Reading candlestick charts
Open, high, low, close — and the handful of candle patterns worth knowing.
A candlestick shows four prices for one time period: the open, high, low and close. The body shows open-to-close; the wicks show the extremes.
- Green (bullish) candle: close above open — buyers won that period.
- Red (bearish) candle: close below open — sellers won.
- Long body = strong conviction. Long wick = rejection of those prices.
Timeframes
A daily chart shows one candle per day; a 5-minute chart, one per five minutes. Higher timeframes are slower, cleaner and better for beginners. Start with the daily and 4-hour charts.
The only patterns you need at first
- Pin bar / hammer: small body, long wick on one side. Shows rejection — buyers or sellers stepped in hard. Powerful at support/resistance.
- Engulfing candle: a candle whose body completely covers the previous one. Momentum has flipped.
- Inside bar: a candle fully within the previous one's range. The market is pausing; a breakout often follows.
- Doji: open ≈ close. Indecision. Meaningful only at key levels.
Self-check
Answer the questions, then check your answers. You can retry as often as you like.
Automatic self-check for your own revision. Your answers are checked in your browser and are not seen or assessed by us. It is not an exam and not a qualification.
Your progress
“Complete” only means you marked the lesson as done. It is not a test of your understanding. Progress and notes are saved only in this browser on this device — not in an account.