Candlesticks Charting techniques have been used by the Japanese for over 100 years. And Steve Nison was the first to reveal candles to the Western world. He is recognized as the leader and source for candlestick trading...and this book is absolutely the finest book there is for introducing you to Candlesticks!

With candle charts, one can use candle charting techniques, or Western techniques, or a combination of both. This union of Eastern and Western techniques provides you with uniquely effective tools to help enhance profits and decrease market risk exposure.

This is the best book about candlesticks I have read. Steve Nison is the trader that brought candlesticks to the western traders. So there is no one better to get your candlestick information. The book goes into great depth about now candlesticks are drawn and then how to use them in your trading. He goes over all the set-ups that candlesticks show and how to interpret what the candlesticks are telling you. [...]. Check out Steve's books and DVD courses. You won't be sorry!! Kelly McDaniel

Definitely a must-have for all serious charting libraries, and all technical traders. This book, written by the very man who introduced candlestick charting to the West (Steve Nison), is the quintessential authority work on the method.

My copy (which I somehow interestingly managed to get actual candle wax on, on the cover, from a tea candle, lol!) quickly became one of the jewels in my trading library, because of it's comprehensive, and yet, easy to comprehend format.

With extensive illustrations (in black & white) of all the candle patterns, formations, and candle types (on real past charts) that exist, you are bound to emerge from this book more of a charting pro than you were going in.

The Glossary and Index are great for quick reference, and the patient (step-by-step/concept-by-concept) structure of the book make this an even easier read than it would be just by it's uncomplicated wording.

Needless to say, I greatly recommend this book for all levels. And I believe it will become a very valuable reference tool in any serious traders' toolbox. You will be proud that you are the owner of this book, as I treasure mine, to this very day.

Khalfani Rushiddin
[...]

I got this item for my son who is thrilled with this book. The service was over and above excellence.

Mr. Nison is outstanding. I could never get all the true answers about Candlesticks until I bought and studied his book. It is the Bomb. Period. Cheap at ten times the price.

This is a great book, very clear and simple to understand the concepts of Japanese candlestick charting techniques.

Steve Nison was probably the first to introduce Japanese Candlestick Technical Analysis to the western hemisphere in the late 80s. The book is an easy read and leads you with lots of examples and coloured explanations through the various pattern. I can only recommend to read it if you want to begin to use candle stick charts as your default in technical analysis.

The author has a simple writing style with occasional apt words
like 'corroborate' and 'ambivalent'. Touches of humor are
present here and there. This book reveals Japanese
charting method. It is best used with Western methods which
is briefly mentioned in the section 'Convergence'.

Be watchful about the accuracy of the signals. Perhaps some
day, somebody will backtest the accuracy.

I wonder why the book is abnormally large in dimensions.

This is a great book that offers all the basic info about candle charting and provides clear examples. I was able to get a copy of it from my library network and the info is relatively easy to remember, so having the book as a reference tool may not be needed if you can check it out from a library.

if you thinking about buying this book... STOP you will never make money in the market by knowing the shapes of candle sticks. all the information is available online for free. just put candle stick into your search...
with so many products and books ....you will do better by trying to use those pattern while trading and see what works for you... Again all the info is free online and you should never pay anyone who try to sell you "the way..."
you will save alot of $$$$$$ if you understand this early. with more then 12 years experience... there are no more then 5 books that you should really read. this one is for sure not one of them! save it $$$

Very well written. Great explanation of various candlesticks and reasoning behind the projected movements.

Steve is very clear in his definitions, has an easy style of writing that makes learning fun. His wisdom and knowledge come forth and the reading is easy and interesting.

One of the books that either a day trader or a swing trader should have. Very well explained and the numerous charts are very readable. I can't say that for all the trader type books that I purchased through the years. Good trading...

I can't believe how much my trading has improved as the result of learning to understand candlestick patterns from reading this book. Now, I see all sorts of information in the charts that I never noticed before and as a result, feel much more confident and in control of my trades. Watching for candle patterns also prompted me to start using longer timeframe charts, which had the side benefit of cutting out a lot of noise that can sucker you into a trade.

Get this book, study and learn each pattern, then decide which ones work best for you. I think you'll find it a worthwhile investment of your money and time.

