What does a solid black or hollow red candlestick mean?

What does a solid black or hollow red candlestick mean?

Traditionally, candlesticks have not been different colors. If the close was less than the open, you would get a filled candlestick; if the close was higher than the open, you would get a hollow candlestick. You can see this by choosing “Black” for both the “Up Color” and “Down Color” settings in our SharpCharts tool.

Coloring candlesticks is actually more complicated than you might think. One thing that can confuse people is that there is no such thing as a “white candlestick” - it is hollow, not white. That means that, if you are viewing a candlestick chart with volume bars behind it (the default for SharpCharts), you may see a colored volume bar showing through a hollow candle. If you find that confusing, select “Separate” from the “Volume” dropdown just below the chart.

The next thing to keep in mind is that, when the market is open, we add another candlestick on the right side of the chart based on the current intraday quote. Because that candle is still in the process of developing, we draw it on top of a yellow background. The yellow background will disappear when the final closing prices are recorded. (Note: If you subscribe to a real-time data plan, the background of the far-right candle will be green instead of yellow.)

Finally, if you use the default-colored candlesticks for a SharpChart, here are the rules that we use:

  • If the previous day's closing value is less than or equal to the closing value for the current day, draw the current day's candlestick in black.
  • If the previous day's closing value is higher than the closing value for the current day, draw the current day's candlestick in red.

Notice that these rules are subtly different from the rules for determining whether to draw a filled candlestick or a hollow candlestick. Those rules (stated in the first paragraph above) rely on the relationship between the opening price for the current day and the closing price of the current day. These subtle differences can lead to what we call “oxymoronic” candlesticks – candles that are colored bullishly, but filled bearishly (a filled black candlestick) or vice versa (a hollow red candlestick).

For example, in the GE chart above, notice that filled black candlesticks appear at several important peaks on the chart. This is because, in these instances, GE opened significantly higher than the previous day's close (“gapped up”), fell during the day, but still managed to close above the previous day's close. Less obviously, on May 23rd, a hollow red candle appears because GE gapped down at the open, rose during the day, but didn't close above the closing price for May 22nd.

Note: SharpCharts can be configured with the Solid Candles setting. In this situation, there are no hollow candles, and the color of the candlesticks is based on the relationship between the open and the close. If the close is above the open, the candle is colored with the Up Color; if the close is below the open, the candle is colored with the Down Color.

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