How to Make an Animated Stock or Crypto Chart Video

Ways to animate a stock chart, compared

There are four common ways people make these videos. Each one works; they differ in how much control you get and how long a 20 second chart takes. Times below are rough estimates for someone who already knows the tool.

For general charts such as bars, donuts and counters, see our guide on animating numbers and charts. This page is about price over time.

Build a stock chart video in 6 steps

1. Export the data. Copy dates and closing prices from your source as a two column table. Daily points for one to three months, weekly for a year, monthly for five years. Around 20 to 60 points reads well in 15 seconds.
2. Choose line or candles. A line reads faster on a phone. Candles suit viewers who trade and want open, high, low and close for each period.
3. Pick the story. The rally, the crash, the comeback or the comparison. Decide which date is the climax and give it the longest pause.
4. Mark the events. List two to four dates with a label of two to four words each: an earnings report, a launch, a rate decision.
5. Add voice and captions. Upload your narration or use an AI voice. At about 150 words per minute, a 20 second chart fits roughly 45 to 50 spoken words, so script tight and time the big move to the line that explains it.
6. Check every price. Pause on each marker and on the final price. Compare them with your source before you post.

Stock chart prompt for Otto

Short stock chart prompts

Adapted from the way finance creators brief Otto for chart scenes. Paste your data where the brackets are.

• "Candlestick chart, candles build one by one, red and green."
• "Two coins on one chart, each line in its own colour, labels at the end of each line."
• "Pause when the line crosses the all time high and flash the level."
• "Make the background transparent so I can put it beside me in my video."
• "Add a price ticker scrolling along the top."

Make a 9:16 vertical animated price chart, 20 seconds, all motion graphics.
DATA (date, close):
[date], [price]
[date], [price]
(and so on)
TITLE: [ticker] at the top, the current price in a tag that follows the line.
STYLE: near black #0D1117 base, faint grid, line green #16C784 when rising, red #EA3943 when falling, glowing dot at the tip. Tabular numbers.
SEQUENCE:
0 to 2 s: title and starting price fade in.
2 to 15 s: the line draws left to right, the view eases along with it.
At [date]: a flag pops up with "[label]".
At [date]: a flag pops up with "[label]", the line pauses for half a second before the move.
15 to 20 s: zoom out to the full chart, the total change "[+ or minus %]" counts up.
Add a small line at the bottom: "Not financial advice."
RESTRICTIONS: keep every price, date and percentage exactly as given, no extra data points, no bouncing.

Worked example: a 20 second crypto chart

An illustration with made up numbers for a fictional coin, so nothing here is a real price or a view on any asset.

Input: 12 weekly closes for "COIN X", starting at 1.20, rising to 2.05, dropping to 1.35 after a network outage, then recovering to 1.90. Two events: "Exchange listing" in week 4 and "Network outage" in week 8.

Voiceover (43 words): "Three months ago COIN X sat at a dollar twenty. A big exchange listing in week four sent it past two dollars. Then a network outage wiped out most of the gain in days. Since then it has clawed back to one ninety."

Result:

• 0 to 2 s: "COIN X" and "1.20" fade in at the top.
• 2 to 7 s: green line climbs, the flag "Exchange listing" pops at week 4 as the voice says it.
• 7 to 8 s: the line pauses at 2.05 for half a second.
• 8 to 11 s: the line turns red and drops fast to 1.35, the "Network outage" flag pops with a low hit.
• 11 to 15 s: green recovery to 1.90, the price tag following the tip.
• 15 to 20 s: zoom out to all 12 weeks, "+58%" counts up, the disclaimer sits at the bottom.

Check the maths before you post: 1.20 to 1.90 is a 58% rise. A percentage that does not match the data is the easiest mistake for viewers to catch.

The trading screen look, element by element

Market charts borrow from trading screens. A dark background, a thin grid, green for up, red for down and a moving price tag tell a viewer this is about money before they read a word.

Stock chart video mistakes that cost trust

• Numbers that do not match the source. One wrong price undermines the whole channel. Paste exact data and check the final frames.
• Predictions dressed as charts. Do not draw future prices as if they were data. Show what happened, and mark any opinion as opinion.
• Too many data points. Five years of daily prices, over 1,200 points, squashed into nine seconds is a blur. Use weekly or monthly points for long ranges.
• Tiny labels. Prices and dates must read on a phone. Four or five big axis labels beat a full axis.

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