A candlestick chart is simply a collection of single candlesticks relating price movement over time. Each candlestick represents a given time frame's price movement, or trading session. Almost like pieces to a puzzle, the smaller pieces relate to the larger picture.

There are three basic candle types:

1. A white, or empty, candle indicates that the closing price was higher than the opening price for the trading session.
2. A black, or full, candle indicates that the closing price was lower that the opening price for the trading session.
3. A doji occurs when the opening and closing prices were equal, or very close to equal.

The chart below shows these three basic candle types.

Candlesticks or bars can be defined as a cycle with open, high, low and close. The gap between OPEN and CLOSE is called REAL BODY. When the market closed below open, the real body is usually filled with black color and called as BLACK CANDLE. The opposite way, when the market close above open, it will not be filled with any color (white) or possible fills with red and called WHITE CANDLE. Line between HIGH to the real body and CLOSE to the real body are called SHADOW.