MG. I've used candlesticks for seven years. There's a permutation of the method in MetaStock called Candlevolume which I find much more useful. It incorporates volume into the candle as a proportional horizontal value, ie fatter or thinner candles based on daily volume.
In my opinion, when doing technical analysis, there is a handicap in using traditional price charts to find support and resistance levels. Volume, which more accurately reflects where the greatest consensus of price support is, must be heavily factored in, which candlevolume attempts to do.
For example, a stock may trade at 50 for two months with light volume. On a traditional chart 50 looks strong. Using a candle volume chart you might see that 43 is the actual support area, where the width of a price area shows the majority of trades took place.
In such a chart, the horizontal time scale is based on unit volume not calendar days. Otherwise, interpretation is much the same as with tradtional candlestick work.
Its important while using any candle method to vary one's time input to "see" the patterns from close up and from a graphical distance. I vary my time patterns between daily, 4 day, and weekly.
Its also important to compare one's assumptions to other charting methods. Last, its also good to project where or what a chart will look like if the next day is up or down and by how much. We are currently in a high stochastics area... but how much more puts it into an area that in 99% of the samples in the last two years has resulted in a selloff.. or is this just a high but not dangerous territory.
JIM |
