Candle Structure
The four prices
Every candle records four prices: the open (first trade), the high (top of the wick), the low (bottom of the wick) and the close (last trade). On a daily Nifty chart, one candle is one full trading day. These four numbers are the raw material of all price-action reading.
Body and wicks
The thick part — the body — spans open to close. The thin lines above and below are wicks (or shadows). An upper wick means price reached that high but sellers pushed it back down before close. A lower wick means price fell to that low but buyers rejected it. The longer the wick, the stronger the rejection.
Colour is just a shortcut
A green (bullish) candle closes above its open — buyers won the period. A red (bearish) candle closes below its open — sellers won. Colour tells you direction but says nothing about conviction. A tiny green candle can show more indecision than a large red one.
Range = the battlefield size
Range is simply High − Low. A wide-range day in Bank Nifty means a big fight happened; a narrow-range day means quiet, balanced trade. Range without context (body size, close location) tells an incomplete story.
Practice checklist
- Find the open and close — size the body
- Note each wick's length relative to the body
- Decide who won: close above open = buyers, below = sellers
- Measure range = High − Low
- Locate the close within the range (top third / middle / bottom third)
Mistakes to avoid
- Reading colour without checking body size — a tiny coloured candle may be pure indecision
- Ignoring long wicks, which show strong price rejections at that level
- Treating a single candle as a signal — it is only context for the structure around it