What is a candlestick?

A candlestick is a way of displaying information about an asset’s price movement. Candlestick charts are one of the most popular components of technical analysis, enabling traders to interpret price information quickly and from just a few price bars.

This article focuses on a daily chart, wherein each candlestick details a single day’s trading. It has three basic features:

• The body, which represents the open-to-close range
• The wick, or shadow, that indicates the intra-day high and low
• The colour, which reveals the direction of market movement – a green (or white) body indicates a price increase, while a red (or black) body shows a price decrease

Over time, individual candlesticks form patterns that traders can use to recognize major support and resistance levels. There are a great many candlestick patterns that indicate an opportunity within a market – some provide insight into the balance between buying and selling pressures, while others identify continuation patterns or market indecision.

Before you start trading, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the basics of candlestick patterns and how they can inform your decisions.

Four continuation candlestick patterns

If a candlestick pattern doesn’t indicate a change in market direction, it is what is known as a continuation pattern. These can help traders to identify a period of rest in the market, when there is market indecision or neutral price movement.

(1) Doji

When a market’s open and close are almost at the same price point, the candlestick resembles a cross or plus sign – traders should look out for a short to non-existent body, with wicks of varying length.

This doji’s pattern conveys a struggle between buyers and sellers that results in no net gain for either side. Alone a doji is neutral signal, but it can be found in reversal patterns such as the bullish morning star and bearish evening star.

(2) Spinning top

The spinning top candlestick pattern has a short body centred between wicks of equal length. The pattern indicates indecision in the market, resulting in no meaningful change in price: the bulls sent the price higher, while the bears pushed it low again. Spinning tops are often interpreted as a period of consolidation, or rest, following a significant uptrend or downtrend.

On its own the spinning top is a relatively benign signal, but they can be interpreted as a sign of things to come as it signifies that the current market pressure is losing control.

(3) Falling three methods

Three-method formation patterns are used to predict the continuation of a current trend, be it bearish or bullish.

The bearish pattern is called the ‘falling three methods’. It is formed of a long red body, followed by three small green bodies, and another red body – the green candles are all contained within the range of the bearish bodies. It shows traders that the bulls do not have enough strength to reverse the trend.

(4) Rising three methods

The opposite is true for the bullish pattern, called the ‘rising three methods’ candlestick pattern. It comprises of three short reds sandwiched within the range of two long greens. The pattern shows traders that, despite some selling pressure, buyers are retaining control of the market.