uses opening and closing values for high and low, to demonstrate the case.

Customize your HiLo Chart

The chart toolbar at the bottom has many options you may change with one single click, to alter the graph. Here is just an example of what you can further do with this type of chart:

1. Show data labels and the graph alone.
2. Show a custom star marker.
3. Remove eventually the up-down colors, or all colors, for a grayscaled graph.

Conclusion

• Creating High-Low charts, or HiLo charts, in Data Xtractor or Visual Xtractor is fast and trivial: set two numeric data columns as Stock Low and Stock High, and one optional column as Label.
• Always use up/down colors to surprise when high is lower than low, on generic HiLo charts.
• Many builtin powerful features of these chart type are common to most other charts: filtering series through the legend items, interactivity, monochrome or grayscale colors etc.
• Switch to another builtin chart theme, or customize your own, for any possible color or other styles.