Hi all,

What do the up/down arrows mean?

The stroke has a break. Can someone tell me why it happened and how to get it smooth?

Thanks.

These arrows are usually indicators/handles of Transformation tools, but it looks to me like you converted a shape (most likely ellipse) to the path and now you have two nodes, close to each other.

This gap usually happens unintentionally when you move rounded node at the right. Easiest way to solve this is to undo transformation, select the object, click on the ellipse tool and chose Close shape from the Ellipse toolbar. Than you shall proceed with the converting to path.