Anatomy of a Candle
Before you read a pattern, learn to read a single candle. The body and the wicks each tell a different part of the story.
Body, wicks, and what they reveal
A candle has two parts, and each answers a different question. The body answers "who won?" The wicks answer "who tried, and failed?"
The body is the distance between open and close. A long body means one side dominated from start to finish — strong conviction. A short body means the period ended near where it began — indecision, or a balance of force. The body's size is a direct measure of how one-sided the period was. The wicks (or shadows) mark the high and low that were reached but not held. An upper wick means price rose but was pushed back down — buyers tried, sellers rejected them. A lower wick means price fell but was pushed back up — sellers tried, buyers absorbed them. Wicks are the footprints of rejected moves, and they often matter more than the body.
The body shows who won and how convincingly; the wicks show who tried and got rejected. Read both.