CANDLE PATTERNS

Candlestick patterns are one of the most important tools in technical analysis because they visually represent market psychology: who is in control—the buyers (bulls) or the sellers (bears). Each candlestick captures the battle between demand and supply within a specific timeframe, such as 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, daily, or weekly. By studying the shape, size, and position of candles, traders can understand momentum, reversals, trend continuation, and market indecision.

Candlestick charts were first developed by Japanese rice merchants over 300 years ago. Today, they are used by traders across stock markets, index futures, options trading, forex, and crypto. A single candle contains four key pieces of information:

Open

High

Low

Close

A candle is generally green (bullish) if the close is above the open, and red (bearish) if the close is below the open. The body shows the range between open and close, while the wicks (shadows) show the highest and lowest price levels touched.

Patterns form when two or more candles appear together in a particular sequence indicating reversal, continuation, or indecision.