Many traders find candlestick charts easy to read and to interpret. They know, for instance, that a Marubozu indicates that either buyers controlled the market in a particular share or sellers did, and that an upper wick considerably longer than a lower one shows that buyers dominated, driving the prices higher. It takes a while to learn to read a candlestick chart at a glance, but, when mastered, they make a useful tool in the Technical Analysts armoury.
Occasionally you will see a candle that does not have a wick, either above or below the body of the candle. This is called a Marubozu and it indicates that the price of the stock never went outside the range set by the opening and closing prices. Either the peak price was the opening price and the low price was the closing price (in the case of a black candle) or vice-versa (for a white candle).
Each day on a candlestick chart is represented by a symbol resembling a small candle (hence the name): a vertical rectangle that can be black or white with a small vertical line sticking out of the top, the “shadow” (or “wick” to persist with the candlestick metaphor). Unlike real candles, there is another vertical line or wick sticking out of the base as well! The vertical axis on a candlestick chart represents share price, so the tops and bottoms of the rectangle and wicks represent price values.