What is Wick?
Crypto Glossary Definition
In a candlestick chart, a wick is the line extending from the top or the bottom of a candle. It represents the high or low price relative to the opening or closing price. In short, it shows the price extremes within a candle.
Why Wick Matters
A candlestick's wick (or "shadow") shows the high and low reached during a period that price didn't close at — a long wick after a sharp move is often read as a sign that the move was rejected and reversed within that same period.
Wick in Practice
A day trader studying a four-hour candlestick chart notices one particular candle with a long upper wick stretching well above a tight cluster of candle bodies, meaning price spiked sharply higher during that period before sellers pushed it back down to close much lower than the high it briefly touched. Reading that long wick as a sign of rejection at that price level, the trader marks it as potential resistance and decides against entering a long position near that zone, reasoning that buyers already tried to push price higher there and failed decisively within the same candle. A few candles later, a different pattern catches their eye: a candle with almost no body but a long lower wick, sometimes called a hammer when it appears after a downtrend, suggesting sellers drove price sharply lower during the period only for buyers to step in and reclaim nearly all of that ground before the close. Combining several wick patterns across consecutive candles, along with volume data, the trader builds a more confident read on short-term sentiment than the closing price alone would provide, since two candles can close at identical prices while telling completely different stories about the volatility and rejection that happened in between, depending entirely on the length and direction of their wicks.
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