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Japanese Candlesticks have been around for centuries. In use since the early 1700’s Japanese candlesticks were first used to trade the rice markets. Over the last 400 years of course they have become popular to many including stock and forex traders.

Japanese candlestick charts display market sentiment like no other form of charting can. With candlestick charts you have basically 2 moving parts. (If you will.) The real body, can be full or hallow, and the wicks or shadows can be long or short, or gone - either way, together you get a nice picture of price action today, or over a period of time.

A high is marked by the top of the upper shadow or a wick. It indicates the highest point of the day in trading. The low is marked by the bottom of the lower shadow. If a security closes higher than it opened, then a hollow body is drawn. The top line of the body itself would indicate the close and the bottom line of the body would indicate the open. If a security closes lower than the opening price, then a filled body is drawn with the top line indicating the opening and the lower one indicating the close. (See below.)

Candlestick charting is much more intuitive than any other form of chart reading once you learn some basics. A candlestick pattern can reveal price action relative to the past better than any other form of charting available. Not only do you get instant insight into current price action, but also that action relative to the past.

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.

Another characteristic would be a hollow or filled body with no shadows. These are called Marubozu or black & white. A white Marubozu would occur when the open equals the low and the close equals the high. A black Marubozu would occur when the open equals the high and the close equals the low.

Another important candlestick pattern is a spinning top. Spinning tops are represented by a long or short shadow / wick and a short real body. The short body tells us that there was a small gap between the open and close. If the shadow or wick is long it tells us that the highs and lows of the day moved hard but failed to remain strong. Whichever was long tells you of potential upcoming underlying strength.