Candlestick Charts
Learn to read price movement at a glance
What is a candle?
Every bar on the chart is called a candle. It shows exactly what happened with the price during one time period — for example, one hour or one day.
Each candle has four numbers: Open — price at the start of the period. Close — price at the end. High — the highest point reached. Low — the lowest point reached.
The thick part in the middle is called the body. The thin lines above and below are called wicks (or shadows).
Green and red candles
A green candle means the price went up during that period — it closed higher than it opened. Good news for buyers.
A red candle means the price went down — it closed lower than it opened. Bad news for buyers.
A long body means a strong move. A short body means the price barely changed.
What wicks tell you
Wicks show the extremes — how far the price tried to go before being pushed back.
Long wick on top → price tried to rise but sellers pushed it back down. Sellers are strong here.
Long wick on bottom → price tried to fall but buyers stepped in and pushed it back up. Buyers are strong here.
Big wicks = a fight between buyers and sellers.
Timeframes
You can choose how much time each candle represents. This is called the timeframe.
1m — each candle = 1 minute.
1h — each candle = 1 hour.
1d — each candle = 1 day.
How to read the chart
Do not try to analyse every single candle. Look at the bigger picture:
Mostly green candles going up → the market is in an uptrend. Buyers are in control.
Mostly red candles going down → the market is in a downtrend. Sellers are in control.
Candles mixed, price going sideways → the market has no direction. Harder to trade — better to wait.
A candle opened at $100 and closed at $85. What color is it?
- Green — price went up
- Red — price went down
- White — price did not move
- Depends on the wick