Adjusted Price

A raw close is the price that traded. An adjusted close rewrites older prices after a split, a bonus, or a dividend so that a return series is continuous. After a 1-for-1 bonus, the raw price roughly halves. The adjusted history halves the older prices instead, so the chart does not show a crash that did not happen to the owner.

Split and bonus adjustments are not controversial: the share count changed. Dividend adjustment subtracts past payouts from earlier prices so total return is visible on a price chart. A chart of "what you could have sold for that day" should not be dividend-adjusted.

Check the platform label: unadjusted, split-adjusted, or total-return. A smooth line through an ex-bonus date is adjusted. A sudden halving is the raw price.

Use adjusted history for moving averages, percent changes, and any long-term pattern. Use the unadjusted price for the level that actually traded, for old support, and for the price in a past news report.

Drawing a five-year trendline on adjusted data and then quoting that line as a price the market can hit tomorrow. The live quote is unadjusted.

Vendors adjust differently, especially around dividends and rights. Two "adjusted" charts of the same stock can disagree on the older levels.