Chart Patterns. Bar charts are price charts that show the daily futures price opening, high, low, and closing using a vertical bar with ticks on it (see box above). Bar charts are used in technical analysis to analyze and predict the trend of prices. This is accomplished in a variety of ways, including a host of characteristic formations or patterns (e.g., “head and shoulders”, double top or bottom, flags, triangles, etc.). In general, there is no research to show that these chart patterns determine prices or even reliably predict cotton prices. But many cotton market participants pay attention to them, and to the extent that traders act on them, chart patterns could occasionally be influential, in the manner of a near term, self-fulfilling prophecy.