Candlestick pattern analyser

How this is calculated

No hidden model and nothing fitted to data. Every figure on this page comes out of these lines, applied to the numbers you typed.

range          = high − low
body           = | close − open |
upper shadow   = high − max( open, close )
lower shadow   = min( open, close ) − low
close location = ( ( close − low ) − ( high − close ) ) ÷ range
doji           : body ≤ 10% of range   ·   marubozu: body ≥ 90%
hammer shape   : lower shadow ≥ 2 × body, upper ≤ 15% of range

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Frequently asked questions

How do you read a candlestick?

Each candle summarises one session with four prices. The body runs from the open to the close and is coloured by which was higher. The thin lines above and below — the shadows or wicks — reach to the session's high and low. A long body means the session travelled far from open to close; long shadows mean prices were reached during the session that did not hold by the close.

What is the close location value?

Where the close finished within the session's range, on a scale from minus one to plus one. Plus one is a close on the high, minus one a close on the low, and zero the exact middle. It is a measurement with a formula you can check by hand, which is why it is used here instead of the unexplained bullish-and-bearish percentages some analysers print.

Why does a hammer have two names?

Because textbooks name it by what came before it. After a decline the shape is called a hammer; after a rise the identical shape is called a hanging man, and the two are given opposite readings. The same four proportions carrying opposite names depending on context is the clearest evidence that one candle's shape says little on its own.

Do candlestick patterns predict price?

Not reliably. Academic tests of candlestick patterns across markets have produced mixed and often negative results once costs are included, and patterns that appear to work in one period frequently stop working in the next. They are a vocabulary for describing price action — useful for reading charts and talking about them — and this page uses them as nothing more.

Why does this not load a chart for a ticker?

Because that needs price data, and the site connects to no feed: exchange data carries licensing terms, and a page that scanned a symbol's chart for patterns and named them would be producing something much closer to a view on that security than a lesson. You type the prices or load a made-up example; the anatomy is the same either way.

Is my data sent anywhere?

No. The measurement runs in your browser as JavaScript on this page. The prices you enter are never transmitted, never stored and never logged, and closing the tab discards them. A free account unlocks the analyser; it does not send anyone your numbers.