{"format":"alysly-page/1","url":"https://alysly.com/learn/reading-candles/","json":"https://alysly.com/json/learn/reading-candles/index.json","lang":"en-US","title":"Candlestick Basics: Body, Wick and What They Tell You","description":"How a candle is built and what the ratio of body to wick says about a trading period – including the information every candle destroys.","published":"2026-08-02T15:41:33+02:00","modified":"2026-11-01T18:26:04+01:00","alternates":[{"lang":"de-DE","url":"https://alysly.com/de/lernen/kerzen-lesen/","json":"https://alysly.com/json/de/lernen/kerzen-lesen/index.json"}],"about":"Machine-readable version of the page at url. It contains the text, tables and key figures published there, but not the interactive charts and tools.","breadcrumb":[{"name":"Investing & Trading Basics","url":"https://alysly.com/learn/"},{"name":"Level 1","url":"https://alysly.com/learn/#level-1"},{"name":"Reading Candles: Body, Wick, Color","url":"https://alysly.com/learn/reading-candles/"}],"content":[{"type":"paragraph","text":"Level 1 Reading Charts · Part 2/7"},{"type":"heading","level":1,"text":"Reading Candles: Body, Wick, Color"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"By Alexander Bock, founder and data analyst","links":[{"text":"Alexander Bock","href":"https://alysly.com/about/"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The candle is the most common way to show prices. It packs four numbers into a shape you can read in a fraction of a second. Its construction is simple. The interesting part is what the proportions tell you."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"construction","text":"Construction"},{"type":"image","src":"https://alysly.com/img/ta/candle-anatomy.6844eb1f0bc64a22ba196385ca998de81d9421f4adb7f0299cc04204c36b9727.webp","alt":"Anatomy of an up candle and a down candle, showing body and wicks"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A candle compresses four prices: (1) the upper wick reaches the day's high, (2) the body spans open to close, (3) the lower wick reaches the day's low. (4) On a down candle the open sits at the top and the close at the bottom — same parts, opposite direction."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The body covers the distance from open to close. If the close is higher, the candle counts as up and is drawn hollow or green. If it is lower, the candle counts as down and is drawn filled or red. The wicks, also called shadows, reach up to the high and down to the low of the period."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Colors are pure convention. Japanese candles were originally white and black, and many professional platforms still draw them that way. The color adds no information that the position of open and close does not already give you."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"the-proportions-carry-the-message","text":"The Proportions Carry the Message"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"The real information in a candle is the ratio of body to total range:"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":["Long body, short wicks: price moved in one direction and stayed there. Most participants agreed.","Short body, long wicks: a lot of movement, no result. Both sides pushed the price around, and neither could hold it.","One long wick on a single side: the market reached a price area and rejected it. That is where the information sits, not in the color."]},{"type":"image","src":"https://alysly.com/img/ta/marubozu-spinning.7d819f7daa5e1aae09af2823659162f3659982bbb0a4bdb049b34b9c5d847278.webp","alt":"Marubozu without wicks compared with a spinning top with a small body"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"(1) A marubozu is a candle with almost no wicks: price opens at one end of the range and closes at the other — one direction, all day. (2) The same downward. (3) A spinning top is the opposite: small body, wicks on both sides, plenty of movement with no result. Body length relative to total range is the real information in any candle."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"These three basic shapes carry Japanese names – marubozu, spinning top, doji – but the names are secondary. If you can read the ratio, you do not need the vocabulary."