A wick (also called a shadow or tail) is the part of a candlestick that sits outside the body. The upper wick reaches the period’s high and the lower wick reaches its low. Wicks show prices that were traded but not held at the close, which makes them a direct record of rejection.
How to read it
- Upper wick: the distance from the top of the body to the high. A long upper wick means buyers pushed price up but sellers took it back before the close.
- Lower wick: the distance from the bottom of the body to the low. A long lower wick means sellers pushed price down but buyers recovered it.
- Wick versus body: traders often compare the two. A wick at least twice the body length is a common threshold for a “rejection” candle such as the hammer or shooting star.
- Location matters: a long lower wick at support or a long upper wick at resistance is far more meaningful than one in the middle of a range.
Wicks also explain many false breakouts: price pokes through a level intraday, leaving a wick, then closes back inside.
Example
A currency pair has resistance at 1.1000. A four-hour candle opens at 1.0960, spikes to 1.1035, and closes at 1.0968. The body runs from 1.0960 to 1.0968, only 8 pips. The upper wick runs from 1.0968 to 1.1035, 67 pips, more than eight times the body. Buyers broke above 1.1000 but could not stay there; the wick records that failed attempt. A trader considering a short might place a stop-loss a few pips above 1.1035, beyond the rejected high.
Common mistakes
- Treating every long wick as a reversal. In fast, volatile markets, long wicks are common and often meaningless.
- Using closes only. Line charts hide wicks; a level that “held” on closes may have been pierced several times.
- Stops inside the wick. A stop placed halfway up a recent wick sits in a zone the market has already visited and can easily revisit.
- Ignoring the timeframe. A big wick on a one-minute chart may be invisible on the daily.
Educational content — not financial advice.
Updated