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How to Read a Candle
What do the open, high, low, close, and volume on a crypto candlestick chart actually mean?
A candle shows only four numbers for a fixed slice of time: open, high, low, close. Everything else, colour, wicks, volume, and the timeframe you pick, is context around those four numbers.
Module 2 · Chapter 1 of 5 · ~4 min read
Module 1 got you to a safe exchange with money in it. This chapter teaches you to read the chart you land on next.
- 4numbers inside every candle
- 3xvolume behind a candle that looks average
- 288five minute candles make one day
The four numbers in one candle
Every candle on a chart carries just four numbers. Open, high, low, and close, all for one fixed slice of time.
Picture a daily BTC candle, priced in rupees for one day. It opened at ₹61,80,000, rose to ₹62,90,000, fell to ₹61,40,000, and closed at ₹62,40,000.
The body of the candle runs from the open to the close. The thin wicks above and below mark the extremes price visited and could not hold.
Green and red are not profit and loss
A candle turns green when its close sits above its own open. It turns red when its close sits below its own open.
That comparison ignores yesterday's close and every candle before it. A candle can be green and still close well below where the market sat a day earlier.
Same trades, three timeframes
One Tuesday can be drawn three ways on a chart. One daily candle, six 4-hour candles, or 288 five-minute candles, all of the same trades.
Changing the timeframe changes the picture you see. It never changes the market that produced it.
A calm daily candle can hide a ₹1,50,000 round trip that only the 5-minute chart ever showed. The timeframe you choose is a decision, not a default.
Volume: who actually showed up
The bar under the price panel is volume. It counts how much actually traded in that same slice of time.
Two candles can look identical in size and colour. One can carry 3x the average volume behind it, the other barely 0.4x.
Volume shows whether real trading backed a move, or almost nobody showed up. It still cannot tell you which way the next candle goes.
Wicks and named patterns: what they cannot promise
A long upper wick is a record of rejection. Buyers pushed BTC to ₹62,90,000, and sellers pushed it back to ₹62,40,000 before the close.
That wick tells you what happened in that slice of time. It does not tell you what happens next.
Traders name shapes like doji, hammer, and engulfing once they have already formed. The same shape can be followed by a move in either direction.
Next: Trend, Ranges and Levels turns these candles into a map of where price tends to pause.
Key takeaways
- A candle shows four numbers for a fixed slice of time: open, high, low, close.
- Green or red only compares the close to that same candle's own open, never to yesterday.
- The same trading day looks different as a daily, 4-hour, or 5-minute candle.
- A calm daily candle can still hide a big move that only a shorter chart shows.
- The volume bar shows how much actually traded, so identical candles can hide different participation.
- Wicks and named shapes record what already happened, and none of them predicts the next candle.
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Educational & illustrative only — not investment advice. Drishti Pro publishes AI-generated trade ideas and their public track record for information. Crypto is volatile and you can lose money. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Do your own research.