The beauty of candlesticks is that you can see the direction of price movements at a glance. Not only do you determine if the candle as a whole is above or below the prior one, but you may tell by the colours whether it marked a reversal or a continuation of the trend. Certain patterns are particularly vital in learning to read candlestick charts. In some cases naturally the open or close will be the high or the low. If there’s no wick in either direction, this is referred to as a Marubozu pattern. Then there is no candle body but only wicks stretching up and down from the horizontal line that marks the open and close. This is known as a Doji pattern. If the body of the candle is long with short or non existent wicks, close to Marubozu, this indicates a fairly steady movement, possibly part of a trend. On the other hand if the wicks are long and the body is short or non existent, more like the Doji pattern, this will indicate a choppy market with big fluctuations. Trend based trading will are suspicious of Doji patterns, which may be suggestive that the market is beginning to become unreliable. You’ll always look at a collection of candles. For example, you can draw trend lines along the highest highs and lowest lows on candlestick charts. When you know how to read candlestick charts you can base systems around these indications.