Japanese candlesticks

A candlestick is built from four data points: open, high, low, close.

Close above open → hollow/green body.

Close below open → filled/red body.

The block itself is the real body.

The thin lines above and below are shadows, marking the high and low of the period.

Long bodies signal strong conviction, aggressive buying (long green body) or aggressive selling (long red body). Short bodies mean the session was indecisive, with little net movement.

Long shadows mean price traveled well beyond the open/close range before settling back, a tug-of-war between buyers and sellers. Short shadows mean most of the action stayed close to the open and close. A long upper shadow with a short lower one suggests buyers pushed price up but sellers dragged it back down by the close; the reverse pattern suggests sellers pushed price down but buyers dragged it back up.

Spinning top: small body, long upper and lower shadows, a standoff between buyers and sellers. Appearing after a strong trend, it can hint the trend is running out of steam.

Marubozu: a long body with no shadows at all, the open equals the high (or low) and the close equals the low (or high). A white/green Marubozu is strongly bullish (buyers controlled the whole session); a black/red Marubozu is strongly bearish.

Doji: open and close are essentially identical, leaving only a thin body, again a standoff, but its meaning depends heavily on what came before it. A doji after a run of strong bullish candles can signal buying exhaustion (though it still needs confirmation from the next candle before acting on it); a doji after a run of strong bearish candles can signal selling exhaustion.

These only count as reversal signals if there's an actual prior trend to reverse.

Hammer: forms during a downtrend, small body, long lower shadow, little or no upper shadow. Suggests sellers pushed price down but buyers regained control by the close, hinting at a bottom. Wait for the next candle to confirm before acting.

Hanging Man: looks identical to a hammer but forms during an uptrend, a warning that buyers may be running out of steam.

Inverted Hammer: forms during a downtrend, small body, long upper shadow. Buyers tested higher prices and, though pushed back, managed to hold near the open, suggesting sellers may be nearly exhausted.

Shooting Star: looks identical to an inverted hammer but forms during an uptrend, buyers pushed higher but were firmly overpowered by sellers, a bearish signal.