Talk:Candlestick chart

Talk
can u give a clearer explanation?

This looks like a particular chartist POV --Henrygb 12:07, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
 * +1 . This could be explained in a few sentences without any domain specific terms, e.g. : One candle stick represents four statistical values of the price movement of one specific trading item over a single day. The box depicts the price at start (open) and end (close) of the day and the sticks depict the highest and lowest price. Additionally, the box color depicts the direction of movement between open and close: whether the price has risen (typically black, green or blue) or fallen (white or red).

Candlestick Inventor
I realized the article did not have the name of the man who invented candlestick graphing, Munehisa Homma. I found this odd, as he is almost worshipped by those that swear by the usage of graphing methods. I also think there needs to be an article in Wikipedia on Munehisa Homma, as he is a rather legendary figure in the world of market trading, especially in his native Japan. However, all I know of Munehisa Homma was that he was born in Sakata, and invented the method as an ingenious tool of necessity to give him the edge in the rice market. Here are some sites that mention him, but I cannot find a full biography of the man, but the sites do include much more indepth and far better analysis on Candlesticks    —Preceding unsigned comment added by User:Persianlor (talk • contribs)
 * Munehisa Homma has an article, though it does not mention Candlestick charts. You might want to add that information to that article yourself. Antonrojo 14:15, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

Candlestick Trading Example Link
I would like to add the following link on candlestick trading. It has some great live examples of candlestick charting at work. The dow jones chart example here is excellent. I'll put the link out there for everyones scrutiny. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.255.236.89 (talk) 04:25, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Helpful Link
I'm putting the following link Candlestick Chart formations: Bullish/Bearish Engulfing, Gravestone/Dragonfly Doji, Morning/Evening Star, Piercing/Dark Cloud Cover up to scrutiny of others. Investigate the bottom links to the bullish/bearish engulfing pattern, dojis, dark cloud cover, morning/evening star links as well. The charts are helpful and the psychology is discussed as well as intra-day charts for some sections describing what is happening while the candlestick patterns are formed. Very educational, very applicable. See what you think. ThomasMark May 27
 * After quickly looking at the site, it looks like a good addition. The two main types of bad links are usually 1) links that duplicate information in other links or the the article and 2) links that present information in a biased way and 3) spam links. Related guidelines are at External links. Antonrojo 14:20, 27 May 2007 (UTC)

data density
I quibble with the claim that a candlestick chart has "the ability to display five data points instead of one." I think the number should be "four": open, high, low, and close. Shading the body to tell whether the open is the top or bottom isn't adding data, it's the reason you can tell open from close. Without it, you'd have somewhere between three and four data points.

Jmichael ll (talk) 03:12, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

Comparison with bar charts
The last paragraph in the has a comparison between the Candlestick and the bars charts. At the beginning of the sentence it is said that "Candlestick charts [...] convey more information", but then it is said that they display the same sets of data. I think that the difference it is only how the data are displayed. Perhaps one of the two is more useful to trace the change in time, but I think that some people prefer one type and other people the other one. There is no point to state that the candlestick "But, they also show how those prices are relative to the prior periods prices, so one can tell by looking at one bar if the price action is higher or lower than the prior one." This is true for bar charts too. I think that what is true is that with candlesticks it is usually easier to see what is is written (because each column has a larger area printed). -- AnyFile (talk) 11:11, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Opening image
About the opening image Image:Candlestick-chart.png, would it be better if the image has some green candles and some red candles (or white and black), instead of just green? I think I can easely make a new image, if needed, using gnuplot. -- AnyFile (talk) 11:11, 18 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Sounds like a good idea, also the existing image doesn't have a clickable higher resolution to allow a closer examination. --CliffC (talk) 11:17, 19 July 2008 (UTC)

Are we sure that the opening image actually represents a candlestick? The legend indicates that it is a meteorological chart showing hourly pressures. I assume the "open" and "close" refer to the first and last pressure reading within the hour. I would expect, then, the "close" for each hour to be at least close to the "open" for the subsequent hour -- yet one does not see this in the chart. It looks more like a box plot chart to me. Mschures (talk) 18:36, 2 September 2015 (UTC)


 * I am also quite sure that it is not a candlestick chart there. Replacing it with a proper one would be an improvement. Enivid (talk) 15:55, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Inconsistency in dates
The first paragraph under history says that these charts were developed in the 18th century, but studied since the 17th century ("Since the 17th century, there has been a lot of effort to relate chart patterns to the likely future behavior of a market."). These statements cannot both be true. Since I don't know which date is wrong, I was unable to make any correction myself. – Eve Teschlemacher (talk) 18:18, 13 August 2008 (UTC)

Clarify this sentence fom History section
Since the 17th century, there has been a lot of effo.rt to relate chart patterns to the ldata points instead of one.

