The thin line past the candle's block:how far price reached before turning back.
The thin lines above and below a candlestick body, representing the high and low prices during the period.
Long wicks indicate strong rejection of prices at those levels.
In plain words
On a candlestick chart each period is drawn as a thick body with thin lines above and below. The body spans the opening and closing prices; the thin lines, called wicks or shadows, reach to the highest and lowest prices traded in the period.
See it move
The period closes: the candle is complete
Why it matters
A long wick shows that the price travelled to a level during the period and did not stay there by the close. Chart readers often describe this as the market rejecting those prices, which is an interpretation and not a rule about what follows.
Worked example
An example only. The figures are round and invented for the arithmetic: they are not market prices.
A candle opens at 1.1000, reaches a high of 1.1050 and a low of 1.0990, and closes at 1.1010.
- 1Body1.1010 − 1.1000 = 10 pips.
- 2Upper wick, from the top of the body to the high1.1050 − 1.1010 = 40 pips.
- 3Lower wick, from the low to the bottom of the body1.1000 − 1.0990 = 10 pips.
The candle has a small body and an upper wick four times as long: the price reached 1.1050 but closed 40 pips lower.
A common mistake
The upper wick is not always measured from the open. It runs from the top of the body, which is the higher of the open and the close, up to the high.
Check yourself
Learn more
- Academy lessonCandlestick patternsThe anatomy of a candle and the single, two- and three-candle patterns most often named in price-action analysis, with their caveats.
- GuideJapanese candlestick patterns: a visual vocabularyDojis, hammers, engulfing bars and stars: what each pattern looks like, what it is taken to say about buyers and sellers, and why context matters more than the shape.
Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade.