Candlestick

A candlestick is a chart element that summarizes price movement over a fixed period by showing four values: the opening price, the closing price, the highest price, and the lowest price. The thick part, called the body, spans the distance between open and close, while thin lines above and below, called wicks or shadows, mark the period's extremes. Candles are usually colored green (or white) when price closed higher than it opened and red (or black) when it closed lower.

For example, a one-hour candlestick on a Bitcoin chart might open at $60,000, trade as high as $60,800 and as low as $59,700, then close at $60,500. That candle would show a green body from $60,000 to $60,500, an upper wick to $60,800, and a lower wick to $59,700.

Candlestick charts originated with Japanese rice traders centuries ago and remain the default view on most crypto exchanges. A common misconception is that a single candle predicts the future; in practice one candle only describes what already happened, and traders read candles in context — alongside trend, volume, and nearby price levels — rather than in isolation.