Candlestick
Also called: candlestick chart, candle, candles
A chart bar showing one period's opening, closing, highest and lowest prices. Green or blue if it closed higher, red if lower.
Each candle covers one period, a day on most charts. The thick body runs from the opening price to the closing price. The thin lines above and below, called wicks, mark the highest and lowest prices traded in between.
A long body means a decisive period. A small body with long wicks means buyers and sellers fought to a draw. Pattern names such as hammer or doji are labels for shapes, and their record as predictions is far weaker than the books about them suggest.
Example
A share opens at 500, trades as low as 480 and as high as 515, and closes at 510. Its daily candle is green, with a body from 500 to 510, an upper wick to 515 and a lower wick down to 480.
Watch out
Read candles with the volume bars underneath. A big candle on thin volume means a few people moved the price, and that kind of move reverses easily.
Learn it properly in
Chapter 3.1: Candlesticks, volume and trend: reading a price chart for the first time