The original text on candlestick charting was Seiki Shimizu's "The Japanese Chart of Charts," translated to English by Gregory Nicholson. Therein it is clear that the original and still then current application of candlestick charting and theory was to the daily chart. Subsequent supposed applications of them to any other time frame are in my opinion simply fraudulent, a bald attempt to extract money from unwary traders for books, consulting and web memberships. This fraud is clear because only the daily chart can be said to have a clearly significant high, low, open and close. Ascribing any such significance to one hour or fifteen minute or five minute charts is ludicrous. But traders do it anyway because it is so easy to click on the time scale for the desired chart. I propose that with today's fast data providers like ESignal there is an alternative to slavish adherence to the practice of the herd: chart in a much faster time frame and compress it to appear like the timeframe you want. For example, I am viscerally comfortable with one minute charts. So to get the full shape of price history without the irrelevant distortion of candlesticks, I chart in one second and compress it, adding one minute time ticks for reference. Attached is an example of ten minutes from this morning. You will note that this inaugural post does not contain the text h.e.r.s.h.e.y, so it is unlikely that the ego-driven perpetually roving bots trying to extract significance from insignificance will disturb us here.
I moderate the 'candlestick corner' at traderslab and I've told anyone that will listen that the lower the timeframe, the less reliable candlesticks by themselves become. I agree 100% with you that they work best on daily (or longer) charts. In order to apply candlestick analysis on an intraday chart, other methods must be used whether that be S/R, oscillators, etc. etc. While on this topic I'd also like to say that Steve Nison has a couple good books on candlestick charting but when that well dried up he became a referral whore. He now whores his newsletter email base to anyone that will cut him on deals. I wouldn't touch any thing that Nison the referral whore is peddling now. If you want some good books, here is what he published when it was about writing educational books and not setting up referral websites: http://tinyurl.com/m7ctju http://tinyurl.com/l38dll For just over $100 you can own all you'll ever need to know on candlestick charting. From there it's a matter of screentime.
TA is full of fraud. Elliot & Magee worked all their patterns on daily and weekly charts and not intraday. I propose a ban on trend lines and patterns used intraday along with candles. Nothing works intraday. Also the Japanese who invented candlesticks DID NOT use computers! Using computers to trade is a fraud and we should ban those as well. Did the Japanese allow the use of chairs when reading charts. Is the use of chairs permissible?
Making statements like this are ludicrous. Just because you have found no significance to the 15 min chart using candles does not mean it does not work. obviously, if you are using candles as your ONLY signal or indicator, they will fail more often than not. If you use tem in conjunction with other tools, their reliability goes up.
Here's an example to prove how stupid it is to try to read candles on a 1 min chart. Or is this a daily chart?
i have never been able to read 1 min charts that well. 15 min charts are my bread and better as it cuts out a lot of the noise.
Bread and butter is good In time you might be able to add jam but it's not necessary if the bread is good
IM not an expert, but in terms of fractals, if it works on a monthly, weekly and daily basis, it must work on a intraday basis... For the 1 min chart I guess you cannot read anything because of the noise
Fraud,fraud,fraud....suddenly that word is in fashion a la Bernie Madoff and his ilk. Stop bemoaning your lack of profit and start trading properly with what suits you personally.