What exactly do the full bodies of a candle mean vs the long end hanging out?

So far i don;t think anyone has explained what exactly the body of the candle means.

Can someone explain to me what is happening in the market when they see a candle’s full body vs the long thing coming from the top or the bottom what has happened in the market?

I’m a newbie but my understanding is that body of the candle signifies the open & the close for what ever time period you’re looking at. If the close is higher than the open then it’s a bullish candle & if the close is lower than the open then it’s bearish. The lines coming out the top & bottom are the highs & lows during the time period.

I’m sure that this is in the school & if someone could confirm my understanding, it would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Baz & Snake,

Yes, the body of the candle represents the open and close for that time period. So if its a bull candle, the close will be above the open, and vice versa for a bear candle.

The line above/below the open/close (if any) represents the highs and lows for that candle on that time frame. So if there is a wick above the close, then price had for that candle moved higher in price towards the top of the wick, but retreated back into the close. Vice versa for the wick on the bottom which represents the lows for the candle.

Hopefully that clarifies it.

When you feel comfortable reading the basics of candles, feel free to check out my Forex Price Action thread where I talk about how to read and understand these candles from a price action perspective. Price action is simply price’s movement over time, but when you learn how to read it, communicates the order flow behind the price action.

When you can learn to read and trade the order flow behind it, then you will find yourself trading with the institutional market which are the players that move it.

So feel free to visit the thread and learn more about it, and ask any questions you may have there.

Kind Regards,
Chris

Boom: nailed it! :slight_smile:

generally, a full body indicates momentum, while a ‘long tail’ or ‘long end hanging out’ indicates rejection.
you have to understand that you should take candles in context. generally, one candle does not mean much, compared to a number of candles.

Hi i decided to bring this up again. Fringfx says a full body means momentum while the long tails are rejections but still does not explain rejection or momentum. Seriously i mean what is it exactly? What exactly is going on? Ok upward momentum means there are more buyers than sellers and it’s the opposite for downwards. That’s straight forward enough but yet what exactly occurs when there is a rejection? Let’s say there’s a long hanging tail going downwards so this means that there are more sellers but suddenly more buyers entered pushing up prices again and so a tail shows?

Hold on perhaps it’s like this. Let’s say the price is going downwards so a white candle is forming. More ppl are sellings. Suddenly buyers come in a few mins later, this breaks the momentum of the candle forming thus it becomes a tail. On the 1 min chart for eg it shows up as a tail but overall there are more sellers than buyers thus despite moving up a slight bit aka momentum of the candle forming break up thus creating the tail the price is still going downwards. On the hour chart it still shows as a downward momentum. OK all of a sudden even more buyers come in. This causes the downward momentum to slow down even more. On the 1 min, 5 min and 30 mins charts it’s now showing upwards momentum. On the 1 hr chart since the momentum of the sellers is slowed down significantly but it’s still pushing downwards, therefore on the 1 hour chart a tail begins to form. What this means is that the force of the buyers is pushing the price upwards but the sellers are still stronger than the buyers thus the tail informs us is that it’s still selling but slowed down depending on the length of the tail. On the 4hr chart it still shows as downward momentum as the amount of buyers is still not large enough to form a tail on the 4 hr chart and it’s the same as the day chart.

Is this the precise explaination of what those tails and all mean because i swear they don’t teach this in the school at all. Yes they tell you about tails and all that but there’s no explaination why a tail forms and not a full body forms. I really hope someone here can confirm for me if my explaination here is the correct one.

By Jebus, that novel has got me scratching my head.

The line on the candle, from the very tip of the one out of the top of the candle all the way to the tip of the tail at the bottom of the candle is the range that the price moved for the time period that you are looking at, it can also be considered the momentum. The candle itself signifies the open & close of the candle, also for that time period.

I got pretty confused when you went all multi-time-frame on us but if you are looking at the 15min chart (ignoring tails etc) & the first candle goes down 10-pips, the 2nd candle also goes down 10-pips & the 3rd candle goes down 5-pips, then you are 25pips down - yeah? The 4th candle (and final one in that hour) is then bullish & goes up 15-pips. The 15min chart will start to show the trough of the reversal/retractment but if you look at the candle formed on the 1hr chart, it still closed 10-pips below its open so it is still a bearish candle.

It’s the tug-of-war between the buyers & sellers that as it reaches more critical points, will form dojis, shooting stars, hanging hammers & the more complex candle-stick patterns.

I’ve now written that much I now have no idea what I’m answering (now that I think about it, I also wasn’t sure when I started my reply) or where I’m going with this so I’ll wrap it up with an: em…er…good luck!

