"A column is now published on Toyo Keizai ONLINE" Money grows as it increases and decreases.

Good morning, this is Matsushita.

Both the stock market and the foreign exchange market

fluctuate in price on a daily basis.

What makes it easy to understand,

and something you can grasp at a glance,

is the "chart."

In other words, it's a price graph,

to put it simply.

The readers of this column belong to a level

who naturally look at charts.

Investors, in other words.

On the other hand, surprisingly,

there are people who trade without looking at charts at all.

You might think, "No way,"

but it is true.

Information and environment, after all,

are such things.

Information and knowledge are not infinitely necessary,

but the minimum is necessary.

In this sense, when engaging in stock investing or FX,

not looking at charts is a suicidal act.

Now about this chart:

If you look at it correctly, it is composed of two axes,

the horizontal and vertical axes.

The horizontal axis is time, for example a daily chart (read as “hiashi”).

It is not read as “nissoku.” Please note!

Every day a new bar stretches to the right.

The vertical axis is price, and on a daily chart,

that day's price moves up and down vertically.

Thus, with time on the horizontal axis and price on the

vertical axis, prices fluctuate.

Strangely, investors are always focused on price and

only concerned with gains and losses.

Because, within price movements,

one axis—the vertical axis—is being focused on.

However, there is another axis that determines price movements.

That is "time = the horizontal axis."

In other words, our funds are influenced by both price and time.

Prices rise and fall in relation to time in this way,

repeating upward and downward movements.

Similarly, our funds, in relation to time,

increase or decrease as well.

Investors want to keep increasing their money, but

as prices fluctuate over time, funds also rise and fall over time.

First, get used to that.

Funds go up and down every day.

But after six months, a year, or five years have passed,

funds gradually increase.

That is the investing we aim for.

Look at the chart in front of you,

and become conscious of the vertical and horizontal axes.

Your investment will change a little.