Anatomy of a Candlestick
Open, high, low and close — and what the body and wicks describe about a session.
Four prices, one shape
Every candle summarises a chosen period with four prices: where it opened, the highest and lowest prices traded, and where it closed. The body spans open to close; the wicks reach to the extremes.
A green (bullish) body closes above its open. A red (bearish) body closes below it. Colour tells you direction; shape tells you how the period unfolded.
Reading the wicks
Wicks record prices that were visited and then abandoned. A long lower wick means sellers pushed price down, but by the close buyers had recovered much of that ground.
One candle is a small sample. Treat wicks as clues to be confirmed by location — a rejection wick at a known level carries more information than one in the middle of a range.
Key takeaways
- Body = open to close; wicks = the extremes.
- Wicks show rejected prices, not guaranteed reversals.
- Context and location matter more than a single candle.
Go deeper
Charts are illustrative examples, not real market data. This content is for educational purposes only and is not financial advice.