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1995issue C061-6

Real-body support, resistance, and close-through breakouts

A candlestick period is drawn from open, high, low, and close, with the real body as the open-to-close span. Mapping clustered real-body highs and lows as support and resistance separates a failed pierce from a later close through the body.

  • The real body is the open-to-close rectangle of a candle period; shadows mark any extreme beyond that span.
  • Support and resistance can be marked from clustered real-body lows and highs instead of session lows and highs.
  • A later session may trade through a prior real-body extreme and still fail the level if it closes back on the original side of that body.
  • A break of real-body support or resistance is counted only after a later real body closes through the level.
Entries in this reading3 entries

What a real body records

A candlestick period is drawn from open, high, low, and close, with the open-to-close span as the real body and any extreme beyond that span as a shadow.

A real body is filled when the open is above the close and left open when the close is above the open. Equal open and close produce a doji drawn as one horizontal line.

Editorial: treat the real body as the accepted print of the period and the shadow as rejected exploration beyond that print. A missing wick is a shaved candle.

Real-body support and resistance

Candlestick construction can be applied to a Western support-and-resistance map by marking clustered real-body highs and lows instead of session highs and lows.

Real-body support is a support area marked by clustered real-body lows rather than by session lows. Real-body resistance is a resistance area marked by clustered real-body highs rather than by session highs.

Real-body support and resistance bands are narrower than high-low bands, so a close-through test can be stated earlier than the same test measured at the wicks.

Close-through as the breakout count

A break of real-body support or resistance is counted only after a later real body closes through the level.

A close-through breakout is a penetration of a real-body level counted only after a later real body closes through that level, not after a trade through the body that later closes back on the original side.

Real-body resistance: failed pierces and a close-through

Session closes stay under the later real-body line through several wick pierces; only the last bar closes through that line and counts as the breakout. Highs mark the rejected tests above the line. Highs, closes, and the two horizontals were read from the ten-candle teaching pane, not from a table.
Session closes stay under the later real-body line through several wick pierces; only the last bar closes through that line and counts as the breakout. Highs mark the rejected tests above the line. Highs, closes, and the two horizontals were read from the ten-candle teaching pane, not from a table.daily

The pane is an unlabeled teaching schematic, not a named contract. Prices are approximate to the nearest few points, which is as fine as the printed scale will support.

Age, approach, and repeated touches

Levels only a few sessions old are described as fade tests on an intraday pierce, while older, more distant levels are described as approach tests that need not wait for a close-through.

Repeated touches increase a real-body level's importance, yet several slight penetrations also raise the chance that the next close-through is a genuine breakout.

Reversal shapes and how the map is used

Isolated candle reversal shapes, including tweezers and shooting-star forms, are treated as incomplete in a strong trend and as context that can argue against fading a nearby real-body level. Tweezers are a two-peak candlestick pairing used as a double-top analogue. A shooting-star is a candlestick reversal shape used as a warning before a later breakdown.

The same real-body map is described as supplying short-horizon counteraction tests, earlier entries into longer-horizon positions, and earlier recognition of close-through breakouts inside a trend.

Educational research material, not investment advice. Historical source context does not establish present-day performance.
9 of 54 in the Candlestick patterns track
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All readings on this track · 54 readings
  1. 1990Constructing three-session rally and reaction volume signals
  2. 1991Constructing candlestick real bodies and multi-session patterns
  3. 1991Treat a candlestick reversal as incomplete until %D confirms it
  4. 1991Filtering candlestick signals with stochastic percent-D
  5. 1991Constructing compressed candlestick summaries
  6. 1993Intraday candlestick confirmation with oscillators
  7. 1993Candlestick hypotheses from a 1993 reading list
  8. 1994License candlestick signals with oscillators and weekly vetoes
  9. 1995Real-body support, resistance, and close-through breakouts
  10. 1997Weekly reversal as a three-part hypothesis
  11. 1998Turning fear levels into testable rules with a psychological matrix
  12. 2000Evaluating three-bar reversal reliability
  13. 2000Prior-day candles, open confirmation, and same-session stops
  14. 2000Intraday candlestick volume confirmation for daytrading
  15. 2001Count the key reversal up before coding a mechanical exit
  16. 2001Rising and falling three continuation candle construction
  17. 2002Treat a moving average as a contested fence
  18. 2003Candlestick signals need support and a risk-reward screen
  19. 2003Constructing one-day reversal tops and bottoms
  20. 2003Chart sentiment as a regime filter for hourly stochastic entries
  21. 2004Confirming index reversals with candlesticks, stochastics and averages
  22. 2004The harami inner close as a reversal barometer
  23. 2004Constructing a true-range volume power-shift filter
  24. 2005Weighing reversal clusters against moving-average support
  25. 2005Candlestick exits confirmed by overbought stochastics
  26. 2005Confirming piercing patterns with stochastics and moving averages
  27. 2006Candlestick cluster exits confirmed by overbought stochastics
  28. 2007Three black crows become a trade hypothesis only after regime, trend and nearby levels
  29. 2008Asymmetrical RSI lookbacks for divergence and candle confirmation
  30. 2008A permission checklist for the end of a trend
  31. 2010Mechanical entries still need confirmation gates
  32. 2010Crude oil as a case study in candlestick session reading
  33. 2010Gold weekly candles and the thousand resistance breakout
  34. 2010A three-layer gold chart drill from waves to candle confirmation
  35. 2011Why entry scans fail without trend filters
  36. 2011Price-zone oscillator trend-regime rules
  37. 2011A candlestick checklist before commodity entries
  38. 2013Step candle construction at price turning points
  39. 2013Two-bar step-candle construction
  40. 2014Small-range bars as a timed volume-climax hypothesis
  41. 2014Constructing volume-scaled candlestick charts
  42. 2015Weekly range midpoints as support and resistance
  43. 2015Constructing weekly body-midpoint pattern codes
  44. 2015Evaluating encoded candlestick sequence hypotheses
  45. 2015Constructing a breakout relative-strength index from two-day range candles
  46. 2016A three-gate classroom on hourly sterling
  47. 2016Fibonacci retracement as a pre-commitment stop map
  48. 2017Nine-zone filter for decade-level breakouts
  49. 2017Constructing pin-bar and inside-bar setups
  50. 2017Two-bar soldier and crow rules become a system only after filters and exits
  51. 2017Confirm a one-white-soldier or one-black-crow before entry
  52. 2018Session control from marubozu and engulfing geometry
  53. 2019Volume, acceleration, and candle filters on a completed double bottom
  54. 2019Sector-filtered candlestick scans and predrawn stops
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