You might try googling Marubozu candles … here’s a animated explanation of them… what is Marubozu candlestick

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

Is not for counterventig Chris or something like it but there is a lot of ways to interpretate candles, I mean t6aking an example of a full body and very large candle just for the example a bullish one means extrictly the price jumped at a much higher price and closed precisely at that place but during the period it could go up and down several times, it could had a very large wick but it eneded as a whole body at the very last minute. The next candle can be a spinning top and the subsecuent can be anything. Candles are only a representation of whta price did, were it opened, where were the top and bottom and where it closed, nothing more. Saying something like “if I see this candle pattern then this will happen”, well, that will give you as much advantage as the 95% has. The key is to do a little work, trying to think what the majority are doing, remember not only the ones trading the same TF you are watching are causing what you see, that is the sum of everything. Me for example, I watch for trend lines and channnels and also S/L levels and when I see a very large candle (maybe just moderatly large) and followed by another smaller and another one just enough to beoing visible and it happes near to the mentioned lines, for me it is a market turn, i make a final analisys at the actual and still open candle to decide wetter or not get in, once open i wait ten minutes and if after that it doesn’t looks promising I just close the order.

As you can see, you cannot rely only on a math formula or a graph, you must do a little work to try to get some advantage among the others, remember, it is a war you against me and the rest of the world.

Ok but let’s say you’re looking at a 4 hr chart or maybe a day chart and only half a day is gone or half of the 4 hr is gone yet it’s already forming the tail and the body of a candle. You could try looking at a day chart at noon time for example and you will see the body of the candle already formed. Now noon time means only 12 hrs have passed so only half a day has passed so there’s another 12 more hours to go before the day ends but the body and the low and highs might have already been formed. You see how is that possible when there’s 12 more hours to go and the software has already drawn up the body and the tail of the candle?

Hello Snake,

What you are asking is a complex question that cannot be answered with just a few lines, but I’ll give a more complete answer here.

To say a full body equals momentum is not entirely true nor accurate. It can = momentum, and it cannot. How?

Well, if we are in an uptrend, and we have a full body bear candle, that would not equal momentum for the uptrend. Depending upon the size of the full body candle, it could equal profit taking (if its small), it could equal a huge amount of selling and opposition (if its a large candle), it could me massive profit taking and the end of the trend, or it may mean a reaction to a news event.

So as you can see, just from this one example, there is no way to fully answer your question and give you a be-all-end-all answer to what a full body candle means because you always have to take it into context. A single bar by itself will mean only so much, but taken into context, it will mean a lot more.

Long tails are generally rejections, but a better way to explain them would be, they are a rejection of price at a particular level where the rejection took place. Now, by itself, a long wick or rejection could be a serious threat to change the current trend or swing, or not. Again, you have to take it into context. What if you are looking at a candle on the 5min chart and you see a long tailed rejection? It may mean on an intraday basis there are orders rejecting at that level, but the rejection and move may be short lived, and the uptrend may resume.

Again, it all comes down to context.

So what you are asking is a loaded question that needs to be fully unpacked over time and also needs a lot of pretext for as well.

But momentum for a swing or move is rarely ever fully defined by one candle, and usually is a series of candles, like exhaustion bars, climax price action, etc, engulfing bars, etc.

But hopefully this gives you a greater idea. The key is to understand how to read price action in real time, and how to understand the order flow behind it and that creates it.

This is not something that can be learned or explained in one post, but over time.

So the good thing is you are asking a very poignant question which means you are onto something and curious about the right thing. The downside is your answer requires unpacking, more material and time to understand fully as there are many ways to interpret momentum and candles with long wicks or or full bodies.

I do recommend starting with learning how to read the impulsive vs. corrective price action and that will be a tremendous guide to understanding momentum, price action and order flow.

I hope this helps give you a better picture of whats going on.

Kind Regards,
Chris

I am not sure how my simple post has been misconstrued.
obviously, i used the word ‘generally’ for a reason.

to
2ndSkiesForex thanks for explaining this to me and thanks for reccomending me that article/book to read.

we have to try to analyse Candlesticks in the whole context.
One large Shadow in an ony one Candle can be a signal of Volatility, a posible retracement or maybe momemtum, everything is posible with the markets. But when there are some candles with large shadows, I think is symptom of indecision.
One large shadow in an definited uptrend or downtrend can be one only candle. Nothing special. But take care of one of this candles in a Fibo level, near a Resistance or Support, or a trendline. A change in the Market can be approaching. And this candle is going to be the trigger for lots of Traders.

Hello Fring,

I think we have to be careful even with the word ‘generally’ when describing a full body candle. I could have a 3pip full body candle on a 4hr chart which means nothing, yet on a tick chart could mean a lot.

Also, momentum in forex is relative to both time frame and underlying trend (which is also time frame dependent). Momentum is an underlying force which generally has a build up to it. Although it can be changed in one bar, it is more rare than common.

Generally momentum would require several bars to build up that underlying force, and if one bar changes it, its not necessarily = to a new momentum, but a change in the prior one already present.

But this is a highly complex subject with many subtle nuances that cannot be described in just a few paragraphs, or via general nature of a single type of candle.

Just my thoughts.

Kind Regards,
Chris Capre
2ndSkiesForex

Hello Chris,
i agree. that’s precisely why I made a short reply to the question and why i used ‘generally’.
it is difficult to explain… and one candle is usually analyzed with other candles.