Reading a price chart

Each candle covers one slice of time and records four prices, known as OHLC: the Open (where price started), the High (the peak it reached), the Low (the bottom it reached), and the Close (where it ended). The thick part is the body — the distance between open and close. The thin lines sticking out are the wicks (or shadows) — the highest and lowest price touched.

Colour tells you the outcome instantly. A green/jade candle closed above where it opened, so buyers won that period. A red candle closed below where it opened, so sellers won. The bigger the body, the more decisive the win.

Wicks tell you about rejection. A long upper wick means price pushed up but got slammed back down — sellers rejected the highs. A long lower wick means buyers stepped in and rejected the lows. Wicks are often more informative than bodies.

String many candles together and you get a narrative of the battle between buyers and sellers. A run of large green bodies with small wicks is a strong, confident uptrend. A cluster of small bodies with long wicks in both directions is indecision — the market is balanced and choppy.

You don't need to memorise dozens of shapes yet. Just train your eye to read two things on any chart: which side is winning (body colour and size) and where price keeps getting rejected (the wicks).

A single candle can represent one minute or one week — you choose the timeframe. Lower timeframes (1m, 5m, 15m) show fine detail and a lot of noise. Higher timeframes (4H, daily, weekly) smooth that noise and reveal the bigger, slower trend.

Crucially, the same market can look bullish on the daily and bearish on the 5-minute at the same moment. Neither chart is lying — they're describing different time horizons. This is why one chart is never enough.

The practical habit: let the higher timeframe set your directional bias, and use a lower timeframe to time a precise entry. We'll build this into a full method in the multi-timeframe lesson.

When a new chart loads, resist the urge to add ten indicators. Read the bare price first. Ask three quick questions: Is price generally rising, falling, or going sideways? Where are the obvious levels it keeps reacting to? Are the recent candles strong and one-sided, or small and indecisive?

Answer those and you already understand more than a trader drowning in indicators. Everything else in this academy refines these instincts — it never replaces them.