What Is a Candlestick

One candle, drawn large

A candlestick is one period of time — a day, an hour, five minutes — drawn as four prices. Where the period opened and where it closed make the thick part, the body. The highest and lowest prices it touched make the thin lines above and below — the wicks, the parts of the range the period reached but did not close in. The colour says which way the period went: green when it closed above where it opened, red when it closed below. On 3 September 2026 the euro against the dollar opened at 1.15872 and closed at 1.16259 — a pip is the fourth decimal place, so a body 38.7 pips tall — and touched 1.16411 and 1.15834 along the way.

Among its neighbours

Back at the chart's usual size, the candle drawn large is one of forty, and every one of the other thirty-nine is the same four prices for another day. Green days and red days sit side by side, tall candles beside short ones, and the wicks of one reach into the bodies of the next. A chart of candles is a row of periods, each summarised as one shape, and reading the chart is reading the row.

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