Candlestick Chart

Candlestick charts are widely used in financial analysis to track price movements of securities, derivatives, or currencies.

A Candlestick Chart is a financial visualization tool that illustrates the price fluctuations of assets such as securities, derivatives, or currencies. Each “candlestick” represents a defined time interval (e.g., minute, hour, day) and provides four key data points:

• Opening price

• Closing price

• Highest price

• Lowest price

Candlestick charts are widely used in financial analysis because they can quickly convey a large amount of market data, making it easier to understand price action, volatility, and sentiment. This visualization helps traders and analysts gauge market sentiment, monitor trends, identify reversal patterns, and evaluate support as well as resistance levels to make informed decisions.

When to Use a Candlestick Chart

Use a Candlestick Chart when you want to:

• Analyze Market Sentiment – Quickly determine whether buyers (bullish candles) or sellers (bearish candles) dominated the market during a given period.

• Identify Reversal Patterns – Detect formations such as Doji, Hammer, or Engulfing patterns that often signal potential trend reversals.

• Support Short-Term Trading – Ideal for day trading and swing trading, as they provide detailed market action over short time frames.

• Identify Support and Resistance Levels – Visualize critical price zones where the market has historically reversed, paused, or consolidated.

Examples

• Monitoring daily price action of a stock to spot bullish or bearish trends.

• Using hourly candlesticks for forex trading to identify short-term entry and exit points.

• Identifying Doji formations that may signal indecision and upcoming volatility.

General Settings

The fields under General Settings allow users to configure chart behavior and display.

• Order

  • Defines how data is sorted on the chart.

  • Options include: None (default), Ascending, or Descending.

  • Useful for adjusting the sequence of time intervals or price data.

• Exclude Global Filter

  • Excludes this chart from global filters applied across the report or dashboard.

  • Helpful when you want a Candlestick chart to always show the full dataset, regardless of filters applied elsewhere.

• Rise Color

  • Specifies the color used to represent rising candlesticks (where the closing price is higher than the opening price).

  • Commonly set to green or blue for positive market sentiment.

• Decline Color

  • Specifies the color used to represent declining candlesticks (where the closing price is lower than the opening price).

  • Commonly set to red or dark tones to indicate negative sentiment.

• Stroke Color

  • Defines the outline (border) color of candlesticks.

  • Enhances visual clarity, especially when candlesticks are plotted closely together.

  • Often set to a neutral color like black or gray.

• Exclude Global Filter – Enable this option to exclude the Candlestick chart from report-level global filters

View Filter

• Filter – Select a filter option from the drop-down to restrict the dataset (e.g., filter by ticker, date range, or asset class).

Category Axis (X-Axis)

The Category Axis is typically the time dimension for Candlestick charts.

• Title – Define a title for the X-axis (e.g., Date, Time Interval).

• Axis Label – Enable and customize labels for clarity.

• Label Angle – Adjust angle (0°, 45°, 90°) to optimize space when displaying dense intervals.

Primary Value Axis (Y-Axis)

The Primary Value Axis typically represents price levels.

• Title – Add a descriptive Y-axis title (e.g., Price in USD).

• Axis Label – Enable or disable labels for clarity.

• Format Type – Choose numeric display format: None, Auto, Percent, Thousand, Lacs, Crore, Million, Billion, Trillion, Quadrillion.

• Currency Type – Select a currency symbol: None, Rupees, Euro, Pound, USD, Yen, Cent.

• Precision – Control decimal precision (up to 5 places).

Insights

Use Insights to annotate candlestick charts with market commentary or trading observations.

• Text – Add insights; highlight terms/numbers using asterisks (e.g., Doji detected, 70% increase).

• Font Size – Adjust annotation size.

• Font Color – Select a color for annotation text.

• Text Align – Left, Right, Center.

• Position – Place annotation at Bottom or Right.

Best Practices

• Always use a time-based dimension (e.g., Date, Hour) on the X-axis.

• Apply currency formatting when plotting securities priced in monetary units.

• Use filters to zoom into specific timeframes or instruments for more detailed analysis.

• Use intuitive colors (e.g., green for rise, red for decline) for faster interpretation.

• Keep stroke colors neutral to avoid distraction from the main candlestick body.

• Apply the Exclude Global Filter when comparing historical vs. filtered data in dashboards.

• Choose an order consistent with your trading or reporting style (usually chronological ascending).