ORDERHow to Read Candlestick Charts
Every chart in OrderView starts with candles. Once you can read one candle, you can read the whole chart.
One candle, four prices
A candle summarises trading over one period — a minute, an hour, a day. It records four prices:
- Open — the first trade of the period.
- High — the highest trade.
- Low — the lowest trade.
- Close — the last trade.
The thick part, the body, spans the open and the close. The thin lines above and below, the wicks or shadows, reach the high and the low. In OrderView a candle is green when it closed above its open (buyers pushed price up during the period) and red when it closed below.
Long-press any candle in OrderView to see its exact open, high, low, close, change and volume in the data box.
What the shape says
The size of the body against the wicks tells you how decisive the period was.
- Large body, small wicks: one side controlled the period from start to finish.
- Small body, long wicks: price travelled far but ended near where it started — indecision, or a fight between buyers and sellers.
- Long lower wick: sellers pushed price down, but buyers brought it back before the close. Near a support level this is often read as rejection of lower prices.
- Long upper wick: the mirror image — buyers were turned away at higher prices.
Timeframes change the story
A daily candle contains 24 hourly candles. A strong green daily candle might hide a sharp drop and recovery inside it. That is why traders look at more than one timeframe: a higher one for the overall direction, and a lower one for detail. In OrderView, the timeframe button under the chart switches between one minute and one month; your drawings stay anchored to time and price, so they appear on every timeframe.
A few patterns worth knowing
| Pattern | What it looks like | Common reading |
|---|---|---|
| Doji | Open and close almost equal | Indecision; matters most after a strong move |
| Hammer | Small body at the top, long lower wick | Buyers rejected lower prices |
| Shooting star | Small body at the bottom, long upper wick | Sellers rejected higher prices |
| Engulfing | A body that fully covers the previous candle's body | A shift in control from one side to the other |
A single candle is weak evidence on its own. Patterns carry more weight at levels the market has respected before, on higher timeframes, and with rising volume.
Volume: the missing ingredient
Turn on the Volume indicator to see how much was traded in each candle. A breakout on high volume shows real participation; the same move on thin volume is easier to reverse. OrderView draws volume as bars along the bottom of the price chart.
Common mistakes
- Reading the last candle before it has closed. Until the period ends, its shape can still change completely.
- Trading every pattern you see. Most candles are noise; context decides what matters.
- Ignoring the timeframe. A hammer on a one-minute chart says very little about the week ahead.
Educational information only, not investment advice. Open the web app to practise reading live candles.