12 patterns

Patterns, drawn twice

Every reference shows you the version where the pattern works. Each page here shows that one and the one where the identical shape does nothing at all — because telling those two apart is the whole skill, and the shape alone cannot do it.

5 patterns

One candle

Shapes you can read from a single period — and the reason one period is rarely enough.

  1. 01 DojiOpen and close in the same place. A statement about disagreement, not about direction. 6 min
  2. 02 HammerA long lower wick after a decline. What has to be true around it before it means anything. 7 min
  3. 03 Hanging manThe hammer's shape at the top of an advance. Same candle, opposite reading. 6 min
  4. 04 Shooting starThe hammer upside down, at the other end of a move — and twice as often misread. 6 min
  5. 05 Inverted hammerA failed push upward, after a decline — and why it needs the next candle more than any other. 6 min

5 patterns

Two candles

Where the second candle changes what the first one meant.

  1. 01 Bullish engulfingOne candle swallowing the last. Why the location matters more than the shape. 7 min
  2. 02 Bearish engulfingThe mirror image, and the one place it tends to mean something. 6 min
  3. 03 Piercing lineA bullish engulfing that fell short. The midpoint rule is the whole definition. 6 min
  4. 04 Dark cloud coverA gap up, then a close back below the midpoint. The buyers at the top are the point. 6 min
  5. 05 Bullish haramiA small candle inside a large one. It says the selling stopped, not that buying started. 6 min

2 patterns

Three candles

Sequences that describe a handover rather than a single moment.

  1. 01 Morning starThree candles describing a handover from sellers to buyers — when it is one. 7 min
  2. 02 Evening starThe morning star inverted, with the same midpoint rule and the same false positives. 7 min
Before you use any of these

A pattern is a description of what just happened, not a forecast of what happens next. None of these pages tells you to buy or sell anything, and the same shape appears constantly in charts that go on to do nothing. What decides whether a pattern is worth noticing is where it sits — the level it forms at, the trend it interrupts, and the participation behind it. Those are covered in the Charts track, and they come first.