Candlestick Chart (Up/Down Candles)
A chart showing a day's (or period's) open, close, high, and low in a single candle shape — up is a bullish candle, down is a bearish one.
In plain terms
It packs into one candle where price started (open), where it ended (close), and how high and low it went (high, low) during a day. It is drawn with a bar (body) and upper/lower wicks.
Ending higher than it started is a "bullish candle," ending lower a "bearish candle." (※ Note Korea usually uses up = red, while US charts use up = green — the colors are reversed.)
What it tells you
A candle shows the period's "tug-of-war" better than a simple line graph. A long body means a strong push one way; long upper/lower wicks mean it went one way and was pushed back by the opposing force.
A point to note: a candle records "what happened," not "what comes next." Pattern names like hammer or doji are mostly interpretations people attach after the fact.
Formula
body = between open and close / upper-lower wicks = the period's high and low close > open → bullish candle (usually red in Korea, green in the US) · close < open → bearish candle
What high or low means
A long bullish candle means buying strength was strong in the period; a long bearish candle, selling strength.
A long upper wick means it rose and got pushed down (a sign selling was strong); a long lower wick means it fell and was propped back up (a sign buying held).
Candle patterns are an area especially prone to "remembering only the hits" (hindsight bias). With dozens of patterns, only the ones that worked are easily remembered, so judging on one pattern alone is risky. The same shape can mean the opposite depending on where in the trend it appears.
It is easy to over-read meaning into one candle's shape. You have to read it with the context of volume and trend to know whether the shape truly means anything.
Korea and the US use opposite colors (up = red in Korea, usually green in the US). Judging up or down by color alone confuses. It also looks only at price action, unrelated to company value, and is not itself a buy/sell signal.
The candlestick chart is said to originate from how 18th-century Japanese rice traders recorded price flows. A great trader named Munehisa Homma is famously said to have systematized it.
A single candle holds not just the period's start and end prices but also "wicks" stretching up and down, capturing at a glance the traces of buyers and sellers fighting it out intraday. For example, a long upper wick means price rose intraday and was pushed back. Because it shows "what happened inside" that a simple line graph misses, a tool from centuries ago has survived to today.
Metrics to read alongside
See it in real stocks
Search US stocks on Stocklore to see Candlestick and other financial metrics alongside the sector average.
This explanation is for information and reference only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Investment decisions and their consequences are your own.