What you will learn
- Instrument identity
- Bid ask and last price
- Timeframes and aggregation
- Session and timezone settings
Instrument identity
Identify the symbol, provider and product type on every saved chart. Two feeds can quote related but different instruments. A continuous futures series, a dated futures contract and a retail spot quote should not be silently substituted for one another.
Bid ask and last price
Bid, ask and last-trade charts represent different observations. A buy generally interacts with offered liquidity, while a sell interacts with bids under the trading arrangement. Comparing a fill against the wrong side can mislabel ordinary spread cost as an anomaly.
Timeframes and aggregation
A timeframe aggregates observations into bars. The open, high, low and close depend on the included interval and data. A one-hour candle contains less path information than its underlying shorter observations; it cannot reveal the exact order of every intrabar event.
Session and timezone settings
Session boundaries and timezones determine which observations enter a daily bar. Daylight-saving conventions can shift apparent session alignment. Record the display timezone and the source timestamp convention before comparing charts.
Worked example
Two providers show different daily highs because their daily boundaries differ. The discrepancy should first be investigated through interval definitions and data coverage, not explained immediately as an execution problem.
Try it yourself
List the metadata needed to compare two daily gold charts fairly. Include instrument, price stream, timezone and aggregation boundaries.
Show the worked solution
Match product, provider, bid/ask/last convention, session boundaries, timezone and coverage. Only after aligning these should remaining price differences be investigated as feed or market differences.
Apply this to your course project
Submit a chart template with instrument, timezone, price type and data-source notes.
Keep the calculation inputs, assumptions and decisions with your work. Practical exercises are self-reviewed; the scored knowledge checks assess the questions shown, not an independent certification of practical competence.