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What Is a Spinning Top

A spinning top is a candle with a small body and a wick on each side: a period that went both ways and ended near where it began. This paper shows you a real one drawn large, the toy the shape is named for beside the day's trip, where the shape sits between the doji and the marubozu, three in four days on the chart, and how to read the body against the wicks with the grid on your platform.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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A big day that went nowhere

A spinning top is a candle with a small body and a wick — the thin line beyond the body — on each side. The euro against the dollar drew one on 12 February 2025: 113 pips from low to high, a pip being the fourth decimal place, and a body of 25 of them near the middle, with a wick of 47 above and 41 below. The price went far both ways and finished close to where it started. The colour hardly matters, because the body is too small to carry it.

The toy

The name comes from the toy that spins hard and stays where it is. Follow the 12 February day through its hours: the price fell 41 pips from the open to its low at three in the afternoon, rose 113 pips to its high at eight in the evening, and came back down to close 25 pips above where it had begun. A hundred and thirteen pips of travel, and a body of 25. The body is the little the day kept. The two wicks are everything it gave back.

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