Candlestick patternsMarubozu
A full-bodied candle with no wicks — one side dominated from open to close.
Works in most conditionsEngine-computed on a fixed sample series
What it is
A marubozu is a candlestick that shows total, one-sided control of a session, and its name comes from a Japanese word meaning bald or shaven, because the candle has no wicks. It is all body and no shadow: a bullish marubozu opens at the low of the session and closes at the high, meaning buyers drove price up relentlessly from the first tick to the last, while a bearish marubozu opens at the high and closes at the low, meaning sellers dominated every moment. The absence of shadows is the whole point, because it proves that the winning side never gave up any ground during the session. For a beginner, the marubozu is the purest single-candle expression of raw, uncontested strength in one direction. It stands in sharp contrast to a doji, which shows a stalemate, whereas the marubozu shows a rout.
How it is formed
A marubozu forms when the open and one extreme of the range coincide, and the close and the other extreme coincide, leaving no wick on either end. In a bullish marubozu the open equals the low and the close equals the high, so the entire candle is a solid up-body with flat top and bottom. In a bearish marubozu the open equals the high and the close equals the low, producing a solid down-body. In practice, purists demand no shadows at all, while many traders accept a near-marubozu with only tiny nubs of wick, treating the message as essentially the same. The defining requirement is that the real body spans virtually the entire range of the session, so that price moved in one direction from open to close with negligible retracement.
Reading it, step by step
The marubozu is a raw strength signal, so a bullish one shows relentless buying that swept the session and a bearish one shows relentless selling. Its meaning depends heavily on where it appears relative to the trend. In the direction of an existing trend it reads as powerful continuation, confirming that the dominant side remains fully in control and the move is likely to extend. Appearing against a trend, especially after a pause or at a support or resistance level, it can signal a forceful reversal as a new side seizes command decisively. Because there is no wick, the candle's range frames risk cleanly, with the losing extreme marking a natural line that, if breached, invalidates the strength the candle displayed. The size of the marubozu also matters, since a large one after a quiet stretch is a more emphatic statement than a modest one.
Best timeframes and settings
As a candlestick, the marubozu has no numeric parameters, but the timeframe shapes its significance, and it carries the most weight on daily and weekly charts where a full session or week of one-sided control is meaningful. On very low intraday timeframes marubozu candles form constantly and mean little individually, because a few minutes of one-way movement is common noise. Swing and position traders find them most useful as confirmation of breakouts and trend continuation on higher timeframes. A marubozu that closes a session or forms on a breakout bar is more significant than one buried mid-range. The one contextual setting that matters is location: a marubozu at a breakout level, a support or resistance zone, or the start of a trend is far more actionable than one that appears in the middle of aimless chop.
When and where to use it
The marubozu is a strength and momentum signal useful in both trending and reversing contexts, so it fits many market conditions, but it is most powerful confirming breakouts and trend continuation. It appears across all liquid markets because it reflects universal one-sided conviction in the auction. Use it to validate that a breakout through a level has genuine force, since a marubozu closing beyond resistance shows buyers overwhelmed the level without hesitation. It is also useful as a reversal cue when it appears decisively against a tiring trend at a key level. Avoid chasing a large marubozu blindly into an obvious support or resistance zone, where the very candle that looks strongest may be a climactic last surge rather than a continuation.
Strategies that use it
A continuation strategy trades in the marubozu's direction on a break of its extreme: after a bullish marubozu in an uptrend, buy on a move above its high, placing the stop at the candle's low so the clean range defines risk. A breakout strategy uses a marubozu that closes beyond a resistance or support level as confirmation of a genuine break, entering in the direction of the break with a stop back inside the prior range. A reversal strategy watches for a large marubozu against a tired trend at a key level, entering in the new direction once price clears the candle's far extreme. Because the marubozu has no wick, every one of these strategies enjoys an unusually clean stop placement at the losing end of the candle, making risk easy to define.
Combining it with other indicators
The marubozu gains reliability when combined with volume, since a strength candle backed by a surge in volume is far more convincing than one on thin trade. Support and resistance levels give it context, so a bullish marubozu breaking through resistance is a stronger continuation signal than one in open space. Trend tools such as moving averages or the ADX confirm whether a marubozu is aligned with a genuine trend for continuation or standing against a tiring one for reversal. Momentum oscillators like the RSI help judge whether the candle is forming from a fresh condition or from an already overextended one where a climax is possible. The consistent principle is to confirm the marubozu's raw strength with participation, location, and trend context before assuming the move continues.
Where it fails
The classic failure is that a big, decisive candle can mark a climax rather than a continuation, the last exhausting surge before the move reverses, so chasing a marubozu blindly, especially into support or resistance, is risky. Traders often treat the candle's obvious strength as a guarantee and enter without confirmation, only to see the follow-through fail. On low timeframes marubozu candles are so common that trading each one is meaningless. Thin volume can also produce a marubozu that looks powerful but reflects little real participation. The safeguards are to demand follow-through beyond the candle's extreme before committing, to check that volume supports the move, to be especially cautious of marubozu candles into major levels where a climax is likely, and to use the clean stop at the candle's opposite end to keep failures cheap.
A worked example
A stock has been consolidating just beneath resistance at seventy for a week, and on a session of heavy volume it opens right at sixty-eight-fifty, which is the low, and closes at seventy-one-fifty, the high, with no wicks, a large bullish marubozu that closes decisively above the seventy resistance. The strong body and the elevated volume confirm that buyers overwhelmed the level without giving back any ground. You wait for a touch of follow-through and enter long the next session at seventy-two as price ticks above the marubozu's high, placing your stop at sixty-eight-forty just beneath the candle's low, so the clean range defines about three-sixty of risk. Price continues higher to seventy-eight over the following sessions, and you trail your stop upward, having used the marubozu's breakout close as confirmation and its wickless range for a precise, well-defined stop.