Spinning Top Candlestick Pattern: What It Signals

A spinning top sits in the same family as a doji, but it isn't quite the same thing. Where a doji's body shrinks to almost nothing, a spinning top has a small but real body, centered between two wicks of roughly similar length.

What it looks like

• A small body, positioned roughly in the middle of the candle's total range.
• An upper wick and a lower wick that are both noticeably longer than the body, and roughly equal to each other.
• The body's color (green or red) matters much less here than its size and position.

Read literally: price traveled a wide range in both directions during the period, but by the close it settled close to where it opened. Both buyers and sellers pushed hard; neither one won by much.

Why the wicks are the story

The long wicks on both sides are what separate a spinning top from an ordinary small-bodied candle. They show real volatility and real disagreement — this wasn't a quiet, low-conviction session. It was an active fight that simply ended close to a draw.

How to read one in context

• After a strong trend, a spinning top can mark the point where the move is running out of steam — the dominant side is no longer pushing through resistance easily.
• In a range-bound market, a spinning top is far less notable; wide, indecisive candles are just what that kind of market looks like.
• Clustered with other spinning tops or dojis, it adds up to a stronger case for genuine indecision at that level.

What it doesn't tell you

A single spinning top doesn't tell you which side will win next — only that the fight is closer than it looked a candle or two earlier. What happens immediately afterward, and where this is happening on the chart, is what turns "interesting" into "actionable."