Technical Analysis: Candlestick Basics
Background It is believed that Candlestick trading first appeared sometime during the 19th Century. The development of the Candlestick is credited to Japanese rice traders and it is more than likely that the concept evolved over many years into what we see on our charts today. Formation Just like the traditional Bar chart, each Candlestick displays an open, high, low and close over a given time period. Depending on the fill of the body you can tell at first glance whether the candle closed higher or lower than it opened. It is also important to pay attention to the high and low formations displayed by the shadows/ wick/ tails. These can form the basis of important Candlestick patterns that can help predict the future market direction. Candle Vs Bar Vs Line Most people prefer using a Bar or a Candlestick chart over a line chart because of the extra information displayed to the user. A line chart is unable to show highs and lows during a set time period and therefore it often fails to display vital information about the price action. As you can see from the picture below the same data over the same time period can look very different depending on the chart you use. The reason why an individual would generally prefer to use a Candlestick over a traditional Bar chart is completely aesthetical. After all, both are displaying the same data but the filled Vs hollow structure of a candle’s body is very easy on the eye and quick to interpret. Basic Interpretation of Bull Vs Bear A Candlestick is designed to draw you a picture of the battle between bull and bear, fear and greed and demand Vs supply. There are many different patterns, each with their own significant meaning but you can interpret the basics as follows: a) Long hollow/ filled Candles indicate that there was strong buying/ selling pressure during the given time period and the bulls/ bears were in complete control. b) Small hollow/ filled Candles indicate a lack of market volatility with neither the bulls nor the bears able to move the market. This could be due to an impending data release or lack of true market direction. c) Long lower shadows/ wick/ tails indicate the market was unable to maintain the selling pressure and hold for a close at low levels. This could be due to strong buying at important technical levels with the new low representing good support for the market. d) Long upper shadows/ wick/ tails indicates strong buying pressure that was unable to be sustained. As above it could be due to technical levels and represents good resistance for the market, especially if the candle printed with high volume. e) Long upper and lower shadows/ wicks/ tails indicate major market volatility and an inability of either the bulls or the bears to control the market. This often occurs at major data releases where the figures are unable to provide a clear indication to the future movement of the market. What a Candlestick Doesn’t Show You With these basic interpretations in mind we must now consider what a candle fails to show us that might be relevant to your interpretation on the price data. A Candle cannot show you which came first, the high or the low, or the order of events that occurred in-between. For example, a long filled candle shows selling pressure clearly overwhelming buying pressure but it could not alert you to a 50% retrace that occured during the day. There are multiple combinations of price action that could occur during the Candle’s set time period. One way to overcome this lack of information is to switch between time frames. For example, if you are observing a chart with Candlesticks on a one day time period you can change the period to one hour, fifteen minutes and one minute to get an increasingly detailed view of each days price action. The process of switching between time frames is a very popular and important one with technical analysts. Blended Candlesticks As you switch through the time frames you will notice that longer-term Candlestick patterns are made up of many smaller time framed Candles. This is known as blending. The example below shows the many fifteen-minute Candles that came together to form the long filled one-hour Candles. To read this article in full with diagrams please visit www.passion-trading.com and navigate to the Articles section. David Thorpe writes articles for http://www.passion-trading.com, a free educational resource for traders of all experience levels. Over the coming days, weeks and months more and more content will be added to the site which includes an article section and a dictionary. |
Other Currency Trading Articles
