Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi)- THANK YOU FOR A USEFUL, INTELLIGENT POST. You are truly a great member and resource on ET.
Traveling - that is not what this thread was about or intended for! That's the ironic part of this whole thread. All I wanted was some advice from those that HAD attended a Nison live seminar. That's it. None of my posts were meant to debate candlesticks, I understand there are many ways to analyze and that some methods work better than others for different traders.
I attended a Steve Nison seminar in London a few months ago. If you don't want to read the rest of this post then I will post my summary now: My verdict: Read his books and save your money from attending his seminar. I kept wondering whether Steve has actually traded himself and have found little of personal value yet from his seminar, but am glad I attended if that makes any sense as I wanted to make up my own mind. Why would you be a trader when you can make so much money from marketing? Whats the worst drawdown you experience as a marketer? Steve stated that he loves giving seminars, people love paying to go... It seems like a much better business than trading to me sometimes, but isn't that just the truth about the financial markets and who is making all the money What I liked: * I gained more knowledge about candle patterns, I eyeball charts now and then to see if they can of any help to me. * Steve's points about risk/reward were more valuable than anything candle related he mentioned. * Steve's points about confirmatory price action and support and resistance lines and gaps were worthwile listening to. * I learnt yet again that nobody is going to make me rich with trading, I will need to do that myself. * I got to network with some other traders. What I didn't like: * Steve used charts that were often several years old, no thanks. I like what Larry Williams does when he asks traders to suggest their own charts and he analyses them on the spot. * Smooth marketer as well as good trader? I have no way of knowing. * The overwhelming disclaimer seemed to me that candles work best in the direction of the trend. And isn't that just the million dollar question, few pointers about identifying the trend were provided. So candles work excellently except when they don't work. Kinda like most other stuff in trading I think.