If you’ve ever peeked over the shoulder of a prop trader working on MetaTrader 5 (MT5), you’ve probably noticed that their charts look nothing like yours. Some traders love a clean candlestick chart with hardly any indicators. Others swear by line charts for a quick glance at direction. And then you’ve got the ones running Heikin-Ashi setups that make the market look almost too smooth to be true.
The reality is, chart type preference is not merely a matter of looks. For prop traders—who tend to have strict profit requirements and tight drawdown limits—chart choice may have a significant bearing on how well they perform when under stress. Let’s discuss the types of charts successful prop traders prefer using on MT5, why they use those styles, and how you can determine which one would work best for your strategy.
Why Chart Types Actually Matter in Prop Trading
A chart’s a chart—price is price. Good point. But the gotcha is this: how price action is presented may entirely alter what you read into it.
Consider:
* A candlestick chart tells the tale of the struggle between buyers and sellers.
* A line chart removes the extraneous noise, emphasizing the close price.
* A bar chart does something akin to candles but in a simpler, less “busy” fashion.
* A Heikin-Ashi chart makes it smooth out so that you don’t get spooked by little pullbacks.
When in prop trading, where your choices have to be quickly and decisively made, selecting a type of chart in MT5 that aligns with the way your brain operates can put you ahead. It’s not so much which chart is superior as which chart allows me to make the most clear-cut, quickest decisions under fire.
Candlestick Charts: Everyone Else’s Bread and Butter
No wonder candlestick charts are the bread and butter of good prop traders on MT5. They have been in use for centuries and for good reasons.
Candles provide traders loads of information at a glance—open, high, low, close, and the fight between buyers and sellers during every session. That’s why numerous prop traders rely on them while trading currencies, indices, or commodities.
Why successful prop traders enjoy candles:
* Sharpened patterns: Candlestick patterns such as engulfing patterns, dojis, or pin bars are immediately clear to see and enable traders to identify reversals or continuation setups.
* Psychological storytelling: Each candle tells a story of the tug-of-war between bulls and bears, which helps traders get a “feel” for the market.
* Universality: Most trading education and analysis you’ll find is based on candlesticks, which makes it easier to backtest strategies and stay aligned with the broader trading community.
A scalping prop trader trading EUR/USD, for instance, may remain with 1-minute or 5-minute candle charts to identify exact entries. In contrast, a swing trading within a prop firm may go out to the 4-hour or daily candles to identify larger moves.
Line Charts: The “Keep It Simple” Approach
Now, not everyone wants to contend with the noise of intraday spikes and wicks. That’s where line charts are useful. Surprisingly, many seasoned prop traders have line charts as part of their own analysis—not necessarily for entry time, but for clean price direction insight.
Why some prop traders like line charts:
* Noise reduction: By concentrating solely on closing prices, line charts eliminate intraday volatility that muddies decision-making.
* Simpler trends: For investors who become distracted by each and every wick, line charts provide an easy means to view the larger picture.
* Support and resistance zones: A lot of traders opine that line charts simplify the identification of key horizontal levels without making a lot of it.
A funded trader at a prop firm may look at a line chart on the daily timeframe to identify the general direction of the trend before descending into candlesticks for implementation. That is, line charts are typically used as an adjunct, and never by themselves.
Bar Charts: Old School, But Still Effective
Bar charts aren’t as popular today, particularly with candlesticks ruling trader training. But there are still a lot of successful prop traders that use bars because they’re less “flashy” and more information-oriented.
Both a bar and a candlestick provide you with the same information (open, high, low, close), but with less thick, graphical bodies. For certain traders, that cleaner presentation minimizes bias—because you’re not nearly as easily influenced by large red or green candles.
Why some prop traders remain with bars:
* Less emotion: No large bold candle bodies means less urge to overreact.
* Precise yet concise: Bars continue to display all the important price information without cluttering the chart.
* A matter of habit: Traders who began with bars tend to find candlesticks “too busy” and remain with what works.
In prop firms, you’ll sometimes see older, more seasoned traders leaning on bar charts. They’re not as trendy, but they get the job done for traders who value simplicity.
Heikin-Ashi: Smoothing the Ride
Heikin-Ashi charts are gaining more popularity among funded traders for one simple reason: they filter out noise. By averaging price data, they make trends look smoother, which can be a blessing in fast-moving markets.
Rather than every minor retracement appearing as if it could be a reversal, Heikin-Ashi allows the trader to remain in positions longer and not cut them back prematurely.
Why prop traders like Heikin-Ashi:
* Clearer trends: Longer trends appear more apparent, which facilitates the riding of winners.
* Less stress: Less choppiness means that the trader is not second-guessing every minimal pullback.
* Strategy sticking: Facilitates the trader to remain disciplined and not overtrade.

Suppose you are a funded trader with a swing strategy on indices. With normal candlesticks, you may exit prematurely at the slightest hint of a pullback. With Heikin-Ashi, the chart appears smoother, making you more inclined to follow the trend.
That being said, Heikin-Ashi is not ideal—it lags due to its averaging technique. That is why most traders combine it with normal candlesticks.