Currency-Trading: Finding Your Niche Currency-trading is quite similar to trading stocks on the market. While you may or may not have any familiarity with those options, you should know that trading in this form is quite popular and it keeps gaining in popularity. There are many reasons for that but in most cases it is popular because it works and is quite straightforward which m ...Online Currency Trading Modern monetary systems are far superior to the barter system people used in the old days. Inefficiency and lengthy negotiation were the main reason the barter system became obsolete. Later, bronze, silver and gold came to be used as mediums of exchange in trade.Globally, currency trading is a major business, and it is estimated that over ...Can You Become A Forex Introducing Broker? Any individual or company that has contacts with individuals or other companies who might be interested in trading forex online, either by themselves or through a forex broker can become a forex Introducing Broker.Below are some typical examples of companies that can become successful forex Introducing Brokers (IBs). This list is not e ...Trading Futures: The Wise Are Wary No doubt you’ve seen the late night commercials extolling the virtues of trading commodity futures. People have made millions with small investments almost overnight. Read the fine print: Results are not typical. Trading commodity futures can result in enormous profits but it is a tricky business. Only those with money they can afford to lose sh ...How to Choose the Best Forex Trading Course Before a person drives a car they learn how to drive. Before they achieve a professional license such as those needed by doctors, lawyers, insurance agents and real estate agents, a person must have training and education. It only makes sense that a person involved in the serious financial world, such as those involved in foreign currency trad ...Forex Mechanical Trading Systems That Make Money In essence forex mechanical trading systems are designed to make trading decisions for you. However is letting a software program that runs on auto pilot a good place to put your fiscal responsibilities as an investor?Obviously the idea of having trading software is irresistible to most people as it is very appealing to think of your deci ...Forex Signal Services What are Forex signals? Forex signals are paid services offered by some brokers and independent Forex annalists. Companies that offer forex signals monitor and analyze the market for you, providing you with their data via desktop alerts, email or even SMS and pager alerts.Forex signal services analyze several factors when preparing thei ...Forex Swing Trading with Elliott Wave When evaluating the forex market for swing trade opportunities the focus is placed on predicting directional changes or continuations for a given currency pair. For this we rely on technical analysis.In technical analysis, just as in fundamental analysis, there are lagging indicators and leading indicators. One of the most reliable tool ...Online FOREX Trading - The Secret of Building Huge Profits Quickly The secret of how to make big profits with online FOREX trading is staring traders in the face - but most traders don’t see it. The secret is ...Ignore the usual advice you are given, on how to make money in online FOREX trading - and do the opposite!Read each myth outlined below - which are touted as the great ways to make money o ...Brief Summary of Forex Trading The foreign exchange market is widely known as "Forex". Here brokerage firms and banks are linked over an electronic network. This network enables them to convert the currencies of countries all over the world. It is the largest and the chief liquid financial market in the world. Dollar volume of dealing of currencies daily goes beyond $1.9 tril ...The EURO 12 member countries of the European Union adopted the Euro in 1999. (Denmark, Sweden and UK are using their own currency only). Investors used to invest domestically mainly, but with the Euro introduction more investors are now attracted to euro areas. Euro is a floating exchange rate, therefore market demand and supply controls the value of the ...Forex Day Trading - Is It Too Good To Be True? A type of trading available in the Forex market is called Forex day trading. This financial trading option can be something that can definitely make trading work better for you. One of the biggest benefits of trading day currencies is that it is available twenty-four hours a day. This of course can give traders the obvious benefit of trading at ...Trading System - Is It Really Worth Your Money? If you want to get into trading, a trading system can help. It is often hard to know if failure or lack of success in trading is the result of poor marketing or lack of knowledge about trading systems; either way, if things start to falter you may end up thinking that the system you are considering looks like a get rich quick scheme.It pr ...Reflections of a Trader I must admit I love trading. I have loved it all my life. When I was about 8 years old I learned what the stock market was, I don't remember how I first learned of it. I do remember asking my Uncle about it all the time. I suppose he may have introduced it to me. He showed me how to interpret the stock prices, that were published in the newspape ...Forex Brokerage Firms Foreign exchange brokerage firms play a crucial role in currency markets. They provide momentum to currency markets in various ways, such as by offering an interface to sellers and buyers of currencies and by executing transactions at their behest. They also offer margin account services, under which small traders can take much larger positions ...Knowing What a Forex Futures Trading Is All About Forex trading is simply the marketing of currencies. Forex means foreign exchange. Investors will be buying currency pairs and hopes to earn with the exchange. Forex trading tends to be risky. But that’s an acceptable part of making money through it.Now when the word “futures” is attached to it, it becomes a market that involves a specifi ...Winning