Why gaps inside a single minute chart are real even though candles hide them
Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2026 7:01 am
A one-minute candle that opens at 1.0850 and closes at 1.0852 gives the impression of calm. Yet inside that bar, price might have gone to 1.0840 and back. The bar looks tame because only the open and close are emphasised, while the wicks may tell a different story.
Beyond wicks, some moves have no ticks in between. A thin pair can jump from one price to another with nothing traded at intermediate levels. That is a gap within the bar, and it matters because stops placed in that zone get filled at the new price.
Charts conceal this since they connect points with candle bodies. Only tick-level data exposes the jump, and testing on candle data hides the risk of those gaps entirely.
For stop placement, that means treating the displayed range with caution. If past data shows regular jumps of several pips in a second, a stop placed closer than that is almost guaranteed to suffer slippage eventually.
Are stops chosen with tick-level jumps in mind, or by candle ranges alone?
Beyond wicks, some moves have no ticks in between. A thin pair can jump from one price to another with nothing traded at intermediate levels. That is a gap within the bar, and it matters because stops placed in that zone get filled at the new price.
Charts conceal this since they connect points with candle bodies. Only tick-level data exposes the jump, and testing on candle data hides the risk of those gaps entirely.
For stop placement, that means treating the displayed range with caution. If past data shows regular jumps of several pips in a second, a stop placed closer than that is almost guaranteed to suffer slippage eventually.
Are stops chosen with tick-level jumps in mind, or by candle ranges alone?