Marubozu candle
Also called: Marubozu, Bullish marubozu, Bearish marubozu, Opening marubozu, Closing marubozu, Marubozu mumu
A candle with no wicks, or almost none, made of body from end to end; it shows one side controlled price for the whole period.
4 min read · one puzzle on the page
What is a marubozu?
A marubozu is a candle with no wicks, or wicks so short next to its body that you can ignore them. The word is Japanese for bald or shaven head: neither end of the candle has any hair, meaning no wick.
A bullish marubozu opens at its low and closes at its high. During that candle price never dipped below the open and never gave anything back before the close. A bearish marubozu is the reverse: it opens at the high and closes at the low.
What it shows is a one-sided candle. At no point in that period could the other side push price back. That's why a marubozu shows strength. But where the strength appears says as much as the strength itself. A marubozu closing through the edge of a range and one at the end of an already stretched move don't tell the same story.
How do you spot a marubozu on a chart?
Start with the wicks. A candle that opens at 1.2600, trades down to 1.2599, up to 1.2648 and closes at 1.2647 is 49 pips tall with a 47-pip body. The two wicks add up to 2 pips. In practice that's a marubozu. Don't wait for zero wicks; in forex and crypto that's rare.
Then look at size. A marubozu should be clearly bigger than the recent candles. A wickless 6-pip candle in a quiet hour technically qualifies, but it tells you nothing.
Separate the open end from the close end. If there's no wick at the close, so the candle finished at its very high, buyers were in charge to the last second; that's called a closing marubozu. No wick at the open is an opening marubozu. A clean close end says more.
Finally, check where it is. If a marubozu closes above a resistance, the level was crossed on a close; that's a real break, not a wick poking through. The logical stop sits a little beyond the candle's far end. In the example above, buying at 1.2647 puts the stop under 1.2599, and 1R gets close to 50 pips.
Try it on a chart
This chart ends where price closes above the previous high on a strong-bodied candle; it may not be perfectly wickless like the textbook marubozu, but it asks the same question. Look at which side of the level the close sits on and where the idea would be proven wrong.
Price pushed above the previous high; the candle closed above it with a strong body. What's your call?
No sign-up needed. Take a guess; when the chart opens, you'll see why.
The most common marubozu mistake
Chasing the candle. A marubozu catches the eye and you want in at the close. But because the candle is large, its close is far from where the idea is proven wrong. Buy the close of a 50-pip candle and your stop is 50 pips away. With the same risk your position shrinks, and the ratio to your target gets worse.
That's why many traders wait for the pullback that follows rather than the breakout candle itself. If price returns to the level it broke and holds above it, the stop can sit just under the level. If it doesn't come back, you miss the trade. A missed trade costs less than one opened at a bad price.
The second mistake is pulling the stop to the middle of the candle. Put it halfway up the body to shorten the distance and an ordinary pullback takes you out. If the distance is long, the answer is a smaller position, not a tighter stop.
When does a marubozu mislead?
On news candles. A data release can drive price hard one way and print a big wickless candle. That's orders emptying out at once more than one side winning. The next few candles can take back half of it or all of it.
At the end of a stretched move. The biggest marubozu at the end of a run of rising candles is sometimes a sign of exhaustion, not strength. Late buyers pile in on that candle, and then there's no one left to buy.
When a level sits right in front of it. If a marubozu closes below a resistance without crossing it, the strength is heading into a wall. However big the candle, if the close stayed on the near side of the level, there's no breakout yet.
Frequently asked questions
What does a marubozu candle mean?
It shows one side controlled price from start to finish in that period. In a bullish marubozu price never went below the open and closed at the high; in a bearish one the reverse happened. It's a sign of strength, not a trade signal on its own. Where it appears and what price does next decide what it means.
Does a marubozu need to have no wicks at all?
The textbook definition is a wickless candle, but in forex and crypto, where price trades continuously, a true zero-wick candle is rare. In practice, if the wicks are tiny next to the body, it reads as a marubozu. The part that matters most is the close end: if the candle closed at its high or low without giving anything back, that's where the information is.
Should you enter right after a marubozu?
Usually waiting is healthier. Because a marubozu is a big candle, its close is far from the logical stop and 1R gets long. If price comes back to the level it broke and holds there, the stop gets shorter. It may also run without looking back, and then you miss it. Accepting that costs less over time than entering at a bad price.
