How to read candlestick charts: a beginner's guide

By the Ezetrad team · Updated 13 November 2026 · 2 min read

Almost every price chart you will see, for crypto, gold or shares, is a candlestick chart. Once you know what one candle says, the whole chart starts to make sense.

One candle, four prices

Each candle covers one period of time: a minute, an hour, a day or a week, depending on the chart setting. It shows four prices from that period:

• Open: the price at the start of the period.
• Close: the price at the end.
• High: the highest price reached.
• Low: the lowest price reached.

The thick part, the body, runs from the open to the close. The thin lines above and below, the wicks (or shadows), reach to the high and the low.

Green and red

A green candle closed higher than it opened: buyers pushed the price up during that period. A red candle closed lower than it opened. Some charts use white and black instead; the meaning is the same.

What the shape tells you

• A long body means the price moved a lot in one direction and stayed there.
• A small body with long wicks means the price swung both ways but ended near where it started: buyers and sellers were roughly balanced.
• A long lower wick means the price dropped during the period but buyers pushed it back up before the close.
• A long upper wick means the price rose but sellers pushed it back down.

Timeframes: zooming in and out

The same market looks very different on a 1-minute chart and a daily chart. Short timeframes show every small wiggle and a lot of noise; long timeframes show the bigger trend. Many people look at a daily chart first to see the direction, then a 1-hour chart to see the detail.

Volume

The bars at the bottom of most charts show volume: how much was traded in each period. A big move on high volume has more participants behind it than the same move on low volume.

Common patterns, honestly

You will hear names like doji (open and close almost equal), hammer (small body, long lower wick) and engulfing (a candle whose body covers the previous one). They describe what happened; they do not predict what comes next with any certainty. Many studies find single-candle patterns work little better than chance on their own. Use them as a description, not a signal.

Try it

Open the live chart, switch between 1-hour and 1-day candles, and hover over a candle to see its four prices. Then use the prediction planner to test how often a move you expect actually happened in the past.

This guide is educational and is not financial advice.

Keep learning

• What is RSI?
• Stop loss and take profit
• Position sizing and the 1% rule
• Moving averages explained