Lesson 2 of 7 · 2 min

Candles & OHLC

Open, high, low, close — how to read a candle, and how to pick timeframes.

Every candle on a chart summarises one slice of time with four numbers: Open, High, Low, Close — OHLC.

The four prices

	What it is
Open	The first trade of the period
High	The highest price traded in the period
Low	The lowest price traded in the period
Close	The last trade of the period

Reading the candle

Body — from open to close. Green (or hollow) if close is above open; red (or filled) if below.
Wicks (shadows) — the lines out to the high and low. Prices that traded but didn't hold by the close.

What a candle tells you

Who won the period — a close near the high means buyers held control into the end.
Where price was rejected — a long upper wick means price went up, found no more buyers, and came back.
How much it moved — big candles mean big ranges and usually more risk.

What a candle hides

A candle doesn't show where inside its range the volume traded, or the order things happened in. A long green candle could have done most of its business at the bottom and spiked at the end. That's why later tracks use volume profile and footprint to look inside.

A few patterns, not fifty

Rejection wick — long wick at a level you already cared about.
Engulfing — a body that covers the previous body: control changed hands.
Inside bar — fully inside the last candle's range: indecision, balance.
Wide-range bar — unusually big: often the start or end of a move.

A pattern in the middle of nowhere means little. A pattern at a planned level is worth attention.

Timeframes

Use two: a higher one for context (daily, 4-hour or 30-minute) and a lower one for timing (5-minute or 1-minute). More timeframes isn't more information — it's more opinions.

Quick recap

OHLC = open, high, low, close.
Body shows who won; wicks show rejection.
Candles hide where volume traded.
Two timeframes: one for context, one for timing.

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