Section 6 · 9:30 AM Open
Reading the First Candle
One minute that tells you everything about the day's opening battle
One minute. Everything is in it.
The first candle — 9:30 to 9:31 — captures the opening battle between buyers and sellers in its purest form. A large green body closing near the high means buyers won from second one: aggressive, in control, and willing to pay up. A red body or long upper wick means sellers showed up immediately. The first candle sets the tone. Read it before you do anything else.
3 things to know
The 9:30–9:31 candle is the most information-dense single minute of the entire trading day.
A first candle closing in the top 25% of its range is a bullish signal; closing in the bottom 25% is bearish.
Volume on the first candle compared to the average 1-minute volume tells you whether institutions are present.
Dive Deeper
Key vocabulary — tap each card
Practice
Four First-Candle Types
Body size and wick length reveal who controlled the first minute
Did you know?
If the second candle breaks the first candle's high, this "first candle high breakout" is one of the cleanest momentum signals of the entire day.