What is Doji?

A candle that opens and closes at nearly the same price — indecision, and a warning that the current push is losing force.

A doji is a candlestick whose open and close are at or very near the same price, leaving little or no body — just wicks. It records a period in which buyers and sellers fought to a draw: price may have travelled far in both directions, but neither side could hold the ground by the close. Variants carry their own nuance: the long-legged doji shows violent indecision, the dragonfly doji shows a lower push fully rejected, and the gravestone doji shows an upper push fully rejected.

A doji's message depends entirely on what came before it. After a long directional run, a doji at a meaningful level — resistance, a supply zone, a swept high — suggests the driving side is exhausted and a pause or turn may follow. In the middle of a quiet range, a doji says almost nothing, because indecision inside indecision is not news. Treat the doji as a question mark rather than a signal: it asks whether the trend still has fuel, and the candle that follows it, plus the location, usually provides the answer worth acting on.