Anatomy of a candle
One candlestick compresses everything a market did during one period — a minute, an hour, a day — into a single shape. Once you can read the shape, you can read any chart on Earth. Let's take one apart, piece by piece.
Drag the sliders — watch the candle change
The four numbers
| Value | What it is | Why you care |
|---|---|---|
| Open | The first traded price of the period | Where the fight started |
| High | The highest price reached | How far buyers pushed |
| Low | The lowest price reached | How far sellers pushed |
| Close | The last traded price | Who won. Above the open = green, below = red |
The body
The thick rectangle between open and close. A long body = conviction — one side dominated the whole period. A tiny body = indecision.
The wicks (shadows)
The thin lines to high and low. A long wick means price went there and was rejected — that's a clue. Long lower wick: buyers defended. Long upper wick: sellers capped it.
Why candles beat line charts: a line chart only shows the close. A candle shows the whole story of the period — who attacked, who defended, and who won. Every pattern on this site is just these shapes repeating in meaningful combinations.
Try this
Set the sliders to make: a big green body a doji (open ≈ close) a hammer (long lower wick) — then go find real ones on the pattern explorer →