at Commodity Trading Commodity Exchanges offer the facilities for the organized marketing of most commodities. These include grain, wheat, cocoa, sugar, soya beans, wool and livestock. It also includes metals and minerals, such as gold, silver, copper and tin.The rationale behind this marketplace is to allow commodity producers to sell their produce in adv ...10 Common Mistakes In Trading I would like to talk about 10 common mistakes in trading. New traders are often unaware of what is required in trading and the bad habits that can lead to financial suicide.1. Under capitalization - One of the first mistake I made when beginning to trade was being under capitalized. I started with a $10K account without any idea on how to ...Mazu E-currency Exchange If you are like many of the thousands of people trying to make money online today, then you are probably trying to find a program that works. I have tried Quixstar, Market America and Amway, all of which require you to build a down line and sell a product. The one and only program that I found to work is the e-currency exchange program.E ...Feel the Gold Rush with Gold Coins A lot of people find collecting gold coins as not only an incredibly interesting hobby but a fairly lucrative one as well! Over time, your collection will accure value and parts of it can be sold if you desire. This way, you will have additional income for yourself later in life in addition to a fantastic collection of valuable coins.1. F ...How to Achieve Currency Trading Success: Part 1 Currency trading success can be achieved by anyone, as everything about trading currencies can be specifically learned, by any trader wishing to put it in the time and effort to do so.Trading currencies successfully is a combination of two factors:Firstly, you need a successful trading method for long term currency trading success ...Killer Forex Trading Strategy for Beginners If you've just begun trading Forex, you probably want all the help you can get. Though Forex trading can be very lucrative, you'll want a Forex winning system that will work for you. There are several Forex killer systems available just as there are in marketing, sales, and other forms of business. You must find the Forex strategy that works for ...Forex Day Trading Systems Usually, we associate trading with purchasing a commodity, bringing it home or to our business premises, and then selling it. Similarly, we purchase stocks and shares in the stocks and shares market, hold them until their value increases and then sell them off.Times have changed, and now trading can be done on a daily or even hourly basis ...Stock Day Trading In order to trade stocks during the day, you need to know what to look for in the stocks you are buying or selling. The attributes that you should be concerned with are liquidity, volume, volatility and price transparency.Liquidity is important to a trader who requires fast executions a predictable prices, It is based on factors such as t ...Futures Trading Software - Choosing a Package For Big Profit Potential! The growth of the Internet has seen traders look more at the use of futures trading software as a way to increase their profit potential.Today, many vendors are selling futures trading software packages that make 50% annualised gains a reality.While there are many good systems, there are also many that don’t perform. This article i ...Beyond the Random Walk - A New Market Paradigm Proponents of the Efficient Market Hypothesis or "Random Walk Theory" generally have two lines of defense when it comes to supporting the idea that technical analysis of the markets cannot improve returns:The first is that they have tested many TA indicators and have not found any that are able to lift returns significantly enough to over ...5 Kick-Arse Tactics To Seize Favorable Probabilities at Forex As you ponder how to balance your forex portfolio, it is important to map out sure-fire strategies beforehand.With your plan, you optimize your reward with respect to the expected risk, and tweak probabilities to your favor. Forex strategies must be disciplined and limit risk; simultaneously, it positions you at the most favorable advant ...Currency Technical Analysis Part 2: Dow Theory - Three Phases of the Trend In part 1 of this series of articles: “Currency Technical Analysis Part 1: The Most Important Theory Ever” we discussed the general background to the Dow Theory.Here we look at the three phases of the trend, and why currency-trading analysis must focus on the long-term trend - and how Dow Theory will help you capture every major trend. ...Arbitrage Trading or E-currency E-currency? If you are reading this you most be wondering what way is better to make money E-currency Exchange or Arbitrage Trading?Lets first look at how both systems work, and if these systems will still be around in 5 years or so.Arbitrage Trading Is and unknown way to make money on the Internet. Very few people know little or no inf ...Trading Indian Stock Market Using Technical Analysis Indian stock market is no doubt one of the most volatile stock market in the world; many people have made millions of profits, and sadly lost millions also. The problem is that 90% of traders in India rely on tips which are given by amateurs and some so called technical analysts who claim 90% or in some cases 100% accuracy, this is very immature ...
|
