Doji Candle

A doji candle is a candlestick whose open and close are at or very near the same price, so it has almost no body and shows only wicks.

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Last updated 27 October 2026

A doji candle is a candlestick that opens and closes at, or very near, the same price. The body is a thin line or tiny block, so mostly you see wicks. "Doji candlestick" means the same thing. The wicks show how far price travelled before it returned to the opening level.

The doji is a chart-reading convention with no official definition, so "very near" is a judgement call, usually made by comparing the body with the candle's own range. The parts of a candle are in the candlestick anatomy lesson.

What does a doji show?

A doji shows that price finished the period close to where it started. Price may have travelled far in between, and the wicks record that. MetaTrader 5 charts can be drawn as Japanese candlesticks, each summarising one timeframe period, so a doji describes that one period only.

What are the common doji shapes?

The three common doji shapes are the long-legged doji, the dragonfly doji and the gravestone doji, named by where the tiny body sits in the range. These are informal labels. Traders read each one with the trend before it and the candle after it.

Three doji candles side by side: a long-legged doji with long wicks both ways, a dragonfly doji with a long lower wick and its open and close near the high, and a gravestone doji with a long upper wick and its open and close near the low
All three dojis open and close at almost the same price; where that price sits in the range gives each its name.

Worked example: a doji on USDZAR

Worked example. A four-hour USDZAR candle opens at 18.0500, reaches a high of 18.1200, falls to a low of 17.9900 and closes at 18.0520. The body is 0.0020 and the range is 0.1300, so the body is about 1.5% of the range: a long-legged doji.

On a 0.01 lot (1,000 USD), the body is worth about R2 and the full range about R130. Price travelled far, yet the candle finished almost where it began. The pip value calculator works out values for other pairs.

How does a doji show in MetaTrader 5?

A doji shows in MetaTrader 5 as a candle with a thin line or very small body, which you spot by eye on a candlestick chart. Press Alt+2 for candlesticks. MetaTrader 5 documents no doji setting. Bull and bear candle colours are user settings, so a doji's tiny body may take either colour.

How do traders read a doji?

Traders read a doji with its context and the candle that follows. It is often called "indecision": price moved and finished where it started. After a long run of candles in one direction, a doji shows that run pausing, and the next candle's close shows which way price went from there.

Inside a quiet range, dojis are common and add little.

Does a doji candle signal a reversal?

No: a doji alone does not signal a reversal, because dojis appear mid-move, in quiet ranges and around news as well as at turns. Traders wait for the next candle's close and check the timeframe before reading anything into one. For other named shapes, see the hammer candlestick, the morning star candlestick and Heikin Ashi charts.

Sources

Learn it properly in the full lesson: Candlestick Chart: What It Is and How to Read One

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