# Scanning the candle body, not the close > Most scans read the close and ignore the rest of the candle. abs(), greatest() and least() in Sift let a scan describe the body: its size against the stock's own norm, and where the whole of it sits. Three ready NSE scans. Canonical: https://patternsradar.com/blog/scanning-the-candle-body-not-the-close Published 2026-08-29. `close > sma(20)` is true whether the stock opened far above the average and sold off all day to end just over it, or opened underneath and rallied through. Those are opposite sessions. A scan that reads the close alone cannot tell them apart, and for a long time neither could mine. A candle has four prices. The body, open to close and ignoring the wicks, is the part of the session that got decided rather than merely visited. It takes one arithmetic function to put that into a scan. ## The body's size `abs(close - open)` is the body in rupees, in either direction. On its own that is useless across a universe where one stock trades at ₹40 and another at ₹4,000, so compare it against the stock's own norm: ``` where abs(close - open) > 2x avg(abs(close - open), 20) ``` A body more than twice its own 20-day average size. The scale adapts to each name, because a 4% body is ordinary in a small-cap that swings around and extraordinary in a large-cap that does not. It says nothing about direction, which I consider a feature: a decisive down day carries as much information as a decisive up day. The math functions compose with everything, which is what keeps that query to one line. `abs(close - open)` is a value, `avg(…, 20)` will take any value, and `2x` is the same multiple sugar that works on volume. Sift has ten of these: `abs`, `ceil`, `floor`, `round`, `square`, `sqrt`, `log`, `log10`, `greatest` and `least`. The [language reference](https://patternsradar.com/docs/sift.md) lists them all. In practice `abs` and the last two do nearly all the work. ## Where the body sits `greatest(open, close)` is the top of the body and `least(open, close)` is its bottom, whichever way the candle went. That turns "the stock pulled back to between its two averages" from a statement about the close into a statement about the whole session: ``` where greatest(open, close) < sma(20) and least(open, close) > sma(50) ``` The stock opened and closed under the 20-day, and opened and closed above the 50-day. A candle that pierced the 50-day in the morning and recovered does not qualify, because its `least` is under the line. Neither does one that spent the day above the 20 and dipped under it at the close. Only a session that lived entirely inside the band gets through. That is a far more specific pullback than `close between sma(50) and sma(20)`, and a close-only screener has no way to describe it. ## Three ready scans Each is a preset you can open, run and edit. Every scan page carries a hit-rate replay over the past year of NSE sessions, close-to-close and without costs, so you can see what past matches did before relying on it. **[Wide-body candle](https://patternsradar.com/screener/wide-body-candle.md)**, the decisive session, biggest first: ``` where abs(close - open) > 2x avg(abs(close - open), 20) and rel_volume > 1.5 sort by abs(close - open) / open desc ``` The volume condition separates a real repricing from a thin stock drifting a long way on nothing. The sort divides the body by the open to rank in percentage terms, so a ₹4,000 stock and a ₹40 stock get compared fairly. Read the direction off the sign of the day's change. **[Candle between the 20 and 50](https://patternsradar.com/screener/pullback-between-averages.md)**, the whole-body pullback inside a trend: ``` where greatest(open, close) < sma(20) and least(open, close) > sma(50) and sma(50) > sma(200) ``` The third line is the trend filter. I left it off the first time I wrote this one and got back a list of stocks passing through their averages on the way down. **[Whipsaw stocks](https://patternsradar.com/screener/whipsaw-stocks.md)** applies `abs` to the daily change rather than to the body: ``` where count(abs(change) > 3, 20) >= 5 ``` `change` is the day's percentage move. `abs` folds the two directions into one. `count` asks how many of the last twenty sessions moved more than 3% either way, and five or more is a stock being repriced violently and often. I use it mostly as a list of names to avoid, since a stop inside a 3% band on these is a coin toss. The `count` function has [its own guide](https://patternsradar.com/blog/count-the-bars-scans-for-most-of-the-time.md). Alongside these, the older **[Marubozu on volume](https://patternsradar.com/screener/marubozu-conviction.md)** scan gets at body size through pattern detection instead. A marubozu is a candle that is nearly all body and no wick, and the detector finds it without any arithmetic. The two approaches answer different questions. The pattern answers "was this a conviction candle". The arithmetic answers "how big was it against this stock's own norm, and rank them for me". ## Two things to know Where a function is undefined, `sqrt` of a negative number or `log` of zero, it reads as empty rather than failing, so one odd row cannot abort a scan across the whole table. An empty value never matches a condition, which is the rule every other empty field follows. A math call takes no bar offset. `abs(close - open)[-1]` is refused. The offset goes on the fields instead, `abs(close[-1] - open[-1])`, which is yesterday's body. One rule for where `[-1]` may appear beats two. ## Run the scans from this guide Each opens live on today's data, and each can be replayed against a year of sessions before you trust it. - [Wide-body candle](https://patternsradar.com/screener/wide-body-candle.md): A candle body more than twice its 20-day average on heavy volume, biggest body first. - [Candle between the 20 and 50](https://patternsradar.com/screener/pullback-between-averages.md): The whole candle body sits under the 20-day average and above the 50-day, with the 50 above the 200. A pullback that has broken nothing. - [Whipsaw stocks](https://patternsradar.com/screener/whipsaw-stocks.md): Five or more of the last twenty sessions moved over 3% either way. A stop in these names gets hit on noise. - [Marubozu on volume](https://patternsradar.com/screener/marubozu-conviction.md): A bar with almost no wicks on above-average volume. One side held the session end to end. --- Price and delivery data from the [eod2](https://github.com/BennyThadikaran/eod2) dataset: National Stock Exchange of India end-of-day files, split- and bonus-adjusted, updated after each close. Not affiliated with or endorsed by NSE. PatternsRadar is a research tool. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell anything.