PriorClose

PriorClose is the closing price of a financial instrument from the most recent completed trading session. It serves as a reference point for assessing price action and is used in performance calculations, gap analysis, and charting. For example, daily return is often computed as the percentage change from PriorClose to the current close, and the difference between the open price and PriorClose helps gauge overnight sentiment.

The exact definition of PriorClose can vary by market and data provider. If a market is closed for holidays or weekends, the PriorClose refers to the last trading day; some venues also distinguish between the regular-session close and an after-hours close. When data are adjusted for corporate actions, historical PriorClose values may be shown in adjusted or unadjusted form, which affects calculations of returns and gaps. Users should confirm whether the data include dividends or stock splits and how holidays are treated.

In trading systems and analytics, PriorClose is a standard data field alongside open, high, low, and close. It is not predictive by itself and should be interpreted in the context of the current session’s timing, the data feed schedule, and any adjustments applied to historical prices. PriorClose is commonly used in dashboards, performance reporting, and backtesting to measure how prices move relative to the most recent closing level.