Bid and Ask Charts
Platforms & ToolsRetail charts are usually drawn from the bid alone, while buys fill at the ask — which is why a stop can trigger on a candle that never reached it.
Most retail platforms draw their charts from the bid price only. The candles you analyse, the indicators computed from them and the historical highs and lows on screen are all bid-side, while a buy order is filled at the ask — the bid plus the spread.
This asymmetry explains one of the most common support complaints: a stop-loss on a long position triggering when the visible candle never reached it. A long is closed at the bid, so a bid chart shows that leg honestly, but the entry happened at the ask, and a short position is closed at the ask, which the chart never draws at all. The practical responses are to enable the ask line where the platform offers one, to place stops with the spread in mind rather than exactly on a chart level, and to remember that a spread widening around a news release moves the ask far more than the bid chart suggests.