The candlestick visualization allows you to visualize data that includes a number of consistent dimensions focused on price movements, such as stock prices. The candlestick visualization includes an [Open-High-Low-Close (OHLC) mode](#open-high-low-close), as well as support for additional dimensions based on time series data.
You can use a candlestick if you want to visualize, at a glance, how a price moved over time, whether it went up, down, or stayed the same, and how much it fluctuated:
Each candlestick is represented as a rectangle, referred to as the _candlestick body_. The candlestick body displays the opening and closing prices during a time period. Green candlesticks represent when the price appreciated while the red candlesticks represent when the price depreciated. The lines sticking out the candlestick body are referred to as _wicks_ or _shadows_, which represent the highest and lowest prices during the time period.
Use a candlestick when you need to:
- Monitor and identify trends in price movements of specific assets such as stocks, currencies, or commodities.
- Analyze any volatility in the stock market.
- Provide data analysis to help with trading decisions.
## Configure a candlestick
Once you’ve created a [dashboard](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/<GRAFANA_VERSION>/dashboards/build-dashboards/create-dashboard/), the following video shows you how to configure a candlestick visualization:
{{<figuresrc="/static/img/docs/candlestick-panel/candlestick.png"max-width="1065px"alt="A candlestick visualization showing the price movements of specific asset.">}}
- **Candles** is the default display style and creates candle-style visualizations between the open and close dimensions.
- **OHLC Bars** displays the four core dimensions open, high, low, and close values.
## Color strategy
- **Since Open** is the default behavior. This mode will utilize the _Up_ color (below) if the intra-period price movement is positive. In other words, if the value on close is greater or equal to the value on open, the _Up_ color is used.
- **Since Prior Close** is an alternative display method based where the color of the candle is based on the inter-period price movement or change in value. In other words, if the value on open is greater than the previous value on close, the _Up_ color is used. If the value on open is lower than the previous value on close, the _Down_ color is used. _This option also triggers the hollow candlestick visualization mode_. Hollow candlesticks indicate that the intra-period movement is positive (value is higher on close than on open), filled candlesticks indicate the intra-period change is negative (value is lower on close than on open). To learn more, see the [explanation of the differences](https://thetradingbible.com/how-to-read-hollow-candlesticks).
## Up & Down Colors
The **Up color** and **Down color** options select which colors are used when the price movement is up or down. Please note that the _Color strategy_ above will determine if intra-period or inter-period price movement is used to select the candle or OHLC bar color.
- **Volume** corresponds to the sample count in the given period. (for example, number of trades)
{{% admonition type="note" %}}
The candlestick visualization legend doesn't display these values.
{{% /admonition %}}
If your data can't be mapped to these dimensions for some reason (for example, because the column names aren't the same), you can map them manually using the **Open**, **High**, **Low**, and **Close** fields under the **Candlestick** options in the panel editor:
The candlestick visualization is based on the time series visualization. It can visualize additional data dimensions beyond open, high, low, close, and volume The **Include** and **Ignore** options allow it to visualize other included data such as simple moving averages, Bollinger bands and more, using the same styles and configurations available in the [time series][time series visualization] visualization.
