Candlescanner

Anyone using www.candlescanner.com ? Very comprehensive and professional candlestick charting program, scans over 106 patterns http://www.candlescanner.com/patterns-dictionary/ and the videos on youtube are very informative and educational. https://www.youtube.com/user/CandleScanner Easier than reading a book!

 

Thanks, I will look into this. Candlesticks are a special class of OHLC price patterns that are known for ages and any anomalies they represented in the past have been mostly removed by traders. There are programs that identify the general price action class that are more suitable for mechanical rule identification. An example of a program I use is Price Action Lab that identifies price patterns based on criteria specified by the trader and then offers the code to backtest and generate signals. Many more possibilities there that are often unknown and unexploited.

 

Useless stuff, only works in hindsight and for book writers to show how some in the past were so great to justify this crap.

 

Interesting, I've been looking for something like this. Definitely going to check this out. Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Yes, I know two traders using this program but they are using it with supply/demand analysis. One is about breakeven as a forex trader and the other is profitable on the Hang Seng HSI futures and Eurex DAX futures.

They both hang out at TradingView posting charts (with broker statements) for many months now.

Yet, I'm not a fan of any kind of auto identification of Japanese Candlestick patterns especially if someone plans to use them alone. As for myself, Japanese Candlestick patterns (some of them) are very useful as profit targets, stop/loss protection identification if you're having problems in those areas although I don't know if candlescanner helps in those particular areas because I'm under the impression its all about entry signals.

Lastly, I don't recommend using their free trial until you've already mastered Japanese Candlestick pattern analysis because most traders that I've met that say they understand Japanese Candlesticks...really didn't or attempted to use it all by itself when its not designed as such. The guy I mentioned earlier that's breakeven said he spent his entire free trial just learning Japanese Candlesticks. Simply, in my opinion, he should have waited a few months to learn JC on his own prior to that free trial.

P.S. Do not use Japanese Candlestick analysis alone...they were not designed to be used as such although most traders in error will try to use them that way or test them that way. They just don't work that way. In contrast, they are useful in other areas as mentioned above if you don't want to use them as entry signals.

 

I like Japanese candlestick patterns for many reasons. Especially one- or two-line patterns as they appear very often on the charts. Hence, the statistics may be more reliable.

The biggest advantage of Japanese candlestick patterns is their simplicity.

Of course patterns should not be seen as a complete trading strategy in itself. Apart from a decent entry/exit strategy (which makes you a positive expectancy, i.e. you are profitable) you need to have even more decent risk and position management.

If you may find a market edge in a trading strategy using, for example, a 2-line pattern, and if you eliminate to the minimum other parameters, then you have a chance to be profitable. Of course, it does not mean that we can grab any 2-line pattern and think that we have done our homework. But patterns may be great for a bunch of ideas how to enter/exit the market.

I'm writing here more from the position of mechanical trading systems rather than discretionary trading (although patterns may be successfully applied by both groups of traders). And there I prefer a simple entry/exit strategy, which eliminates the risk of curve-fitting. For this purpose, candlestick patterns are really great. If you want to have some complexity, put it in your position sizing to squeeze as much as you can from your market edge. But avoid making entry/exit strategy too complex.

I don't like to "optimize" and make more profits (in backtesting) by applying oscillators and filters. If I know that 2+2=4 (i.e. a pattern appeared), why should I bother by calculation of some derivatives of prices (i.e. oscillators), to have more or less the same result at the end plus the risk of over-optimization? Applying too many filters is a way to nowhere, or to the curve-fitting, which we should avoid. Instead, you can apply some easier filter based just on prices.

Last, but not least, Japanese patterns are natural for us, human beings. By just merely looking on the chart, I can see it, feel it, without the necessity to calculate complex formulas. There's a psychology behind patterns, which is hard to be noticed by calculating a very complex formula.

The good software is very helpful in terms of being objective. It may help you to see what works, and what doesn't, to find your market edge. And for that reason I see Candlescanner software and website at least as a great learning tool for the beginners.