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Tutorial on Candlestick

History of Candlestick

It is believed that usage of candlestick originated from Japan in 1700 by rice traders. Over years, its popularity grew significantly as more and more analyst found value in using them. Currently, there are more than 100 patterns recognised based on candlestick formation. In this era you will hardly find one charting tool that does not have candlestick charting in it. That itself speaks on the value that this way of representation provides.

What is Candlestick ?

Candlestick is one of the most popular way of representing price movement of a stock in graphical manner. To give context of where candlestick fits, it may be useful to mention other common type of charts. They are line char, bar chart etc.
A simple example of all three type

Composition of candlestick

Parts of candlestick

• Candle Body: Using these four price, a candle stick is drawn in such a way that the range of opening price and closing price is plotted as a candle (rectangular structure). The higher the difference between Opening and closing price , the higher is the length of the candle. The width of the candle is more than width of the standard line and is generally kept in such a way it is quite easily visible.
• Candle Wick( Shadow) : Candle wick is a thin line at top & bottom of candle body. This line starts from centre of top and bottom portion of candle.

1. Upper-wick : It is a thin vertical line drawn from centre of top end of the body to the highest price of the day.
2. Lower wick : It is a thin vertical line drawn from centre of bottom end of the body to the lowest price of the day.

Types of candlestick

• Bullish candlestick : A bullish candlestick is formed when the closing price of the share is more than the opening price.
• Bearish candlestick : A bearish candlestick is formed when the closing price of the share is less than the opening price.
• Doji :A doji candlestick is formed when closing price is same as opening price.

Color convention.

Initially, bullish candle stick were kept blank (white color with black border) and bearish candlestick were filled with black color. This, however, is not universal convention. Different tools uses different color scheme.

We at our site always believe in keeping things simple and obvious convention so that our visitor can concentrate on the actual analysis rather than trying to understand the conventions. Continuing with the same philosophy , we color bullish candlestick in green ( denoting bullish sentiment ) so that user can look to invest provided other parameter are supportive. And bearish candlestick as red to give a warning to the investor of looming negativity in the stock.

Stock Screener of Indian Stocks Forming

• Bullish Candlestick Chart Patterns
• Bearish Candlestick Chart Patterns
• One Day Candlestick Chart Patterns

Understanding candlestick to gauge market sentiment.

Single candle

As we have learnt how a candle stick is formed. Now lets try to understand on what we can make out of it. In most simplest form, a bullish candlestick denotes that there was some optimism on the stock price upward move at the end of the candlestick period. And in the same way a bearish denotes general pessimism on the stock.

On carefully observing them, it provides more than open , close , high & low price. It can tell how market is perceiving the stock on a given day. For example if the close price is much higher than opening price (long candle) then it denotes general bullish sentiments on the stock. In other word when the stock opened the buy sentiment was much lesser than towards the end of the day. Or buying pressure was more than selling pressure. This indication is more when the upper wick is small. Similarly, when closing price is much lesser than opening price then it signal weakness in the stock

A small body with small wick signals less volatility in the stock. Also known as Doji.

A small body with very long wicks means lack of direction on the price movement and coupled with huge volatility.

Multiple candle stick pattern.

As we now understand what a single candlestick can provide. Similarly, when more than one candle stick in combination can provide very meaningful interpretations on price movements , trend continuation, trend reversals etc.

Advantages of candlestick

• It provides more information than just price point.
• Patterns formed by candlestick are easier to identify.
• They can provide important trend reversal.
• They provide latest market mood in a very easy form.
• They can be used in conjunction with other indicators.