How to Create a Stock Chart in Excel (High-Low-Close and Volume)

Step-by-step

Excel has four stock chart types, and which one you can use depends on the columns you have. With three price series (high, low, close) you can use the first type. With open, high, low, close and volume, you need the fourth. The example is a stock’s daily data from late August to the end of October.

1. Create a price chart

Select your data except the volume column, go to Insert > Stock chart and choose the second type (Open-High-Low-Close). Move it into place.

2. Make the dates readable

Click the horizontal axis and, on the Home tab, reduce the font size to 6 so more dates fit.

3. Set a sensible price range

Starting the price axis at 0 wastes most of the chart. Double-click the vertical axis and, in Axis Options, change the Minimum bound to just below your lowest price (30 in the example). Leave the maximum (60) as it is. The price movements are now much easier to see.

4. Add volume with a second chart

Select all the data, including volume, and go to Insert > Stock. The first three types are greyed out because of the volume column, so choose the fourth (Volume-Open-High-Low-Close). This chart has two vertical axes: price on the left and volume on the right.

5. Format the dates

Double-click the horizontal axis, go to Size & Properties > Alignment, set the text direction to vertical, and reduce the font size to 6.

6. Show high, low and close as columns (optional)

To show each price series explicitly, select the chart and go to Chart Design > Change Chart Type > Combo. Set Open, High, Low and Close to Clustered Column, and Volume to Clustered Column on the secondary axis. This shows everything, but it gets noisy, so use it only when you need the detail.

Stock charts aren’t just for share prices: any data with a high, low and close works, such as daily temperatures.