A photograph is not a movie
A photograph of a busy street cannot reveal everything that happened during an hour. A candle is also a summary of an interval, not a complete movie of price movement. Instead of memorizing pattern names, today we separate available information from guesses. The market photographs are real photos, but our exercise values are deliberately hypothetical and are not attributed to those photographed charts.
The four prices
Suppose the open is one hundred, the high one hundred and five, the low ninety-seven and the close one hundred and two. The body runs from one hundred to one hundred and two, so its length is two units. The upper wick measures three, and the lower wick also measures three. The full range is eight units. These measurements come from the four prices, not from a story about market news.
Two paths, the same candle
Consider two paths. The first moves from one hundred to one hundred and five, down to ninety-seven and finally to one hundred and two. The second visits ninety-seven first, then one hundred and five and closes at one hundred and two. Both produce the same candle, but their event order differs. The candle alone cannot establish which level was touched first.
Why that difference matters
If both the profit target and stop are inside that candle, the order of touches can change a test result. We must not silently choose the favorable sequence for every trade. More granular data and explicit execution assumptions are needed. This limitation is one reason a beautiful chart screenshot is insufficient evidence that a trading robot is profitable.
Timeframe and three separate statements
An hourly candle summarizes movement inside an hour; a five-minute candle exposes a different level of detail. Keep three statements separate. The close exceeded the open is an observation. Buying pressure was stronger is an interpretation. The next candle must rise is a forecast. They do not have the same evidential status. A green color alone is not permission to buy.
Second exercise and solution
Write these prices down: open fifty, high fifty-four, low forty-eight and close forty-nine. Body length? One unit. Full range? Six. Upper wick? Four. Lower wick? One. Did the high occur before the low? The four prices do not tell us. Describe five candles this way and label each interpretation as a hypothesis. Next we examine several candles together.
