Wicks are an interesting phenomenon in price candles formations and are a
part of every candle. Wicks can be formed on the top, bottom or both sides of a
candle, and they represent the highs and lows of that candle during that period
of time.
What is important to remember after reading this article is that the wicks
are basically 'rejection' areas where the market simply rejected the prices of the
wick. It is important to note that we are talking about the "Close"
of the candle and the wicks it forms after candle closes. it is the final and
permanent shape of the candle.
When you see a long wick, it clearly confirms that market participants rejected
the price move in that direction during that period of time, therefore, prices
weren't accepted. Whereas, if prices were accepted, then the price would remain
there for a decent amount of time and most probably close somewhere around
there. And since the relationship between "when" and "what"
is considered a crucial one in business, however, its importance rises in this
context, which is the market's rejection to the price value during that
specific period of time.
If we are talking about 5min charts here, then the wick formed is for only
relevant to 5 minutes charts, which are non-essential or of real impact.
However, when you start to look at 4 hour or daily charts, then they are of
great significance.
If you think about it, day traders are only witnessing two or three 4 hour
candles during a day. So in order to have a long wick on a 4 hour chart, then
forces behind the price move must be very strong and important which dominants
a trading session. And since day traders will rarely take notice of this move
because it take a long period of time to form - hence they will usually end up
trading against the price action trend, which basically supports the conflict
of interest theory between the retail investors and commercial brokers and
somehow explains it.
It is always preferable to use the 4 hour chart when working with strategy,
or when a long wick forms on the daily chart.
Take a look at any chart, notice how every time the index reversed, it did
so with a very long wick that tops or bottoms at the same price level. This
usually gives an idea that market participants simply did not accept prices at
these levels, simply because the supply didn't coincide with the demand at that
specific time frame (No participants), Therefore, sellers aggressively entered
the market quickly causing the pair to drop fast which was the confirmation of
the drop.
If a long wick is formed on a daily chart, day traders across all time zones
should take note of it and really be confident about their trade going against
the wick, especially given enough conviction via technical or fundamental
analysis. The main reason is that market participant has rejected that price
level that entire day. With that being said, hedge managers always incorporate
this approach to target range trading or breakouts, in both cases, these
guidelines serve as "Risk Management" principles if applied properly.
Since the wick represent the high and low price of a candle, and is an area
of "rejection", then the probability of trading inside the wick in
the very near future is pretty low, which means that trading within daily
candles' region is going to be less likely, and so your Stop Loss order.
It should be noted when analyzing price action that the market will usually
make a second attempt on the previous rejection level (wick's tail). If you
take a look at any currency chart, you will notice how these levels serve as
support levels. For that reason, when basing decision using the Wicks Strategy,
a trader should account for another test to the previous wick's tail; thus,
using the tail will offer a better risk/reward opportunity.
Wicks, a Guide on How to Cut Loss and Take Profit
Posted by CB Blogger
Blog, Updated at: 2:54 AM
