Candlestick Anatomy
How to read one candle — open, high, low and close — and what the body and wicks tell you about the battle between buyers and sellers.
Four prices in one shape
A candlestick packs four prices from a single period into one simple shape: the open (first trade), the high (highest trade), the low (lowest trade) and the close (last trade). On a daily chart, each candle is one trading day. On a weekly chart, each candle is one week. The idea traces back to Japanese rice traders centuries ago and became popular with Western traders in the late twentieth century.
Compared with a simple line chart, which only connects closing prices, candles show you the whole journey of each period at a glance.
The body spans open to close; the wicks reach to the high and low.
The body
The thick part of the candle is the body. It runs between the open and the close. If the close is above the open, the candle is bullish, and on Market Jukebox charts it is drawn in green. If the close is below the open, the candle is bearish and drawn in red.
The size of the body tells you how decisive the period was. A long green body means buyers were in control from open to close. A long red body means sellers dominated. A tiny body means the open and close were close together, a sign of balance or indecision.
The wicks (shadows)
The thin lines above and below the body are the wicks, also called shadows. The upper wick reaches the high of the period and the lower wick reaches the low. Wicks show prices that were visited but not held.
A long upper wick means buyers pushed price up, but sellers pushed it back down before the close. A long lower wick means sellers pushed price down, but buyers stepped in and drove it back up. Traders read wicks as footprints of rejection.
| What you see | What it suggests |
|---|---|
| Long green body, small wicks | Strong buying all session |
| Long red body, small wicks | Strong selling all session |
| Long upper wick | Higher prices were rejected |
| Long lower wick | Lower prices were rejected |
| Tiny body, wicks both sides | Indecision — neither side won |
Quick guide to reading a single candle.
Reading candles on a real chart
In practice, you never read a candle alone. The same shape means different things depending on where it appears. A long lower wick after a steady decline, near a support level, is far more interesting than the same candle in the middle of a choppy range. Volume matters too: a strong candle on heavy volume shows more conviction than one on light volume.
Real daily candles. The marked candle has a long lower wick: sellers pushed price down during the day, but buyers pulled it back up by the close. The candles after it show what happened next.
Candles and time frames
The same stock can show a bearish daily candle inside a bullish weekly candle. Longer time frames carry more weight because they include more trading. Many swing traders check the weekly chart for the big-picture trend, then use daily candles to time entries.
A word of caution
Candles describe what happened; they do not guarantee what happens next. Treat candle signals as clues that become stronger when they line up with other evidence: trend, support and resistance, volume, and the overall market direction. The next two lessons cover the most useful single-candle and two-candle patterns.
Practice: read three candles
Try describing candles in plain words, the way a trader would. A tall green candle that closes near its high: buyers were in charge all day and finished strong. A red candle with a long upper wick that closes near its low: buyers tried early, sellers took over and closed it weak. A small candle with long wicks on both sides: a tug of war that nobody won. If you can narrate each candle like this, you are already reading charts better than most beginners, who only glance at whether the day was up or down.
Next, zoom out and narrate the last ten candles as a story. Are the green candles getting bigger? Are the red ones shrinking? Is price pressing into a level where it has turned before? That story is what the rest of this category builds on.
Key takeaways
- Each candle shows the open, high, low and close for one period.
- Green (close above open) is bullish; red (close below open) is bearish.
- Long bodies show conviction; tiny bodies show indecision.
- Wicks show rejected prices — long lower wicks mean buyers stepped in.
- Context (trend, levels, volume) matters more than any single candle.