Candlesticks: how to read a chart
The candlestick chart is the visual language of trading. Each candle tells the story of a period of time in four prices. Once you understand them, the chart stops being noise.
The anatomy of a candle
Each candle summarises a period (1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day…) with four data points: open, close, high and low. The body (the thick part) runs from open to close; the wicks (the thin lines) mark how far price reached.
The colour tells you everything at a glance: green (or white) = price closed higher than it opened (buyers won that period). Red = it closed lower (sellers won). A big body = a strong move; a small body with long wicks = indecision, a fight between buyers and sellers.
A chart is a sequence of candles
Putting many candles one after another draws the story of price. This is how an uptrend forms, candle by candle:
Beware the pattern myth
You'll see a thousand "magic candle patterns" (hammer, engulfing, doji…). They're useful as a description of market mood, but they're not infallible signals: the same pattern works in one context and fails in another. A candle doesn't predict the future; it describes the immediate past. Use them with context (trend, support/resistance), never alone — and distrust anyone selling you "the pattern that never fails".
What actually matters
Before obsessing over patterns, master the basics: identify whether the market is trending or ranging, and protect your capital with proper position sizing and a stop-loss. That keeps you alive far more than spotting an "inverted hammer".