Candlestick patterns: my personal war against the false promises of trading

I have been sailing in the turbulent waters of trading for years, and let me tell you something: these famous "16 candlestick patterns" that everyone reveres as the trading bible have me fed up. I'm so tired of seeing how the market "gurus" sell these formations as if they were the secret key to getting rich!

When I started, I swallowed all that story. I memorized every pattern like a desperate student: hammers, shooting stars, engulfing... I thought I had discovered the Holy Grail. What foolishness! Reality hit me in the face when I lost my first euros blindly trusting in a "perfect inverted hammer."

The reality behind the candles

A candle is nothing more than the visual representation of a battle between buyers and sellers over a period. Its body shows open and close, its wicks the extremes reached. Nothing magical.

What no one tells you is that these patterns work... until they stop working. I've seen "perfect" three white soldiers that ended in price massacres. And those Dojis that supposedly indicate indecision? Sometimes the "indecision" continues for weeks while your account bleeds out.

The patterns that everyone idolizes

Among bullish patterns like the hammer or the morning star, and bearish ones like the hanging man or the three black crows, there is an uncomfortable truth: they work better in hindsight than in real time.

How many times have I seen traders celebrating a "perfect bullish engulfing pattern" right before the price plummets? The platforms are full of analysts pointing out these patterns after the movement has already occurred. A posteriori geniuses!

The business behind the patterns

What ignites me is how trading platforms exploit these patterns. They sell you expensive courses, "special" indicators, and premium memberships to "detect" these patterns. It's a round business: if you lose, it's because you "didn't apply the pattern correctly." If you win, it's thanks to their wonderful system.

My personal approach

After losing too much money, I learned that candlestick patterns are just one more piece of the puzzle. I use them, yes, but as confirmation alongside other elements:

• Volume ( the great forgotten that validates or invalidates any pattern )
• Real support and resistance zones ( not the imaginary ones )
• Market context (something that they NEVER mention in these articles)

And above all: learn to lose. No pattern will save you from irrational market movements. I've seen perfect formations shattered by a simple tweet from some bored millionaire playing with the market.

Candlestick patterns are useful, but they are not the panacea that they sell you. They are tools, not guarantees. And the next time someone shows you a chart with perfectly marked patterns in hindsight, ask them how much they made applying them in real time.

Trading is psychological warfare, not a Japanese fairy tale with magic candles.