003 — Price data and series

Trading charts are built from bars. Pine Script gives you direct access to each bar’s market data.

Core bar values

Built-in	Meaning
open	Opening price
high	Highest price
low	Lowest price
close	Closing or current price
volume	Reported volume

These values are series. Their value can change from one bar to the next.

Current and previous values

Use square brackets to access an earlier bar:

close      // Current bar's close
close[1]   // Previous bar's close
close[2]   // Close two bars ago

The number inside the brackets is the historical offset.

Calculate close-to-close change in basis points

One basis point is 0.01%, so 100 basis points equal 1%.

//@version=6
indicator("Close Change in BPS", overlay = false)

float changeBps = (close / close[1] - 1.0) * 10000.0
color barColor = changeBps >= 0 ? color.green : color.red

plot(
     changeBps,
     "Close change (bps)",
     style = plot.style_columns,
     color = barColor
)

hline(0, "Zero")

Read the formula

(close / close[1] - 1.0) * 10000.0

Suppose the previous close was 100 and the current close is 101:

(101 / 100 - 1) × 10,000 = 100 bps

The price increased by 1%, which equals 100 basis points.

Conditional color

color barColor = changeBps >= 0 ? color.green : color.red

This uses the ternary operator:

condition ? value_when_true : value_when_false

Green is selected when the change is zero or positive; otherwise red is selected.

First-bar behavior

On the first available chart bar, close[1] does not exist. Calculations depending on it return na, meaning “not available.” This is normal. The plot begins when enough historical data exists.