Candlestick charts originated in 18th-century Japan, where rice trader Munehisa Honma developed a method to track market sentiment through visual price patterns. Today they are the default chart type for every professional trading platform in the world.

**The anatomy of a single candle**

Each candle represents a fixed time period — a minute, an hour, a day, or a week — and contains four data points: Open, High, Low, Close (OHLC).

The **body** of the candle is the rectangle between the open and close price. A green (or white) body means the close was higher than the open — a bullish candle. A red (or black) body means the close was lower than the open — a bearish candle.

The thin lines extending above and below the body are called **wicks** or **shadows**. The upper wick shows the highest price reached during the period; the lower wick shows the lowest.

**Key single-candle patterns**

- **Doji**: The open and close are nearly the same, producing a cross shape. Signals indecision between buyers and sellers.
- **Hammer**: Small body at the top, long lower wick. Appears after a downtrend; signals potential reversal upward.
- **Shooting Star**: Small body at the bottom, long upper wick. Appears after an uptrend; signals potential reversal downward.
- **Marubozu**: Long body with no wicks. Full control by either buyers (green) or sellers (red).

**Multi-candle patterns**

- **Engulfing**: A large candle completely covers the body of the previous candle. Bullish if green engulfs red after a downtrend; bearish if red engulfs green after an uptrend.
- **Morning Star / Evening Star**: Three-candle reversal patterns. Morning Star signals a bullish reversal from a downtrend; Evening Star signals a bearish reversal.
- **Three White Soldiers / Three Black Crows**: Three consecutive strong bullish or bearish candles — a powerful trend continuation signal.

**How investing.linigu.com charts work**

Every asset page on our platform uses the TradingView Lightweight Charts library to render full OHLCV candlestick charts with volume histograms. You can switch between 1-hour, daily, and weekly intervals. Hover over any candle to see the exact OHLC values in the toolbar.

*Past patterns do not guarantee future performance. Technical analysis is one tool among many and should never be the sole basis for an investment decision.*