Anatomy of a candle (open, high, low, close, body, wicks)

The four prices and the body

Every candle is built from exactly four numbers: open, high, low, and close. The open is the first price that prints when the period starts. The close is the last price that prints before the period ends. The high is the most expensive price the candle reached. The low is the cheapest. Just four numbers — and a candle is the visual recipe for those four.

The body is the colored rectangle between the open and the close. If the close is higher than the open, the body is green — that period was bullish. If the close is lower than the open, the body is red — bearish. The longer the body, the more decisive the period was. A long green body means buyers ran the show from open to close without much pushback.

The wicks (sometimes called shadows or tails) are the thin lines that stick out above and below the body. The upper wick goes from the top of the body to the high. The lower wick goes from the bottom of the body to the low. Wicks tell you where price reached but couldn't hold. A long upper wick on a red candle means buyers tried to push up, failed, and sellers shoved price all the way back below the open.

Read the parts together. A long body with short wicks tells you one side was in control. A short body with long wicks on both ends tells you neither side won — that's indecision. A short body with a long wick on only one side tells you a clear rejection in that direction. You'll spend the rest of this curriculum reading those four parts in different combinations.

Recap: open, high, low, close, body, wicks. The body shows who won. The wicks show where they got rejected.