ICT Decoded · Reading Candles: Open, High, Low, Close and Wicks
How Do You Read a Candle the ICT Way: Open, High, Low, Close and Wicks?
By Steve H — reads every firm’s official rulebook, checks prices and codes daily, and maintains the Enigma Score · Methodology · Editorial policy · Last updated November 1, 2026
ICT concepts were created and are taught by Michael J. Huddleston, The Inner Circle Trader (X · YouTube). This lesson is FundedEnigma’s own summary, not affiliated with or endorsed by ICT.
In short: Reading candles in ICT means reading four prices, the open, high, low and close, and what the wicks say. The body runs from the open to the close; a wick is where price went and did not stay. Up days tend to print open, low, high, close, and down days open, high, low, close.
How to Read Candles Like ICT: Open, High, Low, Close and the Wick's 50% (Real NQ Data) · 9:26 · published November 1, 2026 · part of the ICT Concepts Decoded playlist
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The full video is embedded above this article: How to Read Candles Like ICT: Open, High, Low, Close and the Wick's 50% (Real NQ Data). This page is the written version, with every chart walked through step by step. Jump to any part of the video:
Key facts: reading a candle at a glance
| Term | What it is | How it is used |
|---|---|---|
| Open, high, low, close | The four prices every candle has | The whole story of the candle's time period |
| Body | Open to close | Up candle if the close is above the open, down candle if below |
| Wick | The part beyond the body | Price went there and did not stay: a rejected move on the smaller candles |
| Open-low-high-close | ICT's shape of an up day | The low usually comes first, then the high |
| Expansion candle | Body at least 60% of the range | Small wicks, one-way move, closes near its end |
| Reversal candle | One wick at least 50% of the range, close in the other half | Ran one way, was rejected, finished on the other side |
| Indecision candle | Body 20% of the range or less, each wick at least 25% | Went both ways, closed near the open |
| Inside / one-sided / outside | No new high or low / one side of the previous candle taken / both taken | One-sided candles give the daily bias read |
| Wick's 50% | Halfway between the wick's end and the body (consequent encroachment of the wick) | Held: the wick is doing its job · traded through: the wick's end is the next level to watch |
Last verified 2026-11-01. All charts below are real historical CME NQ futures data, shown in New York time.
Here is the idea on a real chart. On April 7, 2026, Nasdaq futures fell through the previous day's low, down to 23,941.50 at 11:06 AM. Then price climbed all afternoon and closed near the high of the day: one daily candle with a long lower wick. The next session never traded back into that wick, and reached about 800 points above that day's high.
What are the open, high, low and close of a candle?
Every candle, on every timeframe, has four prices: where it opened, the highest and the lowest prices it traded, and where it closed.
- The body is the part between the open and the close. If the close is above the open, it is an up candle; below it, a down candle.
- The wicks are the parts beyond the body: price went there, and did not stay.
A daily candle is built by the smaller candles inside it. A long lower wick on the daily chart means that, on the fifteen-minute chart, price ran down and then got pushed back up.
What does open, low, high, close mean?
It is ICT's (Michael J. Huddleston's) description of an up day: price opens, trades down to make the low, then runs up to the high and closes. A down day is the mirror: open, high, low, close. The move against the candle comes first, and that move is what leaves the wick on that side. It is the same shape our daily bias lesson uses.
On our NQ data, on up days the low came before the high almost nine times in ten, and on down days the high came first just as often.
What are expansion, reversal and indecision candles?
They are three ways we sort a closed candle in this lesson, each measured against the candle's own range, from its high to its low.
- Expansion candle: the body is at least 60% of the range. Small wicks and a big body. Price usually made its opposite extreme early, moved one way, and closed near the end of that move.
- Reversal candle: one wick is at least half of the range, and the close is in the other half. Price ran one way, was rejected, and finished back on the other side.
- Indecision candle: the body is 20% of the range or less, and each wick is at least a quarter of the range. Price went both ways and closed close to where it opened.
- Everything else is an ordinary candle. These labels describe a closed candle; they are not signals.
What are inside, one-sided and outside candles?
They describe a candle against the one before it. Inside: no new high and no new low. One-sided: it takes one side of the previous candle's range. Outside: it takes both sides.
One-sided candles connect straight to the daily bias read. A candle that took the previous high and closed above it is displacement; one that took the high and closed back inside is a failure. Inside and outside candles give no clean read.
What is the consequent encroachment of a wick?
It is the 50% of a wick: halfway between the wick's end and the edge of the body it hangs from. ICT keeps coming back to the 50% of a range, from the consequent encroachment of a fair value gap to the mean threshold of an order block, and a wick has one too.
On a long lower wick, measure from the bottom of the body down to the low, and mark the middle. If the next session holds above that line, the wick is still doing its job. If price trades through it, the wick is being given back, and the low is the next level to watch.
One more thing about timing, and it's hindsight, because you only know a day was an expansion candle once it has closed. On those days in our data, the wick on the opposite side was already in before the 9:30 AM New York open nearly nine times in ten. On all days it was about two in three, which is roughly what the clock alone gives you, since most of the session's hours come before 9:30.
