Chart School / Reading Charts
Candlesticks and OHLC
Lesson 2 of 14 · about 1 min read, plus practice · Glossary
Each candle summarizes an interval using open, high, low and close, or OHLC. Its body spans open to close; its wick spans low to high. A hollow body here means close at or above open, while a filled body means close below open. A candle does not reveal whether the high happened before the low. Colors and session definitions vary across providers. Always use the legend, not color alone. One candle cannot identify the motives of buyers or sellers.
Worked fictional example
Fictional River opens at $50, reaches $56, falls as low as $48 and closes at $55. The body spans $50–$55 and the wick spans $48–$56. This summary does not establish the order of the high and low.
On a small screen, scroll the chart horizontally to read every label.
Observation order / daily periods →
Chart walk-through is ready.
Accessible data table and chart description
Separate fictional daily OHLCV illustration for Candlesticks and OHLC. Hollow body: close at or above open; filled body: close below open. Table provides exact values.
| Date UTC | Open | High | Low | Close | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-01-01 | 50 | 51 | 49 | 50 | 100 |
| 2024-01-02 | 50 | 56 | 49 | 55 | 120 |
| 2024-01-03 | 55 | 56 | 51 | 52 | 0 |
| 2024-01-04 | 52 | 55 | 51 | 54 | 160 |
| 2024-01-05 | 54 | 55 | 50 | 51 | 180 |
| 2024-01-06 | 51 | 54 | 50 | 53 | 200 |
Legend: hollow body = close ≥ open; filled blue body = close < open. Wick = low to high. Direction is also readable from the table, without color.
What could invalidate this interpretation?
An interpretation based on a supposed intraperiod sequence fails because OHLC does not encode that sequence.
A counterexample
A large upward candle after a decline may be followed by another decline; its shape does not guarantee a reversal.
Check your understanding
Further learning
Original FinanceFD explanations and drawings. For additional context, see Fidelity’s overview of technical analysis, Fidelity’s RSI guide and Investor.gov’s investing introduction.
Learning progress
Complete and sync all 32 lessons—18 Money Basics (beginner, intermediate, and expert across six topics) plus 14 Chart School—with one FinanceFD passkey account to earn a one-time 3-day Premium Membership trial. It does not require a payment method, start a charge, or renew automatically. If Premium is already active, the reward begins after that access ends. One reward per account.
If you are signed in to your FinanceFD passkey account, completed lesson IDs are saved there. Otherwise choose Sync with Passkey. Browser-only progress is merged only when you choose to sync; quiz answers and calculator entries are not saved. You can clear synced progress here.