What a candle is — chart vocabulary
Not investment advice. Educational chart vocabulary only. This page does not tell you to buy, sell, or hold anything. Candlesticks are a drawing language for open/high/low/close — not signals, patterns-as-orders, or recommendations. Markets involve risk of loss. One candle never predicts the next. Voltron Trading Lab is not a broker, advisor, or exchange.
Data source: Placeholder — schematic / illustrative only (no live vendor wired).
Delay: N/A for schematic · when a live delayed feed is added: disclose vendor name + approximate delay on the chart (e.g. ~15–20 min / end-of-day).
s: OFF on this domain.
Draft for Forge → Sentry CLEAR → Converter deploy. $0 — no paid chart terminals.
Why candles exist
A candlestick (candle) packs four prices for one time bucket into a compact shape:
| Letter | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| O | Open — first traded price in the bucket |
| H | High — highest traded price in the bucket |
| L | Low — lowest traded price in the bucket |
| C | Close — last traded price in the bucket |
Together people say OHLC. Bars and line charts show related info; candles just make open-vs-close easy to see at a glance.
Anatomy (vocabulary)
- **Body** — the rectangle between open and close.
- **Wick / shadow** — thin lines from the body out to the high and/or low.
- **Bullish / bearish coloring (convention)** — many charts color the body one way when close > open, another when close < open. Color schemes vary; always check the legend. Color is a *display choice*, not a trade instruction.
Education tip: The candle only describes what already traded in that bucket. It does not “want” anything next.
Timeframe = bucket size
The same OHLC idea applies to any bucket:
| Example bucket | What one candle summarizes |
|----------------|----------------------------|
| 1 minute | Trades in that minute |
| 1 hour | Trades in that hour |
| 1 day | Trades in that session/day (exchange rules vary) |
| 1 week | Trades in that week |
A “big” wick on a 1-minute candle is a different conversation than a “big” wick on a weekly candle. Always name the timeframe when you talk about a candle.
Related: [trend-vs-range.md](trend-vs-range.md) · [support-and-resistance.md](support-and-resistance.md)
Schematic (not live market data)
```
| ← upper wick (to High)
+-+
| | ← body (Open ↔ Close)
+-+
| ← lower wick (to Low)
```
Caption: Illustrative schematic. Data source: none (hand-drawn). Delay: N/A. Do not trade from this drawing.
When a delayed public feed is wired later, every live chart block will show source + latency next to the image — same rule as `/disclaimers/` §5.
Gaps, sessions, and honesty limits
- **Gaps** (open far from prior close) show up more on some markets/sessions than others — still just history.
- **After-hours / different venues** can change what “the” open or close means — definitions live with the data vendor and the exchange rules.
- Incomplete or delayed data can draw a candle that later revises. That is another reason every chart page must label **source + delay**.
What this page deliberately does *not* do
- No “bullish engulfing → buy” (or any pattern → order) mapping
- No alerts-as-advice
- No candle-pattern win-rate / backtest theater
- No paid TradingView / terminal upsell
Practice with fake balances only on [`/mock/`](/mock/) when live.
Quick self-check
1. Can you name O, H, L, C without recommending a trade?
2. Can you explain body vs wick in one sentence each?
3. Can you refuse to interpret a candle without stating its timeframe?
4. Can you say: a candle records a finished bucket; it does not order the next one?
Related
- Charts hub: `/charts/`
- Prior drafts: [support-and-resistance.md](support-and-resistance.md) · [trend-vs-range.md](trend-vs-range.md)
- Learn / glossary: `/learn/` · `/glossary/`
- Disclaimers: `/disclaimers/`
- thevoltron.com desk stays separate (Associates; )
Chartist draft · 2026-09-09 · `/workspace/fleet/drafts/voltrontrading/charts/what-a-candle-is.md` · Pending Sentry CLEAR → Forge wire