What does reading candles look like on real charts?
Example 1: an expansion candle, January 6, 2026
- The session opens at 25,583.00.
- In London, at 3:31 AM, price dips to 25,527.50, about 55 points below the open. That is the whole lower wick.
- At 9:47 AM it takes the previous day's high, 25,708.00, and it keeps climbing. The high, 25,837.75, comes at 3:58 PM.
- It closes at 25,831.25, near the top. Open, low, high, close. The body is about 80% of the range: an expansion candle by our rule.
Example 2: a reversal candle that holds, April 7-8, 2026
- The session opens at 24,348.75.
- At 11:02 AM price trades below the previous day's low, and at 11:06 AM it reaches 23,941.50. Then it climbs, and closes at 24,399.25.
- The lower wick is about 80% of the range, and the close is near the top: a reversal candle. It took the previous low and closed back above it, a failure read, so the bias for the next day is bullish.
- The middle of the wick is about 24,145. The next session opens above the candle's high, and its lowest price, 24,355.00, stays above the whole wick.
- At 8:07 AM the next morning, price reaches 25,257.00. The wick held.
Example 3: the same kind of candle, but the wick fails, December 11-12, 2025
- The session named December 11, 2025 starts at 6 PM the evening before. That same evening price trades below the previous day's low and makes the low at 10:09 PM: 25,383.00.
- It climbs for the rest of the session and closes at 25,834.75, near the high. Another long lower wick, another failure read, another bullish bias.
- The middle of the wick is 25,576.25. The next session opens lower. On the 30-minute chart, the 4:00 AM candle closes below the middle of December 11's range, the first warning from the daily bias lesson. At 4:33 AM price trades through the middle of the wick.
- At 10:24 AM price takes the wick's low, and it falls to 25,118.00 at 11:38 AM. Same candle shape as example 2; the difference showed up when the middle of the wick gave way.
What does the data say about reading candles?
Candle reading describes what happened; it does not forecast. We measured 4,195 Nasdaq futures sessions, from June 2010 to September 2026, each from 6 PM to 5 PM New York time, and left out comparisons across a contract roll.
- About one day in three was an expansion candle, and about three in ten were reversal candles. True indecision candles were rare, about one in thirty.
- About three days in four were one-sided. Inside and outside days were about one in eight each.
- After a reversal candle, the next session reached the other end of it about two times in three. But that is mostly about where it closed: candles that simply closed near one end saw that end taken at least as often. The long wick itself did not add much on top of that.
- Price cannot reach the end of the wick without passing its middle first, and every time the wick's end was taken, the middle went first. Once the next session had traded through the middle, it went on to take the wick's end about six times in ten. When it held the middle all session, it reached the other end about nine times in ten, but you only know it held once the session is over.
How do you use candle reading in your own charting?
Use it to describe what happened inside a candle, and to know what to watch next.
- Read the closed candle, not the forming one. The labels only exist once the candle has closed.
- Expect the move against the candle first. Up days usually make their low before their high; judge that first move by where it stops.
- Mark the wick's 50% on reversal candles. It is the line that shows whether the wick is being kept or given back.
- Do not treat a candle as a signal. It tells you what happened and where to look, not what will happen.
More concepts in the series are on the ICT Concepts Decoded hub. If you trade futures with a prop firm, you can look up a firm's rules on the challenges page or set two firms side by side on the compare page.
Frequently asked questions
What does a long lower wick mean?
Price traded down during the candle and was pushed back up before the close. On the smaller candles inside it, that was a run lower that got rejected. On a reversal candle the lower wick is at least half of the range and the close is in the top half.
What is an inside day?
A day that makes no new high and no new low compared with the day before; it stays inside the previous day's range. On our NQ data about one day in eight was an inside day, and it gives no clean daily bias read.
What is an outside day?
A day that takes both the previous day's high and its low. About one day in eight on our NQ data. Like an inside day, it gives no clean daily bias read.
Do candle wicks get filled?
Not always. After a reversal candle, the next session took the wick's end about one time in three overall. Once price had traded through the wick's middle, the end was taken about six times in ten.
Is a reversal candle a signal to trade?
No. It describes a closed candle. In our data, the next session reached the other end of a reversal candle no more often than it did after any candle that closed near one end.
Which timeframe should I read candles on?
The same rules apply on every timeframe. In this lesson the candle is the daily (one CME session, 6 PM to 5 PM New York time), read on 15- and 30-minute charts.
Sources
- Concept: open-low-high-close and open-high-low-close, and the consequent encroachment of a wick, as taught by ICT (The Inner Circle Trader, Michael J. Huddleston), who originated them. The candle categories, rules, examples and charts on this page are our own.
- Data: every chart and the 4,195-session count are real historical CME Nasdaq-100 E-mini (NQ) futures data, shown in New York time.
- Video: How to Read Candles Like ICT: Open, High, Low, Close and the Wick's 50% (Real NQ Data), FundedEnigma.
Last verified: 2026-11-01. Written by Steve H.
Disclaimer: This page is for education only and is not financial advice. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. Past price behaviour does not guarantee future results.
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