A candlestick is just a picture of what price did during one slice of time. Once you see it that way, charts stop being scary.
The four numbers
Every candle shows four things for its time period: the open (price at the start), the close (price at the end), the high (the top it reached), and the low (the bottom it reached).
The body and the wicks
The thick part is the body. It runs from the open to the close. The thin lines above and below are the wicks. They show how far price stretched before coming back.
- A green candle means the close was higher than the open. Buyers won that round.
- A red candle means the close was lower than the open. Sellers won that round.
A long lower wick means buyers stepped in and pushed price back up. A long upper wick means sellers pushed it back down. Wicks tell you about the fight, not just the result.
What one candle does not tell you
A single candle is one moment. Real reading comes from the sequence: are candles making higher highs, or lower lows. That is the trend, and it matters far more than any one candle.
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