How To Trade - Heiken Ashi indicator and How Does It Work

Heikin-Ashi chart looks like the candlestick chart, but the method of calculation and plotting of the candles on the Heikin-Ashi chart is different from the candlestick chart. In candlestick charts, each candlestick shows four different prices: Open, Close, High and Low price.

But Heikin-Ashi candles are different and each candle is calculated and plotted using some information from the previous candle:

1- Open price: the open price in a Heikin-Ashi candle is the average of the open and close of the previous candle.
2- Close price: the close price in a Heikin-Ashi candle is the average of open, close, high and low prices.
3- High price: the high price in a Heikin-Ashi candle is chosen from one of the high, open and close price of which has the highest value.
4- Low price: the low price in a Heikin-Ashi candle is chosen from one of the low, open and close price of which has the lowest value.

So candles of a Heikin-Ashi chart are related to each other because the open price of each candle should be calculated using the previous candle close and open prices, and also the high and low price of each candle is affected by the previous candle. So a Heikin-Ashi chart is slower than a candlestick chart and its signals are delayed.

So the Heikin-Ashi chart is delayed and the candlestick chart is much faster and helps us to make more profit. Why should we use a Heikin-Ashi chart then? As it was already explained, because of the delay that the Heikin-Ashi chart has, it has less number of false signals and prevent us from trading against the market. On the other hand, Heikin-Ashi candles are easier to read because unlike the candlesticks they don’t have too many different patterns.