Trading term

What is Marubozu?

A marubozu is a candle with a full body and no wicks at either end — it opens at one extreme of its range and closes at the other. The name is Japanese for 'bald', and it signals one side controlled the entire period.

In a bullish marubozu the open is the low and the close is the high: from the first tick to the last, buyers never allowed price below the opening level and never let it retreat from the high. A bearish marubozu is the reverse. In practice a candle with only trivial wicks is usually accepted as one.

The information is conviction. Most candles show a fight — a push up, a push back, wicks at both ends. A marubozu shows no such fight, which is why it's treated as one of the strongest single-candle momentum signals. It commonly appears on breakout days, on gap-and-go moves, and at the start of an impulsive leg.

Its weakness is the flip side of its strength. Because price closed at the extreme, there is no pullback within the candle to enter on, and the stop — the opposite end of the body — is a full candle's range away. The signal is clear; the entry is awkward.

One side owned the whole period
IN CONTEXTSmall, indecisive candles — then one side takes the whole period.ZOOMED INclose = the highall body, no wickopen = the lowbullish marubozuNo wicks at either end: it opened at the low and closed at the high.

The candle opens at its low of $44.90 and closes at its high of $50.20 with no wick at either end — the cleanest possible statement of control.

For example

After four small, indecisive candles around $45, a stock opens at $44.90, never trades below that, and closes at $50.20 — its high for the day, with no wick at either end. Buyers controlled every hour, and price continues up over the following sessions.

Go hands-on in Premium

That's Marubozu in theory — it clicks when you read it on a live chart. Practise it hands-on in the TradeWize Premium Technical Analysis track.

Explore Premium →

Why it matters to you

A marubozu is the cleanest read on conviction a single candle can give. A range that expands sharply with no rejection at either end usually means new information or a decisive break, and both tend to have follow-through — which makes it a useful confirmation that a breakout is real rather than a probe.

⚠ Great signal, awkward entry

Because the candle closes at its extreme, buying the close means buying the top of the move with a stop a whole range away — a poor risk-to-reward ratio however strong the signal. Marubozu candles are also frequently followed by a pullback as short-term traders take profit. Most traders use it as confirmation of a move rather than as an entry trigger.

Frequently asked questions

What is a marubozu candle?

It's a candle with no wicks — it opens at one end of its range and closes at the other. A bullish marubozu opens at its low and closes at its high; a bearish one opens at its high and closes at its low.

What does a marubozu indicate?

Strong conviction and one-sided control for the whole period. There was no meaningful push-back from the other side, which is why it often appears on breakout days and at the start of an impulsive move.

Does a marubozu need perfectly zero wicks?

In practice, no. A candle with only very small wicks relative to a large body is normally accepted as one. The point is that the body dominates almost the entire range, with no significant rejection at either end.

How do you trade a marubozu?

Most traders use it as confirmation rather than an entry, because buying the close means a stop a full range away. A common approach is to wait for a shallow pullback into the candle's range and use the marubozu's opposite extreme as the invalidation level.

Related terms

Anchored VWAPAnchored VWAP is a volume-weighted average price that starts from one candle you choose, rather than resetting at the start of each session. You anchor it to a meaningful event — an earnings gap, a major low, a breakout — and it tracks the average price everyone has paid since.Ascending triangleAn ascending triangle is a bullish continuation pattern: a flat horizontal resistance line on top, with a rising trendline of higher lows beneath it. As the higher lows squeeze price against the ceiling, pressure builds — and it usually resolves with a breakout up through the resistance.ATR (Average True Range)ATR (Average True Range) measures how much a security typically moves in a period — its volatility — as an average of recent trading ranges. It doesn't say which direction price is heading, only how far it tends to travel, which makes it a core tool for stop-losses and position size.Bearish engulfingA bearish engulfing is a two-candle reversal pattern in which an up candle is followed by a down candle whose body completely covers it. The second candle opens above the previous close and closes below the previous open.
← Back to the full glossary