ZLBT Chats

Friday, November 6, 2009

Price Action, Candlesticks, and Simplicity

Question:
I think price action together with candlestick charts are a powerful combination to confirm a trend change. Do you agree?

Thank you.

Simon from KL




Answer:
Simon, price action (a broad term for a variety of ways to approach trading) and candlestick charts are popular “indicators” among traders. Many base their whole trading strategies on each. It would seem logical one could act as trend confirmation for the other.

As strategies, both run the gamut between the simple and the complex, but the common premise for each is that both work on actual price movements within a specific timeframe. Those who utilize these strategies would tell you that high and low price movements are more predictive of what is going to happen in a short-term trading scenario than other, so called, lagging technical indicators.

One subtle, and perhaps arguable, distinction between the two is that candlestick reading emphasizes the relationship between the close price and open price and price action emphasizes intraday movement. In my opinion, this distinction is what makes the two, as you put it, a “powerful combination” for detecting trend movement.

As I have said before, simplicity in trading, as it is in life, is preferable to the complex. High-low price relationships unto themselves are simple, whether you view them in a candlestick strategy or in some other defined price-action strategy.

Thus, if you are keeping it simple when combining candlesticks and price action in your strategy, I applaud you, especially if it is working for you.


Trade in the day; invest in your life …

Regards, ZL

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