I was just wondering lately, a wick forms if the price for instance jumps up then immediately down again, but is there a time limit? Like if price stayed up another second or something would there still be a wick, or would the body extend up to that point?
Thats totally wrong bro.
The wick is nothing more that graphical representation of the difference between the open price vs the high (upper wick) and the closing price vs the low for the specific chart period. The body is the difference between open price vs close.
If the body extended up it simply means the price closed near the high for that period. It does not tell you when the high was formed but for that period.
If you will allow me to expand on what our friend Bob explained (great explanation, by the way).
Let’s say you have a chart that is set up for the New York close. Let’s say you want to use the Daily time frame. This means that each new candle will start forming about when the New York session closes (5:00PM EST) and it will finish forming 24 hours later (1 day, thus the “daily candle”). Let’s now say that this new candle is bullish (increasing in pips as time goes on, you may have designated the color green for the body). If the candle reaches it’s peak (it’s high) without losing value and the 24 hours run out, there will not be a wick present at the top. If however it reaches its high and comes back down a bit, and immediately the 24 hours runs out, the candle closes with a wick. The size of the wick is determined by how far price has come down from the high. So in effect there is a “time limit” for that candle to form a wick, or a “tail.”
Here’s what I want you to do. Call up your browser and type in “japanese candlesticks.” Start with the most general web sites and work toward specific trading sites. This will give you the best overall insight on candlesticks. Don’t worry, it takes everyone a while to finally “get it.”
I wish I can give you specific references, but this forum will not allow it. Very sad. Best of luck to you on the charts.
The two wicks added together (assuming that there are two, which is common) are a result of the time out of the total candle duration that the price wasn’t between the opening and closing levels, but that time can’t be determined by looking at the closed candle, nor would it be a helpful measurement, even if it could.