Learn · Reading the tape
Daily range and price swings
How far a price traveled within a session is a different question from where it finished.
Last updated: 2026-09-20
Measure the distance between extremes
The daily range percentage in MockTradeCity takes the Regular-session high minus the Regular-session low, then divides by previous close and multiplies by one hundred. Suppose previous close is 100 CC, today's high is 104 CC and today's low is 98 CC. The range is 6 CC, or six percent of previous close. It has no positive or negative direction because the high cannot be below the low in the same set of observations.
Using previous close as the denominator puts range on the same scale as the main daily percentage change. It does not measure the total distance of every up-and-down movement added together. A price could cross the same interval repeatedly while its high and low remain unchanged. The range would remain six percent in the example, even though the intraday line became much more crowded with reversals between those two boundaries.
A small close-to-close move can hide a wide day
Daily change compares the latest price with previous close. Range compares the day's two extremes with that same denominator. If the example closes at 101 CC, daily change is plus one percent while range remains six percent. The first describes the ending position relative to yesterday; the second describes the width of the observed interval. One cannot replace the other without throwing away part of what happened during the session.
Two companies can both finish half a percent higher but have different ranges. One may have stayed close to previous close all day; another may have moved far above and below it before returning. Range alone still cannot identify which extreme came first. A sharp early rise followed by a decline and the reverse sequence can share the same high, low and close. The chart provides the chronology that the summary omits.
Keep the observation window consistent
The main quote's range uses Regular-session trades. A wide Overnight move does not automatically widen that figure if Regular trading never reaches the same prices. The company's session controls let you inspect those periods separately. On a candle chart, a bar's full wick span represents that bar's high-to-low interval. A daily Regular candle and the Regular quote summary use compatible definitions, while a short extended-session candle describes a different time window.
A sampled intraday line may not preserve every individual trade at an interval's extreme, so exact high and low values are best read from the relevant summary or candle data. Screen height is also not a percentage: chart scaling can make two different numerical ranges look similar. The displayed values retain their meaning across devices and zoom levels. The unit, period and denominator establish a comparable range, rather than the apparent steepness of a line.
How the interval becomes wider
New executions beyond an existing extreme widen the interval. Thin depth can allow an incoming order to reach several price levels, while changes in participants' valuations can alter the prices they post. Company events, sector news and macro events influence the city's simulation through those participants and its valuation process. They do not directly paint a new high onto the chart. An eligible execution still has to occur for a traded extreme to exist.
Price bands constrain matching around a rolling reference and can lead to a temporary trading halt under the city's LULD rules. They are not a fixed daily range limit around yesterday's close. A reference can move through the day, and the observed daily interval can include several different stages of trading. Consequently, comparing a day's range with a band percentage without checking the reference and time window mixes two separate measurements with different jobs.
Where to inspect the range in the city
The company summary displays the range percentage beside the day's high and low. The Market table can sort its range column, making the widest observed intervals easy to locate. Sorting describes what has already happened in the selected data; it does not rank what will happen next. A company with a wide range can currently be near its high, low or midpoint, so the latest quote supplies another necessary piece of context.
Daily Wrap places the Composite's high, low, open and close together and may discuss a session that traveled widely before finishing near its starting reference. A company chart then provides the path behind a particular stock's numbers. All stock prices are fictional City Coin, while the Composite uses points. The arithmetic works the same way once the units and reference are consistent: interval width describes movement already observed, and daily change describes the final comparison.