The degree of overlap between adjacent candles. High friction means contested, slow progress. Low friction means clean directional stacking.
Full Explanation
Friction is a candle-level observation — it describes what is happening between one candle and the next. High friction means each candle revisits much of the prior candle's range. Opens and closes interleave. Progress is slow. Neither side is consistently overrunning the other. Low friction means each candle picks up near where the prior one closed and pushes further into new territory. One side is consistently claiming and keeping ground. Friction is a sliding scale, and what matters most is whether it is increasing or decreasing — a shift in friction is often the earliest signal that the market's behavior is changing.