Candlesticks

Hi just wondering if anyone uses candlesticks as an indicator for entry and exits.
If so do you use them with other indicators and how accurate do you find them?
Thanks:?

There are many threads regarding candlesticks, more than you can shake a candlestick at.
Just use the search function.

To do this seriously and usuccessfully, you could invest in Steve Nison's books Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques and Beyond Candlesticks, plus Street Smarts by Laurence Connors and Linda Bradford Raschke. Candlesticks are great indicators on their own but MAs are helpful to confirm trends, possible support/resistance levels. Monitoring the major indices is also a useful exercise - along the simplistic lines of why be a buyer of the US is selling?
There are over 100 TA indicators with infinite permutations of settings but I wouldn't waste much time on them.

Hello buddy,
Try thepatternsite.com or play an online game called candlestick warrior. this game will enhancebothe sides of your brain as well

just1on said:

Hello buddy,
Try thepatternsite.com or play an online game called candlestick warrior. this game will enhancebothe sides of your brain as well

Click to expand...

Thanks for the first one. Very useful on the face of it, will have to spend some time going through it all.

The second one I cannot take seriously because they're using "Web 2.0" or the infinite-scrolling-look-at-my-rags-to-riches-story-here-are-some-testimonials page design, which is idiotic, professionally-speaking. I hate such sites.

You could just learn what a Harami is and stop your education there.There are many traders that make a living off that one candlestick.

Thanks for your replies.
I was actually after personal experiences from traders who may wish to give feedback on how effective candlestick patterns are as a trading tool.
Thanks
The ox is slow but the earth is patient.

You calling us oxen??? Moooooo!

Ok, I use them as do others and they seem to work but they are no guarantee. It's about probabilities. Also bear in mind the lack of accuracy involved... if you like trade to the precise pip you're gonna miss a lot of opportunities and take a lot of losses.

tomorton said:

To do this seriously and usuccessfully, you could invest in Steve Nison's books Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques and Beyond Candlesticks, plus Street Smarts by Laurence Connors and Linda Bradford Raschke. Candlesticks are great indicators on their own but MAs are helpful to confirm trends, possible support/resistance levels. Monitoring the major indices is also a useful exercise - along the simplistic lines of why be a buyer of the US is selling?
There are over 100 TA indicators with infinite permutations of settings but I wouldn't waste much time on them.

Click to expand...

Harami - yes

But also doji and spinning tops at s/r.

IMO there are only a few candle set ups you need to know. You will

go loopy and miss the point if you try and learn them all.

tomorton can you expand - 'Monitoring the major indices is also a useful exercise - along the simplistic lines of why be a buyer of the US is selling?'

Some rules of thumb can be applied which all basically mean the same thing - trade with the trend. The trend is not just what you see on the one chart for your chosen instrument. So, the FTSE will follow the Dow, the CAC follows the FTSE, the Dow follows the Dow Transportation, the Dow and the S&P follow the Nasdaq 100, the FTSE follows the banks, the Dow follows the $, miners follow gold, airlines follow oil - and so on for ever. These things tend to have some correlations to each other so if you can see signs of an imminent collapse in the Dow/S&P, the FTSE will probably follow and even if the company you are thinking of buying in the UK market is unknown in the US, its price will be very unlikely to go the opposite way to the rest of the market for long.

Of course, its not always wrong to buy the only rising bank in the FTSE banking sector, but you need a damn good reason to do so and need to acknowledge that the risk is that much higher if you do. And proving you are right and the market is wrong should just never be an objective for traders who are uin it for the long run.

Candlesticks Intraday;
pay less attention to them on small TF.
Run away from stalks.
Spinny top things can be a great breakout play.

Try to understand why they look the way they do. that doesnt always mean read 500 books on it.

Be wary or some higher TFs such as 4hr and dailies. These should be more reliable but its difficult in my mind for the world to agree on what the start of one of these is. I.e 0 GMT, +5GMT etc and so you get a slightly restricted view of them.

They still rock but aint the be all and end all.