A must have book to trader who is seeking for early reversal pattern signal detection to any kind of candle stick charting. After reading this book, I am able to trade much more better than before. I can minimize losses and optimize profits much more effective. Also, this book is very complete guide about candle stick charting for beginner or advanced trader. Thank you to Steve Nison !!

This book will give you the tools and knowledge necessary to trade via candlesticks. There is a lot of information in the book and would treat it as a college text book, it has that much information. Only complaint, the book I received has a bad binding and some pages are coming out. Will have a new book sent to replace it. Overall, this will train you on how to recognize set ups which will give you the edge in trading, this is not a get rich quick program. It is a system to apply and with some experience with it I hope to fully employ it in about a year.

I have not even finished reading the book. I'm hoping that this review might help someone else avoid the issues I'm having with this rather expensive book.

To start, I'm not commenting on the actual information in the book. Most everyone says that Steve Nison knows his stuff. Rather I'm very disappointed in the layout of the book. This makes it very difficult to follow, and comprehend the information.

1. The font is VERY large, I can read it from 6 feet away.
2. While the book is large, text is only printed on 2 thirds of the page.
3. This means you are changing lines every 5 seconds.
4. Charts also take up 66% of the page width. Way too much vertical white space.
5. When he has you refer to a chart 2 pages back to follow an explanation,
6. The charts don't have every date listed at the bottom, but he often points out a day that doesn't have a number on it. Which makes you have to hunt (and guess) for what he's talking about.

Overall, I feel that if the font issue, and white space issues were resolved, this would be a much better book. But, I would suggest trying to find an old version of it. I have a PDF copy of the one from 1991, and while the white space isn't perfect, it's better, and the font size is much better.

The publisher certainly should have corrected it.

I did read an online version "Profitable Candlestick Trading: Pinpointing Market Opportunities to Maximize Profits" by Stephen W. Bigalow from my local library website, and found that to be very good. It is the next one I'll be getting in print.

I'd gladly sell it for $25, and probably will when I'm done. Like another reviewer stated, getting the good information is like pulling teeth, painful.

Content is great with Japanese proverbs providing
mind pictures and detailed explanations for various
patterns. However the layout is terrible. You constantly
have to flip pages to see his reference exhibits. Also he does
little to show setups: entry and exit points in real trades. I
reccommend the book but be prepared to be frustrated!

I've read Bigalow's first book and Bulkowski's "Encyclopedia of Candlesticks".

Steve's book is much better that these two books. Actually, you only need one book to learn the candles. It is hard to know how much knowledge an author really have when it comes to trading books. The really successful traders tend not to write at all. In any case, I get the impression reading the books that Steve has deeper knowledge than Bigalow. So that should make the choice between the two easy. The book by Bulkowski is not an introduction so I won't comment further on that book.

I have written several short reviews on trading books. The best way is to compare the score on the books I've read. Many reviews on amazon.com are just glorious 5 star reviews. I use all five categories; sorry but everything isn't "great". Books rated 5 are very good. Books rated 4 are good solid books well worth reading. Books rated 3 can be bought by some people who read a lot or have very specific needs. Books rated 1 or 2 I would not recommend buying or reading. Naturally all in my humble opinion.

I've read Bigalow's first book and Bulkowski's "Encyclopedia of Candlesticks".

Steve's book is much better that these two books. Actually, you only need one book to learn the candles. It is hard to know how much knowledge an author really have when it comes to trading books. The really successful traders tend not to write at all. In any case, I get the impression reading the books that Steve has deeper knowledge than Bigalow. So that should make the choice between the two easy. The book by Bulkowski is not an introduction so I won't comment further on that book.

A very good book. Tells about all the different candle signals....i think all of them. I stopped using candlestick charts cuz i of how i am trading now and i dont see any advantage with the candles. THey trick me too much. But if you are interested in candles you need to buy this book. And really, you can see all the same signs using bars if you pay attention. Great book!!

Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Second EditionThis Second Edition is the basic "Bible" on candlesticks. Most traders will have/need this on their reference shelf.

Steve Nison is truely the father of Japanese Candlestick into the western. He explained why candles are made and how the candle can be a signal to get into a trade and when to get off. The convergence of East and West makes my trading more manageable and honestly, I have "profit"-ed after reading this book. Very highly recommended!

