Marubozu
A candle with almost no wicks: price went one way the whole slice and never pulled back.
Marubozu — what it is?
A marubozu is a candle with no wicks or almost none: the open coincides with one extreme, the close with the other. The move went one way for the whole period.
It's a sign of one-sided pressure. Inside the period there wasn't a single serious attempt to bring price back.
Candles like this are what most often create an imbalance: the market passed through a stretch with no trade against it, and later it comes back there.
Marubozu — how it is built?
The body takes up almost the whole range, the wicks are minimal. In practice what matters isn't the candle itself but what it left behind: the gap between the neighbouring candles and the zone the move started from.
Marubozu — common mistakes
Entering in the direction of the marubozu right after it closes — that's an entry at the worst price.
Treating it as a guarantee of continuation. Often a candle like that is exactly what ends the move.
Not marking the imbalance it left behind.
Confusing it with an ordinary large candle that has noticeable wicks.
Related to
Glossary
- candle
- the element of the chart that shows four prices for a period: open, high, low, close.
- open
- the first price of the period.
- close
- the last price of the period. Considered the most important of the four: breakouts are confirmed by the close.
- imbalance
- a stretch of chart price went through too quickly, without even trading.
- candle body
- the rectangle between the open and the close.
- range
- movement inside a horizontal corridor with no clear direction.
Test yourself
Where is an impulse, not a sluggish drift?
Correct. The app has tasks like this in every lesson — 119 lessons on real charts. Solve in the app →
Not this one. The right answer is the other chart. The app has tasks like this in every lesson — 119 lessons on real charts. Solve in the app →