# Session Candles

> Splits each day into three 8-hour sessions – Asia, London and New York – and draws each one as a large candle with its open, high, low and close behind the chart's candles.

Updated: 2026-10-29T10:10:24.000Z · https://chartrider.com/docs/indicators/session-candles/

## What you see
On charts below the 8-hour timeframe, three large candles per day behind the normal candles: **Asia** 00:00 to 08:00 UTC, **London** 08:00 to 16:00 UTC and **New York** 16:00 to 24:00 UTC (with `Day starts at` you shift all three by up to 7 hours). Each spans the full width of its session: the body from open to close – green when the session closed higher, red when lower – and the wick from high to low in the middle, with the session name above it. The running session grows live and already reserves its full width. The legend shows the session of the candle under the crosshair with its open, high, low and close.

## How it is calculated
A candle belongs to the session in which it opens. The session's open is the open of its first candle, high and low are the highest high and lowest low of its candles, and close is the close of its last candle so far. A session that started before the first loaded candle is not drawn, because its open would be wrong; scroll back to load it.

## How to read it
- Like an 8-hour chart on top of your timeframe: you see at a glance which session moved the market, which one reversed it and where each one opened.
- Typical patterns: Asia building a range that London breaks, London setting the high or low of the day that New York reverses, or New York continuing London's direction.
- A long wick shows a session that tried a direction and gave it back.

## Using it in strategies
Outputs: `open`, `high` and `low` of the current session up to this candle (running values, so a backtest only sees what was known), `prevOpen`, `prevHigh`, `prevLow` and `prevClose` of the previous session, `session` (0 Asia, 1 London, 2 New York) and `value`, which is the current session's open. In the [Trade Setup](https://chartrider.com/docs/strategies/trade-setup/), "Price vs line" on `value` keeps longs above the session open; "Compare" on `session` limits entries to one session. In [WickScript](https://chartrider.com/docs/wickscript/): `use indicator "Session Candles" as sc`, then for example `close crosses above sc.prevHigh and sc.session == 1`.

## Settings

Open the settings with the slider icon next to the indicator (Indicators, `F3`). Numeric settings can be swept as Step 1 / Step 2 parameters when you run a strategy.

### Inputs

| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day starts at (hours after 00:00 UTC) | Number | `0` | Shifts the start of all three sessions: 0 gives 00:00, 08:00 and 16:00 UTC, 1 gives 01:00, 09:00 and 17:00 UTC. (min 0, max 7) |

### Styles

| Setting | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rising session | Color | `#22c55e` | Color of sessions that closed above their open. |
| Falling session | Color | `#ef4444` | Color of sessions that closed below their open. |
| Body opacity | Number | `0.15` | Opacity of the bodies (0.02 to 1); wicks and outlines are drawn a bit stronger. (min 0.02) |
| Wicks | On/off | on | Line from the session's high to its low. |
| Session names | On/off | on | Session name above each candle. |

## Outputs

These values can be used in Trade Setup triggers, filters and exits (see [Trade Setup](https://chartrider.com/docs/strategies/trade-setup/)) and in WickScript.

| Output | In WickScript | Description |
|---|---|---|
| value | `value` | Open of the current session. |
| open | `open` | Open of the current session (open of its first candle). |
| high | `high` | Highest high of the current session up to this candle. |
| low | `low` | Lowest low of the current session up to this candle. |
| prevOpen | `prevOpen` | Open of the previous session. |
| prevHigh | `prevHigh` | High of the previous session. |
| prevLow | `prevLow` | Low of the previous session. |
| prevClose | `prevClose` | Close of the previous session. |
| session | `session` | Session of the candle: 0 Asia, 1 London, 2 New York. |

## Use in WickScript

`use indicator` creates this indicator inside a script, with settings by their ID. Each output is a field of the name after `as`. See [WickScript indicators](https://chartrider.com/docs/wickscript/indicators/).

```wickscript
wickscript 1
indicator "Session Candles from the list" on chart
use indicator "Session Candles" with offsetHours 0 as mySessioncandl
show mySessioncandl.value as line "value"
```