Candlesticks: What Each Candle Tells You
Risk warning: One candle does not predict the future. This is education, not financial advice.
A candlestick tells you a short story: who won the fight between buyers and sellers in that time.
Body and wicks
- Body — between open and close. Green (or white) means price closed higher. Red (or black) means price closed lower.
- Upper wick — buyers pushed up but lost some.
- Lower wick — sellers pushed down but lost some.
Example on EUR/USD (15-min chart, 2pm WAT): a long lower wick means sellers tried to push down, buyers came back.
What to read first
- Size — big body means strong move, small body means indecision.
- Wicks — long wicks mean price was rejected.
- Context — a candle at support or resistance matters more than one in the middle. See Support and Resistance: The Floors and Ceilings of Price.
Do not trade one candle alone — you need context. See Trends: Trading With the River, Not Against It.
For practise, open a demo and watch the London session — for example how a big body candle near 1.1000 on EUR/USD behaves. See How to Use a Demo Account Before Risking Real Money.
Bottom line: One candle alone is not enough, use context at support with stop loss, or you risk trading noise as signal. Related guides: Starting Forex as a Beginner.