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"size-is-relative","text":"Size Is Relative"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"There is no absolute definition of a “large” candle. A range of two percent is an exceptional day for a quiet bond ETF and an ordinary Tuesday for a cryptocurrency. What counts is the comparison with the last ten to twenty candles of the same instrument. That is exactly what average true range later turns into a number.","links":[{"text":"average true range","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/volatility/"}]},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"gaps","text":"Gaps"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Between one close and the next open there can be a gap: trading starts again at a different price from where it stopped. Gaps appear wherever trading is interrupted – overnight, over a weekend or around an earnings report."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Where trading never stops, gaps are rare. Crypto trades around the clock, and the major currency pairs trade five days a week without a break. A pattern that needs a gap is therefore structurally rare in those markets. This is good evidence that candlestick patterns are not universal laws, but depend on how a market works."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"what-every-candle-destroys","text":"What Every Candle Destroys"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"A candle does not tell you the order in which the prices occurred. A day that rises to its high and then collapses to its low can produce exactly the same candle. So can a day that first breaks down and then recovers. In economic terms these are two completely different days."},{"type":"paragraph","text":"This is why changing the timeframe is not cosmetic. It is the only way to get that information back: one daily candle breaks down into 24 hourly candles that show the sequence. If you take a candlestick pattern seriously, you should at least know what happened one level below it."},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"next","text":"Next"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Reversal and continuation patterns made of several candles are covered in Level 2. Before that, one piece of context is still missing, and without it every reversal pattern is meaningless: the trend.","links":[{"text":"Level 2","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/#level-2"}]},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[{"text":"Previous How to Read a Chart","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/reading-a-chart/"},{"text":"Next Trend, Trendline, Channel","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/trend-and-trendlines/"}]},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Indices"},{"type":"table","caption":"Indices, performance over the selected period","columns":["Index","1M"],"rows":[[{"text":"Dow Jones","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/indices/dow-jones/"},{"text":"+1.0%","data":{"m1":"+1.0%","m3":"-4.3%","m6":"+4.9%","ytd":"+7.6%","max":"+30.0%"}}],[{"text":"S&P 500","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/indices/sp500/"},{"text":"-2.6%","data":{"m1":"-2.6%","m3":"-2.2%","m6":"+4.2%","ytd":"+10.6%","max":"+35.6%"}}],[{"text":"MSCI World","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/indices/msci-world/"},{"text":"-2.0%","data":{"m1":"-2.0%","m3":"-2.4%","m6":"+3.7%","ytd":"+10.0%","max":"+35.0%"}}],[{"text":"MSCI ACWI","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/indices/msci-acwi/"},{"text":"-3.3%","data":{"m1":"-3.3%","m3":"-3.0%","m6":"+2.3%","ytd":"+10.2%","max":"+41.5%"}}]]},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"ETFs"},{"type":"table","caption":"ETFs, performance over the selected period","columns":["Fund","1M"],"rows":[[{"text":"SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY","links":[{"text":"SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/etfs/us/spy/"}]},{"text":"-2.6%","data":{"m1":"-2.6%","m3":"-2.2%","m6":"+4.2%","ytd":"+10.6%","max":"+35.6%"}}],[{"text":"Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO","links":[{"text":"Vanguard S&P 500 ETF","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/etfs/us/voo/"}]},{"text":"-2.6%","data":{"m1":"-2.6%","m3":"-2.2%","m6":"+4.2%","ytd":"+10.6%","max":"+34.1%"}}],[{"text":"iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF USD (Acc) EUNL","links":[{"text":"iShares Core MSCI World UCITS ETF USD (Acc)","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/etfs/ishares-core-msci-world-ucits-etf-usd-acc/"}]},{"text":"-2.0%","data":{"m1":"-2.0%","m3":"-2.3%","m6":"+4.3%","ytd":"+10.6%","max":"+487.5%"}}],[{"text":"Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF 1c XMME","links":[{"text":"Xtrackers MSCI Emerging Markets UCITS ETF 