I think the point of the time not labeled on the chart is that you are not supposed to know in advance what the stock might do, like if you knew that the chart was from the year 2000 or 2008, you'd know to short knowing the odds are in your favor. That's why it's such a good game, it's all about pure candlestick pattern reading.
Candlestick at the intraday level does not represent a real close of course, but it is the price range in which the trades happened during the particular timeframe. That's plenty useful.
http://www.candlescanner.com/patterns-dictionary/ A very comprehensive library of candlestick patterns and a good candlestick program.
The phrase 'analysis paralysis' comes to mind. This is too complicated for me. Have you had any success using these?
Yes, I trade this way. Moreover, no candlesticks, all based on price moves and breakouts. Trading in the most minimal form of price action is the spirit of Adam Theory. "What do not want to do is to put our parameters on the market." Sounds great, but it took me 8 years to code in Easy Language.
Studies are a waste. Trade on candlesticks. Ticks for futures. Time for equities. Use 20, 50, 200 day MA. That's it.
There area a couple books out there by Thomas Bulkowski with studies behind nearly every candlestick pattern you'll see. I strongly recommend reading them. It is very easy to trade price action only when you understand the psychology behind them. There really are only 3 or 4 individual sticks worth trading from IMO, but each trader is different. GL
I have spent many hours scrolling through historical EURUSD candlestick data - literally would just set time aside everyday to stare at it - observe the movement and see what kind of instincts I could develop by just looking at 5 min candlesticks of this very technical pair. Was doing this useful? YES. Was doing that enough to make me profitable? NOPE. The attractive simplicity of just looking at candlesticks is deceptive and leads to overtrading intraday for myself at least. I have moved along to equities since there is more data available - and this is how a trader develops edge - by looking at depth of market(learning to read level 2 + time and sales), volume, and being aware of news catalysts. In this game, you need every tool at your disposal to gain edge and I am not talking about excessive use of indicators - but real time data, news feeds etc. This is only one part though - entry/exit methods, scaling in/out, and mental stability are just as important.
One of the best traders on the planet, Nial Fuller, an Australian dude, does exactly what you are asking. He recently won a big trading contest with a 369% gain in three months with only a handfull of trades. He trades price action only with his 3 setups that he uses mainly on the daily charts with some trades based on a 4 hour chart. His style is unique and you will not find it anywhere else. He has a disdain for ALL studies and trades only from a naked chart. His logic makes sense to me. Trend following studies break down in a choppy market and oversold, overbought, indicators are worthless in a trending market. Let's face it, if they did work why are there over 200 studies available on the Thinkorswim platform from TDA and still almost all traders lose money. He trades about 6 or 7 Forex pairs plus e-mini and gold futures so he has a very narrow population of potential trades. He sells his course for around $300 that also gets you his daily commentary and access to member forums and special member only articles. No monthly member fees after you buy the course. However, you can gain a ton of information from his "free" articles on his website. His website is: http://www.learntotradethemarket.com/
I know Nial very well. His price-action course is great value for money. Probably one of the best valued courses around. Having studied with Steve Nison for almost 7yrs, being a senior student at Nison University my firm opinion is they are next to useless for intraday trading. Far better using orderflow and market profile. Candles work pretty well on daily, weekly and monthly charts. As for intraday trading they are almost useless and don't give you a statistical edge. The best patterns i have found are , Hammer, Shooting Star, Engulfing, Morning Star, Evening Star, Inside Candle and Doji's. The key to using candles is the location, so you need to be using Macro S/R levels for best results, same as Nial actually. The other thing that's so important is the platform closing time. Nial users AXITrader. You want a platform that New York Closing time. And also watch out for platforms that have the Sunday candle which looks similar to a doji or inside candle.