A candlestick is one bar that packs four prices — the open, high, low and close — into a single shape. Read its body and wicks and you can see, at a glance, whether buyers or sellers won that period.
A candlestick represents the price action of a stock over one period — a minute, an hour, a day. Its thick body spans the open and close, while thin wicks (also called shadows) reach up to the high and down to the low. That single symbol carries far more information than a dot on a line chart.
A green (or hollow) candle closes higher than it opened — buyers were in control. A red (or filled) candle closes lower than it opened — sellers won. A long body signals a decisive period; long wicks show the price was pushed to an extreme and then rejected back.
A lone candle rarely tells the whole story; traders read them in sequence and alongside volume and support and resistance. Context turns a shape into a signal.
See candles form live: watch price build bar by bar and call the next move in the up/down prediction game.
Not advice: educational content only. For authoritative basics see the SEC at investor.gov.
Related: candlestick patterns guide, how to read stock charts, and what is trading volume.
A candlestick is a single bar on a chart that shows four prices for one period: the open, the high, the low and the close. Its shape tells you at a glance whether buyers or sellers won that period.
The thick body spans the open and close prices, while the thin wicks (or shadows) reach to the high and low. A long body means strong one-way movement; long wicks mean the price was pushed back.
A green (or hollow) candle closes higher than it opened, so buyers won the period. A red (or filled) candle closes lower than it opened, so sellers won. Colour shows direction at a glance.
A line chart shows only the closing price, but a candlestick packs the open, high, low and close into one symbol. That extra detail reveals momentum, rejection and reversals a line chart hides.