The last lesson introduced candlesticks as the tool you read price with. Now you’ll learn to actually read them. This is one of the most useful skills in the whole course: every setup and entry the course teaches later comes down to looking at a candle, or a group of them, and seeing what buyers and sellers just did.
Take your time here. Reading candles is like learning letters before you read words. Once it sticks, every lesson after this gets easier.
The anatomy of a candle
Every candle covers one period, whatever your timeframe is set to. It records the four prices you met last lesson as OHLC: the open and close (where the period started and ended) and the high and low (the furthest it stretched each way). The close is the one that matters most, it’s where the period settled. Tap through the candle to see where each price sits.
Anatomy of a candle: tap each part
Every candle records four prices from its period. Tap each part to see where it sits and what it means.
Tap a part of the candle, or a label below.
How a candle forms
The body runs from open to close: green when price closed above its open, red when it closed below. The thin wicks reach out to the high and low. The same four prices can come from very different journeys through the period, so press play and watch one build.
Watch a candle form: press play
Price travels through one period and the candle builds itself. The body runs from the open to the close, the wicks reach the high and low. Scrub to pause mid-way.
Opened, dipped to the low, then bought back up to close near the high. Close above open, so the body is green: a bullish candle.
What shapes tell you
This is where candles stop being data and start telling a story. The size of the body next to the wicks shows how the fight went: a big body means one side ran the period, a long wick means price got rejected and pushed back, a tiny body means nobody won. Form each shape below and read what it says.
Candle shapes: watch what the market is saying
The shape of a candle, how the body and wicks compare, tells you how the fight went. Pick a shape and watch it form.
Strong buying
Buyers ran the whole period, open near the low, close near the high, almost no pushback.
Why it matters
Everything the course teaches later is built on candles. A Fair Value Gap forming, an Order Block holding, structure shifting: those are all candle events. Get fluent with the candle itself and the bigger concepts land easily. Skip it and you’ll trip over the foundation the whole way through.
No orders, just train your eye. Tick these off as you go, and they save on your device.
A candle shows OHLC. The body links open to close, the wicks reach the high and low, the colour gives you direction. Shape tells the story: a big body means one side dominated, a long wick means rejection, a doji means indecision. But a candle only counts in context. Next up: indicators, and where they help and where they get in the way.
Check your understanding
Question 1
What do the four data points of a candlestick represent?
Question 2
What does a long lower wick with a small body typically indicate?
Question 3
True or false: a single candle's shape is enough to make a reliable trading decision.
Questions & help
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