What a candlestick actually shows
Every candlestick on a stock chart packs four prices into one shape: the Open, the High, the Low, and the Close for a single period of time — a day, an hour, five minutes, whatever the chart is set to. Learn to read one candle and you can read a whole chart.
The body: Open to Close
The thick rectangle is the body. Its top and bottom are the Open and Close prices. If the stock closed higher than it opened, the candle is green — buyers won the period. If it closed lower than it opened, the candle is red — sellers won. Drag the Close slider in the simulator above below the Open and watch the body flip from green to red.
The wicks: High and Low
The thin lines poking out of the body are the wicks (also called shadows). The tip of the upper wick is the highest price the stock touched; the tip of the lower wick is the lowest. The body tells you where the period started and ended; the wicks tell you how far price travelled in between.
A long lower wick means sellers pushed the price way down, but buyers fought back and lifted it before the close — a sign of buying support. A long upper wick is the mirror image: buyers pushed price up, but sellers knocked it back down — a sign of selling pressure. Traders watch these tails closely.
The doji: a standoff
When the Open and Close are almost the same, the body shrinks to a thin line. That's a doji, and it signals indecision — neither buyers nor sellers took control. After a long run in one direction, a doji can hint the trend is running out of steam. Try setting Open and Close to the same value in the simulator to see one form.
Now play with the sliders above until you can predict the candle's shape before you let go — then take the quick check below.