Candle Anatomy — Reading One Bar

Four prices, one story

Each candlestick compresses a period (a day, an hour, a week) into four numbers: open, high, low, close. The body spans open→close; the wicks (shadows) extend to high and low. Green/hollow: close above open (buyers won the period). Red/filled: close below open (sellers won).

Wicks are where the fight happened

A long lower wick means price plunged deep below the open but buyers pushed it back before the close — sellers attacked and lost. A long upper wick is the mirror image: buyers attacked, sellers defended. A candle with tiny wicks (a marubozu) means one side controlled the entire period — strong conviction. Wicks are often more informative than the body.

Body size = conviction

A tall green body with small wicks: buyers dominated start to finish. A doji (open ≈ close, any wicks): total standoff — indecision. Context is everything: a doji after a long rally means something different than a doji after a crash. We will build this context in coming days.

Sources

• Candlestick AnatomySteve Nison — Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques