Glossary · Chart and price

Candlestick

A chart element showing one period's open, high, low and close, with a body between open and close and wicks reaching the extremes.

By Sky Trade editorial teamUpdated November 5, 2026

A candlestick packs four prices from one period — open, high, low and close (OHLC) — into a single shape. The thick body spans the open and the close; the thin lines above and below, the wicks or shadows, reach to the high and the low. A candle that closed above its open is bullish (usually green or white), one that closed below is bearish (red or black).

The appeal of candles is that you can read the struggle inside a period at a glance. A long body with tiny wicks means one side controlled the period. A small body with long wicks means price travelled a lot but finished near where it started, a sign of hesitation.

The main misunderstanding is that a candle shows how price moved within the period. It doesn't: a candle with a long lower wick could have dipped at the start or at the end. A candle also isn't finished until its period closes; a promising hammer with 20 seconds left can still turn into something else.

In the Sky Trade terminal, Candles is one of four chart types alongside Line, Bars and Heikin Ashi, and the candle timer shows how long the current candle has left. Start with candlestick chart basics.

Example

An M1 candle opens at 1.08500, rises to 1.08540, dips to 1.08480 and closes at 1.08530: a bullish body of 3 pips, an upper wick of 1 pip and a lower wick of 2 pips.

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