Direct answer
To read candle sticks in forex trading, look at each candle’s open, high, low, and close over the candle’s time window. A bearish candle is one where the close is lower than the open, meaning price ended the period below where it started. From there, interpret the candle body (open-to-close range) and the wicks/shadows (extensions to the high and low) to describe what happened during that period.
Mechanics: what each part shows
A single candlestick summarizes four levels:
- Open: where price started the time window.
- High: the peak reached during the window.
- Low: the lowest point reached during the window.
- Close: where price ended the window.
For a bearish candle:
- Bearish direction: close < open.
- Bearish body: the body connects open and close, showing the net decline during the period.
- Upper wick (if present): price moved above the open (and possibly near the high) but was later pushed back down below the close.
- Lower wick (if present): price dipped below the close (and possibly below the open) but buyers were not able to lift the close above the open.
A useful way to interpret a bearish candle is to treat it as a story of range and rejection. A longer body suggests stronger net selling from open to close. A long wick often suggests that price explored a level but failed to hold it by the end of the period.
Example checks: comparing candle features
Here are independent checks you can do without assuming future outcomes:
- Body vs. wick dominance: If the body is large relative to the wicks, the candle shows a relatively clear end-to-end decline. If wicks are long, the end-of-period close may reflect a battle where price was rejected.
- Where the extremes sit: If a bearish candle has an upper wick, price rose but could not sustain above the close. If it has a lower wick, price fell but could not sustain below the close by period end.
- Sequence consistency: One candle alone can be ambiguous. Compare with the candles immediately before and after to see whether bearish bodies are clustering or whether wicks frequently indicate rebounds.
Limitations and verification
Candle sticks describe what happened inside a specific timeframe; they do not guarantee what will happen next. Interpretation also depends on the chart timeframe (for example, a bearish candle on a short timeframe may not match the broader picture on a higher timeframe). Candle shapes can help you form hypotheses about order flow and balance, but results are not certain.
To reduce misreadings, verify by using multiple candles and checking that your bearish classification (close lower than open) matches the same candle definition you use across the chart. Also recognize that forex markets can be noisy: small bodies with long wicks may reflect indecision rather than strong directional control.
If you need to connect bullish and bearish concepts to candle reading, use definitions consistently (what “bullish” and “bearish” mean in terms of open vs. close), and remember that any pattern-based interpretation should be treated as descriptive and probabilistic, not predictive.