The Japanese candlestick chart is the most widely used format in technical analysis for representing a stock's price movement over time. Unlike a simple line chart (which only shows the closing price), each candle contains four data points for a single period: open, close, high, and low.
Anatomy of a candle
The candle's "body" represents the distance between that period's opening and closing price. The thin lines sticking out above and below (the "wicks" or "shadows") show the high and low reached during that same period, even if the price didn't close there.
Why color matters
On DSMarketLearning, as on most platforms, a green candle means the price closed above where it opened that period (net buying pressure); a red candle means it closed below where it opened (net selling pressure). Seeing several green candles in a row with large bodies usually indicates sustained buying momentum; several red ones in a row, the opposite.
The period changes the story each candle tells
A daily candle summarizes what happened over one full trading day; a weekly candle summarizes an entire week; a 5-minute candle summarizes just those 5 minutes. That's why the scanner lets you change the chart's period — from 1 minute to monthly — depending on what you're analyzing: very specific intraday moves, or the underlying trend over months.
A starting point, not a magic language
There are dozens of candle "patterns" with specific names (hammer, engulfing, doji, etc.) that many traders follow. They're useful as additional context, but none of them predicts the future with certainty — they work better combined with other indicators (trend, volume, RSI) than in isolation.
This article is educational content, not personalized investment advice. Before making decisions, read our disclaimer.