1c","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/etfs/xtrackers-msci-emerging-markets-ucits-etf-1c/"}]},{"text":"-9.4%","data":{"m1":"-9.4%","m3":"-4.1%","m6":"-3.3%","ytd":"+14.0%","max":"+93.0%"}}]]},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Stocks"},{"type":"table","caption":"Stocks, performance over the selected period","columns":["Stock","1M"],"rows":[[{"text":"NVIDIA Corporation NVDA","links":[{"text":"NVIDIA Corporation","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/nvidia-corporation/"},{"text":"United States","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/browse/?country=United%20States"}]},{"text":"-13.5%","data":{"m1":"-13.5%","m3":"-2.5%","m6":"+5.2%","ytd":"+10.8%","max":"+62.2%"}}],[{"text":"Apple Inc. AAPL","links":[{"text":"Apple Inc.","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/apple-inc/"},{"text":"United States","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/browse/?country=United%20States"}]},{"text":"-0.3%","data":{"m1":"-0.3%","m3":"+7.3%","m6":"+16.8%","ytd":"+22.1%","max":"+45.8%"}}],[{"text":"Tesla Inc. TSLA","links":[{"text":"Tesla Inc.","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/tesla-inc/"},{"text":"United States","href":"https://alysly.com/markets/stocks/browse/?country=United%20States"}]},{"text":"+5.2%","data":{"m1":"+5.2%","m3":"+21.7%","m6":"+2.3%","ytd":"-11.4%","max":"+65.3%"}}]]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Data note 1","href":"#dn-1"},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"More Studies"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[{"text":"Jul 21, 2026 Collectibles ×5.4 for the same cards, matched-model index, Mar 2022 – Aug 2026 Is the Pokémon Card Market in a Bubble? 4,159 Sales Analyzed Prices for PSA-graded cards multiplied. Measured on the same cards they rose 438%, while the raw median shows 786% because pricier cards came up for sale later.","href":"https://alysly.com/analysis/pokemon-card-market-bubble/"},{"text":"May 19, 2026 Crypto 45.6% Bitcoin’s annualized volatility, Jul 2024 – Sep 2026 Bitcoin in Investment Portfolios: The Real Numbers Bitcoin is calmer than it was and still about three times as volatile as the stock market. It moves with stocks, not with gold.","href":"https://alysly.com/analysis/bitcoin-investment-portfolios/"},{"text":"Mar 17, 2026 Wealth €1.2m needed for €3,000 a month indefinitely at a 3% real return Living Off Your Returns: What It Really Takes The capital you need is arithmetic. The return you assume is a guess, and it can triple the answer.","href":"https://alysly.com/analysis/living-off-returns/"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"View all studies","href":"https://alysly.com/analysis/#studies"},{"type":"heading","level":2,"text":"Learn"},{"type":"list","ordered":false,"items":[{"text":"Trend, Trendline, Channel Higher highs, higher lows – and why trendlines bend more easily than they look.","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/trend-and-trendlines/"},{"text":"Support and Resistance Zones instead of lines, role reversal, round numbers – and where these areas come from.","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/support-and-resistance/"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Course overview","href":"https://alysly.com/learn/"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Updated Nov 1, 2026 · Content and figures checked Oct 19, 2026"},{"type":"heading","level":2,"id":"note-legend-h","text":"Data Notes"},{"type":"paragraph","text":"All calculations run automatically and are not investment advice."},{"type":"list","ordered":true,"items":[{"id":"dn-1","text":"Returns computed automatically from the price series, excluding dividends, taxes and costs."}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"Data and methodology: Alysly · Responsible for content: Alexander Bock","links":[{"text":"Alysly","href":"https://alysly.com/methodology/"},{"text":"Alexander Bock","href":"https://alysly.com/about/"}]},{"type":"paragraph","text":"View all data notes","href":"https://alysly.com/notes/"}],"structured_data":[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://alysly.com/#org","name":"Alysly","url":"https://alysly.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://alysly.com/img/icon-512.png","width":512,"height":512},"description":"Data-driven insights, transparent analysis and powerful tools for long-term investors.","email":"mail@alysly.com","contactPoint":{"@type":"ContactPoint","contactType":"customer 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Not investment advice. All data without guarantee. Financial information is analyzed and presented partly with AI assistance."}