What's the point of all trading books then? 99% of them don't tell you how to trade, just provide some tools. It's up to you to use the tools to build a method, I think. To me candlesticks have a lot of value and I have developed stragies to trade them. But does Nison provide any strategies in his book? No. Does he even trade? I don't know.
Can't tell you in this situation. Long shadows both ways show a lot of uncertainty. I would stay out of this market. The last very small body candlestick has a tiny range. I would bet that the next candlestick is an "outside bar" meaning it will take out the low and high of the last candle - because the range of this last candle is way too tiny, and an outside bar will trick out the NR7 players nicely. Now tell me what happened
Ah. Semantics. I've yet to pick up a TA book that didn't explain how to use the indicators. Did the author hold the reader by the hand and explain every aspect of trading, including risk management, stock selection, yada, yada? Hardly ever, but that doesn't mean he didn't explain how to use the indicators. Whether the indicators were worth a damn is a separate matter. I got the impression your candlestick authors didn't even explain how to use them as entry/exit signals. Miscommunication. Moving on ...
Note the wording... "Tell me what is about to happen". Of course if you test candlesticks this way, or any TA, none can tell you what is going to happen. That is what you correctly found when you "tested candlesticks". On the other hand, if you are looking for something that can slant the probabilities in your favor, and reduce risk, then candles can help. But candlestick master and professional trader NihabaAshi would be the first to tell you, you can't look at candles in a vacuum and expect much out of 'em. Hi volume hammers in an uptrend at previous support? Now you're talking!