Japanese candlesticks

Candlestick Charts identical to a bar chart in the information conveyed, but presented in an entirely different visual context. The candlestick encapsulates the open, high, low and close of the trading period in a single candle.

Candlestick charts are on record as being the oldest type of charts used for price prediction. They date back to the 1700's, when they were used for predicting rice prices. In fact, during this era in Japan, Munehisa Homma become a legendary rice trader and gained a huge fortune using candlestick analysis. He is said to have executed over 100 consecutive winning trades!

The candlesticks themselves and the formations they shape were give colorful names by the Japanese traders. Due in part to the military environment of the Japanese feudal system during this era, candlestick formations developed names such as "counter attack lines" and the "advancing three soldiers". Just as skill, strategy, and psychology are important in battle, so too are they important elements when in the midst of trading battle.

Candlestick charts are much more visually appealing than a standard two-dimensional bar chart. As in a standard bar chart, there are four elements necessary to construct a candlestick chart, the OPEN, HIGH, LOW and CLOSING price for a given time period. Below are examples of candlesticks and a definition for each candlestick component:

The body of the candlestick is called the real body, and represents the range between the open and closing prices.

This kind of chart displays each time period in a "candlestick" format. As in the bar chart, the candlestick shows the open, high, low and close of a specific time period. A candlestick can either be solid or transparent. Its appearance depends on the relationship between the opening and the closing price. If the close is higher than the open, the candlestick is transparent or empty.

If the close is lower than the open, the candle is solid or filled. When two thin lines extend vertically above and/or below the body of the candle, this means that they represent the highs and lows respectively, but not the closing price. These lines represent the high and the low for the period and referred to as shadows. The high for the period is the upper shadow and the low is known as the lower shadow.

A black or filled-in body represents that the close during that time period was lower than the open, (normally considered bearish) and when the body is open or white, that means the close was higher than the open (normally bullish).

The thin vertical line above and/or below the real body is called the upper/lower shadow, representing the high/low price extremes for the period.

Candlestick charts have three major advantages when compared to bar charts.

Candlestick charts are much more "visually immediate" than bar charts. Once you get accustomed to the candle chart, it is much easier to see what has happened for a specific period - be it a day, a week an hour or one minute.

With a bar chart you need to mentally fill in the price action. You need to say to yourself, "The left tick says that's where it opened, the right tick where it closed. Now I see. It was an up day." With a candlestick chart, this is all done for you. You can spend your energy on analysis - not on figuring out what happened with the price.

With candles you can spot trends more quickly by looking for whether the candles are clear or colored. Within a trend, you can easily tell what a stock did in a specific period.

Most importantly, candles are vital for spotting reversals. These reversals are usually short term - precisely the kind the swing trader is looking for. When traditional technical analysis talks about reversals, usually it is referring to formations that occur over long periods of time. Typical reversal patterns are the "double top" and the "head and shoulders." By definition, these involve smart money distributing their shares to naive traders and normally occur over weeks or even months.

Candlesticks, however, are able to accurately pick up on the changes in trend that occur at the end of each market swing. If you pay meticulous attention to them, then they often warn you of impending changes.