Japanese Candlesticks Step by Step
Japanese candlesticks are basically an ancient tradition of the Chinese for keeping tabs on the rice markets. Considered by many (safe to say at this point.) to be the best way to view an asses price action. Japanese candlestick have become popular in just about every liquid market.
Japanese candlestick charts display market sentiment like other charts but most would agree you get a little more insight from a candlestick chart. Basically you measure 2 parts of a candlestick, the body, and the wicks. The body can be either full or hallow, and the wick or shadows, can be long or short, or not present at all. All tell a story.
Your highs and lows for the session are marked by the tops (high) and bottoms (low) of the wicks. Likewise a close that is greater than an open is represented by a hallow candlestick the bottom is the open, and the top is the close. A close that is less than the open is represented by a full or black candlestick. The top is the open and the bottom is the close. (See below.)
Candlestick patterns are not only more easy to read, they are also more intuitive once you get the hang of reading them. You see there are patterns with candlesticks you will soon learn to easily recognize, combine this with the intuitiveness and you have yourself a method for assessing price far superior to any other.
All candlesticks have a body and a wick or shadow, unless the open close high and low are equal to each other in which case you would have a little dash and that’s it. A white body is an empty body, and a black one is a full body. The empty/white body represents a close greater than the open, and a black/full body represents a close less than the open. The size of the body represents the distance between the open and close.
There are also candlesticks with full bodies and no wicks/shadows. These should be noted and have a name they are called Marubozu’s. The can be black or white (full / empty) and they appear when the open and close of the session are equal to the high and low. With the white/empty candlestick your high is equal to your close. With the black/full your low is equal to your close.
A spinning top is a candlestick with a short body and a long or short wick/shadow. The short body tells us that price opened and closed rather close to one another, while a long shadow/wick tells us that during the session price made its way in that direction but failed to hold its ground. This failure to “hold ground” could be a clue for price direction in the next session.
