Anatomy of a Candlestick

In one line: One candle is a small picture of a fight between buyers and sellers — learn its parts and you can read that fight.

🎯 What you'll learn

What a candlestick (a small bar shape that shows price for one time period) is made of.
The four price points every candle records: open, high, low, close.
The difference between the body and the wicks.
How to tell a bullish candle from a bearish one.
What a long wick, a big body, a Doji, and a Spinning Top are telling you.

📘 Key concepts

The four prices in one candle

Every candle covers a fixed time (like 1 day or 5 minutes). In that time it stores four prices.

Open — where price started for the period. (First trade.)
Close — where price ended for the period. (Last trade.)
High — the highest price touched during the period.
Low — the lowest price touched during the period.
Think of a shop's day: the first sale price, the last sale price, the dearest sale, the cheapest sale.

Body and wicks

The candle has two parts.

Body — the thick rectangle. It shows the range between the open and the close. This is the "real range" — the true strength of the move.
Wicks (also called shadows — the thin lines above and below the body). The upper wick reaches up to the high. The lower wick reaches down to the low.
Bigger body = stronger momentum (a strong one-sided push).
Longer wick = stronger rejection (price went there, but got pushed back). Long wicks also mean indecision or high volatility (price swinging fast).

Bullish vs bearish (green vs red)

Colour tells you who won the period.

Bullish candle (usually green): close is higher than open. Buyers won. Open sits at the bottom of the body, close at the top.
Bearish candle (usually red): close is lower than open. Sellers won. Open sits at the top of the body, close at the bottom.
Green = buyers in control. Red = sellers in control.

Candle types at a glance

Bullish — close > open. Buyers pushed price up.
Bearish — close < open. Sellers pushed price down.
Doji — open is about equal to close (tiny body). A tug-of-war with no winner. Indecision, and sometimes a warning of a reversal (a turn in direction).
Spinning Top — small body with long wicks on both sides. Big swings but no clear winner. Also indecision or a possible reversal.

🔍 Example

Say a stock trades for one day.

Open: ₹100
Close: ₹110
High: ₹112
Low: ₹98

Close (₹110) is above open (₹100), so this is a green (bullish) candle.

Body = ₹100 to ₹110 (a fat body → strong buying).
Upper wick = ₹110 up to ₹112 (small).
Lower wick = ₹100 down to ₹98 (small).

A tiny sketch:

   | 112  high
 ┌─┴─┐ 110 close
 │   │
 └─┬─┘ 100 open
   | 98   low

Now imagine a different day: open ₹100, close ₹101, but high ₹112 and low ₹90. Same rough area, but a tiny body with huge wicks — a Spinning Top. Buyers and sellers fought hard and nobody won. Same candle shape family, very different story.

⚠️ Common mistakes

Reading only the colour and ignoring the body size and wicks. Colour is just one clue.
Thinking a long wick is "nothing". A long wick is a loud signal of rejection.
Confusing the top of a red body: on a red candle the top is the open, not the close.
Treating a single Doji as a sure reversal. It only hints — always check the candles around it.
Forgetting the time frame. A "1-day candle" and a "5-minute candle" tell very different stories.

✅ Key takeaways

A candle stores four prices: open, high, low, close.
Body = the real range and strength; wicks = the extreme high and low.
Green (bullish): close above open. Red (bearish): close below open.
Bigger body = stronger momentum; longer wick = stronger rejection.
Doji and Spinning Top both signal indecision or a possible turn.

📝 Quick check

Q: On a green (bullish) candle, where is the close? A: At the top of the body. Close is above open.
Q: What does a very long lower wick suggest? A: Strong rejection of lower prices — sellers pushed price down but buyers pushed it back up.
Q: What is a Doji telling you? A: Open and close are almost equal — indecision, and sometimes a warning of a reversal.

📖 New words

Candlestick — a bar shape showing open, high, low, and close for one time period.
Body — the thick part of the candle, the range between open and close.
Wick (shadow) — the thin line reaching to the high (upper) or low (lower).
Bullish — price closed higher than it opened; buyers in control.
Bearish — price closed lower than it opened; sellers in control.
Rejection — price reached a level but got pushed back away from it.
Reversal — a change in the direction of the trend.
Doji — a candle where open and close are almost equal (indecision).
Spinning Top — a candle with a small body and long wicks on both sides (indecision).

Educational content only — not financial advice. Trading involves the risk of losing money.