What is a Candlestick?
While we briefly covered candlestick charts in the previous lesson, we’ll now dig in a little and discuss them more in detail. First let’s do a quick review.
What is a Candlestick?
Back in the day when Godzilla was still a cute little lizard, the Japanese created their own old school version of technical analysis to trade rice. A westerner by the name of Steve Nison “discovered” this secret technique on how to read charts from a fellow Japanese broker and Japanese candlesticks lived happily ever after. Steve researched, studied, lived, breathed, ate candlesticks, began writing about it and slowly grew in popularity in 90s. To make a long story short, without Steve Nison, candle charts might have remained a buried secret. Steve Nison is Mr. Candlestick.
Okay so what the heck are candlesticks?
The best way to explain is by using a picture:
Candlesticks are formed using the open, high, low and close.
- If the close is above the open, then a hollow candlestick (usually displayed as white) is drawn.
- If the close is below the open, then a filled candlestick (usually displayed as black) is drawn.
- The hollow or filled section of the candlestick is called the “real body” or body.
- The thin lines poking above and below the body display the high/low range and are called shadows.
- The top of the upper shadow is the “high”.
- The bottom of the lower shadow is the “low”.
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