I'll fix it once I'm sure what the author meant to say, or somebody else can. Brian Pearson (talk) 13:23, 8 July 2009 (UTC)

The whole subject of origins of candlestick charting is rather dubious
I've had this nagging suspicion for years that candlestick charts are of "modern" origin, created either by Steve Nison himself or by someone in Japan in the 20th century. In any event, this page should have a reference to Steve Nison's *book* and not his web site. I'll dig up the information on the book and update the page. But I'm not buying the whole "17th century Japanese rice trader" bit just yet.

Znmeb (talk) 04:01, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Hollow red candlesticks
Used by scottrade and others. http://support.stockcharts.com/entries/20591-what-does-a-solid-black-or-hollow-red-candlestick-mean

For example, on May 23 2000, a hollow red candle appears on GE because GE gapped down on the open, rose during the day, but didn't close above the closing price for May 22nd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.171.160.56 (talk) 20:19, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

what is bull and beer —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.178.149.125 (talk) 08:58, 1 April 2011 (UTC)

Heikin Ashi
There is disagreement concerning the formulae for the Heikin Ashi candles. An alternative definition is:
 * haClose = (O+H+L+C)/4
 * haHigh = Max(H,haOpen,haClose)
 * haLow  = Min(L,haOpen,haClose)

There seems to be some uncertainty as to the formula for haOpen
 * haOpen = (prev_haOpen+prev_haClose)/2

or
 * haOpen = (prev_haOpen + prev_Close)/2 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.125.177.29 (talk) 12:39, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Box plot
I am not sure that dedicated so much of the article's text to a box plot is a good idea. Especially, considering that the whole section looks like original research. Enivid (talk) 15:02, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

Major deficiency in ‘Description’ section?
For reference, this is currently the first part of the third paragraph of the ‘Description’ section:


 * If the asset closed higher than it opened, the body is hollow or unfilled, with the opening price at the bottom of the body and the closing price at the top. If the asset closed lower than it opened, the body is solid or filled, with the opening price at the top and the closing price at the bottom. Thus, the color of the candle represents the price movement relative to the prior period's close and the "fill" (solid or hollow) of the candle represents the price direction of the period in isolation (solid for a higher open and lower close; hollow for a lower open and a higher close). A black (or red) candle represents a price action with a lower closing price than the prior candle's close. A white (or green) candle represents a higher closing price than the prior candle's close.

In the above, the meanings of a candle’s color and fill are clearly juxtaposed, with the possible (or even probable) implication that these two notions can coexist in the same chart. But the possibility of a monochrome chart is also included by mentioning that a candle can be black or white, without explaining how the fill aspect would then be represented.

In other words, in a monochrome chart, what is a ‘black’ candle if not a filled candle? And what is a ‘white’ candle if not a hollow candle? How could the two notions (the variation within the period and the variation from the prior period) be simultaneously represented in a monochrome chart? It does not seem possible to me and, if it is possible, it is not currently explained in this paragraph. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.60.71.246 (talk) 15:07, 10 January 2024 (UTC)


 * That paragraph was a mess. I've tried to re-word it now. No, candles don't vary in color or fill depending on the previous candle's Close. The body is colored/filled only based on its own candle's Open/Close parameters. The article gave a wrong impression in that regard. Vgbyp (talk) 16:36, 11 January 2024 (UTC)


 * But they can vary depending on the prior close! My point was that it can only be done if the chart is not monochrome.


 * When a chart uses red and green (or any other two colors, when the creator wants to be fanciful) it can be made to use the colors to represent the relation of the period’s closing price to that of the prior period in addition to using the filled/hollow distinction to represent the relation of the period’s closing price to that of its opening price.


 * It can make for a rather counterintuitive chart... until you get used to it, and then it can be very useful. It is meant, obviously, to account for the effects of off-hours (AKA overnight) trading so, AFAIK, it only makes sense on charts where the periods are days, and not multiples or fractions of days.


 * The Android app Stock Widget (or Stock & Crypto Widget) by developer Widgets Maker is one example where this is implemented, i.e. it is an available option for at least one type of widget. (This app may also be available for iOS. I wouldn’t know.) I’ve been told that Yahoo Finance also offers this option. 207.60.71.246 (talk) 16:16, 13 January 2024 (UTC)


 * BTW, this image is an example of a combined red/green + hollow/filled candlestick chart, showing approximately 52 trading sessions, with several instances of each of the four possible combinations: http://www.electrogent.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/candlestick_chart.jpg 207.60.71.246 (talk) 16:51, 13 January 2024 (UTC)
 * You are right! I didn't even know about this subtype of candlestick charts! It's a real thing, but it appears to be quite rare. I've added information about it to the article but kept it separate from the main paragraph explaining the hollow/fill and coloring for traditional candlesticks. I hope it now reads clearer. Vgbyp (talk) 12:58, 14 January 2024 (UTC)