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Reading price

6 min read · Builds on Lesson 5

Lesson 6 of 7

Time to actually look at a chart. The good news: under the colourful candles there are only a few things you need to see. Master those and a chart goes from intimidating to readable.

The candlestick: one bar, four prices

Each candle packs a whole period of trading — a minute, an hour, a day — into one shape with four facts: where price opened, where it closed, and the high and low it touched. The thick part is the body (open to close); the thin lines are wicks (the extremes). Green means it closed up, red means it closed down.

Green = closed above open · Red = closed below open

Timeframes: zoom out, then in

The same market looks different depending on how much time each candle covers. A daily chart shows the big picture; a 5-minute chart shows what is happening right now. Pros read more than one: zoom out to find the direction, zoom in to time the entry. Never trade a 5-minute chart blind to what the daily is doing.

Support and resistance

Price is not random — it reacts at levels where buyers and sellers have fought before. A support is a floor where buyers keep stepping in; resistance is a ceiling where sellers keep showing up. Those levels are where the interesting decisions happen: bounces, breakouts, and the spots to put a stop just beyond.

Trend: the market’s direction

Connect the dots and price is usually doing one of three things. Uptrend: higher highs and higher lows. Downtrend: lower highs and lower lows. Range: bouncing sideways between support and resistance. The oldest edge in the book is simple — trade with the trend, not against it.

Uptrend

Higher highs, higher lows. Favour buying the dips.

Downtrend

Lower highs, lower lows. Favour selling the bounces.

Range

Sideways between two levels. Fade the edges or wait.

Key takeaway

A candle shows four prices — open, close, high, low — with a body and wicks. Read more than one timeframe, mark the support and resistance where price reacts, and trade in the direction of the trend.

Quick check · 1 of 2

On a candlestick, the thick body shows…

Right. The body spans open to close; the thin wicks mark the high and low. Colour tells you which way it closed.Not quite. The body is open-to-close. The high and low are shown by the thin wicks above and below it.

Quick check · 2 of 2

A series of higher highs and higher lows is a…

Exactly. Higher highs and higher lows define an uptrend — and the simplest edge is to trade with it.Not quite. Higher highs and higher lows is the definition of an uptrend. Lower ones would be a downtrend.

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Lesson 7 →Psychology & discipline

Educational content only — nothing here is financial advice. Trading carries risk; never risk money you cannot afford to lose.