Wick (Shadow)

### What a wick actually is The wick, also called the shadow, is the thin line poking out above or below the body. It marks the furthest price traded during that candle before getting pushed back to the close. Read it as ground taken and then lost. An upper wick is territory buyers reached and could not hold. A lower wick is territory sellers reached and could not hold. Long upper wick = price pushed up then sold off. Long lower wick = price pushed down then bought back. The longer the wick, the harder the rejection. A series of wicks at the same level is price telling you where rejection is happening. ### Where the wick is load-bearing in this system Wicks are not decoration here. Three of the system's hard rules are written in terms of them. - **The break rule measures from the wick.** A true break of structure is a close with at least 50 percent of the candle body past the *wick* of the structure point, not past its body. You measure to the extreme, which is the stricter reading. - **A poke past a level that closes back inside is a wick test, not a break.** No exceptions, and no relaxed standard on the small timeframes. A 1M, 3M or 5M break has to clear the same 50 percent bar as anything else. - **A sweep is a wick.** In the No Close Plus Sweep model, price wicks beyond the protected level, taking out the stops resting just past it, then closes back inside. Same shape gives you the alternate valid pathway at protected structure: wick beyond the level, no close beyond it, then a rejection candle. ### The wick and your stop Your stop covers protected structure by at least 2 pips, preferably exactly 2. That buffer exists because of wicks. Tighter than 2 and an ordinary wick clips you out of a trade that was actually fine. Wider than necessary and you bleed risk-to-reward, which is the math the whole system runs on. The same tolerance runs the other way on entries. A rejection candle can present in the general area of the protected level. Do not throw away a clean setup because the wick stopped a pip short. Read the area, not the pixel. ### The mistake beginners make Reading a wick on a live candle. A live candle can show a beautiful rejection wick and then close straight through the level. A wick is only information once the candle has closed. Module 9, Lesson 4: Structure Rules and Lesson 5: Protected Structure Anatomy.