Read the candle before you read the pattern.
Every candlestick pattern is built from a handful of structural ideas — OHLC, the real body, shadows, trend context, and confirmation. This level teaches those foundations so that patterns become readable rather than memorizable.
Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques by Steve Nison + Getting Started in Technical Analysis by Jack D. Schwager
The four prices behind every candle. What the real body encodes that a bar chart doesn't — and why the relationship between open and close is the most important thing a candle communicates.
A doji is not a reversal signal — it is indecision. Four doji types, what each shape reveals about the session's internal fight, and why location determines whether a doji means anything at all.
One shape, four names, completely opposite meanings depending on what came before. Why the hammer and hanging man are identical candles — and how location turns shape into signal.
The vocabulary that makes candlestick patterns meaningful. A pattern without a trend has nothing to reverse. A signal without confirmation is a guess. The terms every candlestick reader must internalize before studying patterns.
Two candles working together to mark a turning point. What engulfing actually requires. Why the midpoint rule separates piercing from dark cloud cover. How the harami reframes the prior candle's significance.
The three-act structure: trend continuation, momentum failure, and the opposite side proving control. Morning and evening stars, doji star variants, and three white soldiers — the patterns that include their own confirmation.
Bullish candle, bearish candle, and marubozu placed inside a realistic price sequence. Trains contrast recognition — the core interpretive habit that applies to every pattern that follows.
Long-legged, dragonfly, and gravestone doji shown with confirmation, non-confirmation, and the failure case. Location is the first filter — a doji without a prior trend is noise.
Hammer, hanging man, shooting star, inverted hammer, spinning top, and high-wave candle in realistic price sequences. Same shape, opposite signals — location and confirmation decide everything.
Every two-candle pattern family in a price sequence — working signals, failed signals, and the harami failure case that most students misread. Confirmation converts a condition into a trade.
Morning star, evening star, three white soldiers, and three black crows in realistic price sequences. Penetration depth and open position determine quality — not just pattern presence.