Lesson 29 of 69
What a single candle shows
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A is a compressed story of one slice of time. On a 1-hour chart, each summarises everything that happened in that hour using only four prices: the , the high, the low and the .
The four prices
- Open — the first traded price of the period.
- High — the highest price reached during the period.
- Low — the lowest price reached during the period.
- Close — the last traded price before the period ended. This is the most important of the four.
Body and wick
The thick rectangle is the body: it spans from the open to the close and shows the price ground that one side actually held onto. The thin lines above and below are the (also called or tails): they show where price travelled and was pushed back from.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Long body | One side dominated the whole period — strong conviction |
| Short body | Open and close finished close together — indecision |
| Long upper wick | Buyers pushed up and sellers rejected the move |
| Long lower wick | Sellers pushed down and buyers rejected the move |
| No wicks at all | Price ran one way from the first tick to the last |
Remember
A wick is a failure. It marks a price level the market tested and refused to accept — which is exactly why wicks are so useful for spotting turning points.
The changes the story
One daily candle is made of twenty-four 1-hour . A hammer on the 5-minute chart is a five-minute event and carries five minutes of meaning. The higher the timeframe, the more money and more participants a single candle represents — and the more weight the signal deserves.
Key takeaways
- Every candle shows four prices: open, high, low and close.
- The body is open-to-close; wicks reach the extremes of the period.
- Long wicks mark rejection — where price went but could not stay.
- Large bodies signal conviction; small bodies signal indecision.
Knowledge check
3 quick questions — your best score is saved to your progress.
1. What four prices does a single candle show?
2. What does a long upper wick tell you?
3. What does the size of the body represent?
Progress is saved on this device.
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