Charts show bids. Buy trades exit at the ask.

[Shadow Trader]

Platform charts usually plot the bid price. It's a convention, and it's mostly harmless for swing trading. For scalping, it's a trap hiding in plain sight.

A long trade is entered at the ask and exited at the bid. The chart only shows the bid. So a buy target placed at a visible level on the chart is not reached when the chart touches it, because the position closes on the bid side while the entry was on the ask. The stop is where things go sideways: a short trade's stop gets triggered by the ask, which the chart doesn't display.

That means a stop on a short can be hit while the chart shows price a pip or two below the stop line. The candle looks like it missed. The account says otherwise.

It's a classic source of "the stop was hunted" complaints, when really the ask traded through it. With a 0.3 pip spread, the effect is small. With a 2 pip spread on a thin pair, it's significant.

Adding the ask line to the chart is a two-click fix on most platforms, and it clears up plenty of mysteries.

Does the ask line stay on the chart permanently, or only when something looks off?