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How to read a chart · NAS100

How to read a Nasdaq 100 chart

To read a Nasdaq 100 (NAS100) chart, remember it tracks an index of large non-financial Nasdaq-listed companies weighted heavily toward a few technology names, so it can move sharply on news about a handful of firms. Read each candle's close first, mark the prior day's high and low and the cash-session open, name the swing sequence, and pay attention to the clock: the US cash open usually sets the structure the rest of the day trades around.

What the index is

NAS100 is the common chart name for the Nasdaq 100 index (or a CFD or future tracking it). Its weighting is concentrated in a few very large technology companies, so their news — earnings in particular — can move the whole chart. Reading NAS100 well starts with knowing that the chart is a basket, not a single company.

Cash hours and overnight hours

The underlying stocks trade during US cash hours, while index derivatives also trade outside them. Many charts therefore show an overnight session and a cash session on the same candles. The opening hour of the cash session is usually the most active part of the day, and the open often leaves a gap from the previous close. Note which session a bar belongs to before reading it.

Where the index reacts

The prior day's high, low and close, the cash-session open, and round numbers are the prices most participants watch. Opening gaps matter too: price sometimes returns to fill them and sometimes runs away from them, so a gap is information, not a promise. Read each level as a band and wait for closes rather than touches.

Trends that persist — and the price where they end

NAS100 can trend strongly within a day. Name the sequence of swings and the last higher low (or lower high) — the price where the trend stops being true. Strong trends make it tempting to call every pullback the start of a reversal; structure tells you when that is actually the case.

Points, not pips

Index moves are measured in points, and each instrument or broker defines what one point is worth per unit. Before reading risk on this chart, find the point value for what you are looking at, measure the distance to where the idea is wrong in points, and let that distance set the size. Large point ranges make this step more important, not less.

Earnings and US data

Earnings from the largest components, US inflation (CPI), jobs (NFP) and Federal Reserve decisions can all move the index sharply. Earnings often land outside cash hours, so the reaction appears as a gap at the next open. Knowing the calendar is part of reading the chart.

Common mistakes reading Nasdaq 100 charts

  • Reading NAS100 as if it were one company rather than a concentrated basket.
  • Mixing overnight and cash-session bars without noticing which is which.
  • Assuming every opening gap must be filled.
  • Sizing in points without checking what a point is worth on the instrument.
Learn it properly

The modules behind this guide

Each one is a full lesson with Otus, a written answer and a quiz.

  1. Before the first tradeWhat is traded, why there are two prices, and what an order actually buys
  2. The trading dayWhy the clock is the most underrated indicator on any chart
  3. Where price reactsA level is where the market already did something — not a line that looks important
  4. Market structureWhere a trend stops being one
  5. Continuation patterns and gapsA pause inside a move, a hole in the chart, and a break that did not last
  6. Risk before entryThe stop sets the size. Never the other way round.
  7. Reading a headlineWhat a release does to price, the spread and a stop — and what it never tells you
Vocabulary

Terms used on this page

Underlying
The thing whose price a contract follows — the gold, the index, the currency. Many retail accounts trade a contract on the underlying without ever owning it.
CFD
Contract for difference: a contract that pays the change in an underlying's price between opening and closing, with nothing physically changing hands. Not offered to retail clients in every country.
Opening hour
The first hour of a session. It hands over a high, a low and a direction that the rest of the session either keeps or does not.
Weekly open gap
The gap between the last price before the weekend and the first price after it. On a market that trades almost around the clock, it is where most true gaps come from.
Gap fill
Later bars trading back into a gap's empty space. Fully filled when price reaches its far edge; partly filled when it enters and stops short.
Last higher low
The most recent pullback low in an uptrend. The single price at which a close beyond it makes the sequence stop being a true description of the chart.
Point value
What a one-point move is worth for one lot or contract of an instrument. It is the bridge between a stop distance on the chart and a loss in money.
Position size
The number of units, lots or contracts in a trade: risk budget ÷ (stop distance × point value). An output of two decisions already made, never a starting point.
Scheduled release
An economic figure published at a known time — inflation, jobs, a rate decision, oil inventories. Known in advance, which is what makes being surprised by one avoidable.
Release bar
The first bar after a release: usually wide, often trading through both sides of the range before it closes. Its close carries information; its wick records where orders were filled.
See how the AI analysis reads a NAS100 chart Reading guides for other markets

Education only. Nothing on this page is a recommendation to buy or sell Nasdaq 100 or any other instrument, and no part of it predicts where price will go. Trading carries a high risk of loss.

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