If you want to learn candlestick stock trading this is the only
book you will ever need. It's very good. It has lots of pictures.

I am a begginer in studying the financial markets and I found this book great because besides japanese candlesticks I learnt about western technicals too. The subjects are well explained and easy to understand.

I went to a Steve Nison seminar first. Once Home I bought his book to review. The book is very informative. Well worth a Few reads and study.

The book by Steve Nison is certainly an indispensable tool for anyone who wish to invest their hard-earned cash in the stock market. It prepares you before you decide either to purchase, or sell, to stay or leave.

A very good book covers lots of details of candlestick chart, I would say.
However, all this book full of Japanese sayings,Japanese proverbs like"one seeing is better than a hundred hearings","the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.",etc. As a Chinese,I have to say all of these sayings original came from China thousands of years ago. Japanese don't even have their language in written way, before Chinese Tang dynasty. Japan and Korea were adherent countries of China at Tang dynasty, thousands of years ago. They learned from China since that time, and they are still using Chinese characters in their written language somehow. All your showing-off of your Japanese idioms only show the author's ignorance of oritental culture, hey, Nison, don't even say you lived in Japan before any more.
Today, the whole oriental countries share China's history and culture, you may need to correct them as oriental people's proverbs rather than Japanese sayings, BECAUSE it's not true and it's showing the author's ignorance.

I have dozens of books on trading and several books on candlestick charting, but this is the candlestick book I return to over and over. However, the reason I like this book so much is not for the candlestick pattern explanations. Candlestick patterns are fairly simple and are explained very well in many books (including this one) as well as for free on the internet. This book excels because of the way candlestick patterns are integrated with technical analysis. The author combines candlestick patterns with trend lines, fibonacci retracement levels, moving averages, RSI, Stochastics, MACD, volume, chart patterns, etc. Everytime I pick up this book, I learn not just more about candlesticks, but about technical analysis as well. The author's explanations are written in an easy to read, conversational tone and are packed with pearls of trading wisdom. I do not know this author or have any affiliation with him. I simply love this book and believe that most traders will, too.

The book is worth having in your library. Mr. Nison explains everything in simplicity and suggest when to get in and when to lock in your profits.

This book has a good balance in tecnology and theory. Very goog for the financial people.

What makes this book better than the others is the detailed commentary on all the patterns and how and when they can behave differently depending on the preceded price action. All this is shown on wonderfully illustrated charts and plenty of them. Other books are pale when it comes to such detail. Also in the book are chapters on how the patterns react with various western indicators, best book of its kind for fully and properly learning candlesticks.

All technicians need this book.If you want to improve yourself on the candlesticks,there is no time to wait.Buy this book and see many details of the candlesticks as well as included many examples on it.

This book is filled with great information. It's a reference book you will want to keep handy. Some books you read and get rid of. This is a keeper.

Most of us who spends the extra time to read and continue to improve our knowledge on trading and investing, are likely to have adopted a trading system ( Be it through books, seminars, courses ). However, given the potential risks involved even with all the tools and knowledge we are armed with for our trading battles, we still have a high chance of making a loss in our trades. ( Human errors and mistakes / Human Emotions / Inexperience / Never do homework...etc all plays a part in the trade turning sour )

One of the missing puzzle that i have discovered myself is the interpretation of candlesticks that tells the story of the market sentiment for that particular stock at that particular time. Before learning the meaning of candlesticks and charting with them, i normally used what i have learned ( A trading system that i paid a hefty $5000 SGD for ) to decide whether i enter a trade or not. However, something is missing... That is gonna be major reversal patterns that occur at tops or bottoms. I have lost $$$ as a result for several trades that were supposed to yield excellent returns using the system i learnt all due to... YES CANDLESTICK REVERSAL PATTERNS. I still remember them to be Morning star, Shooting Star and Bullish Engulfing pattern. After learning these patterns, the results were shocking and marvellous. My losses are cut to a minimum, my self esteem and confidence to execute a trade has improved tremendoulsy.

I never leave home for my trading battle without it.

An interesting book on candlestick - the author has much knowledge of candle stick. It's entertaining. But apparently the auothr made terribly wrong on the formulars such as RSI and stochastic. I understand that reading candlestick does not need to know the formulars but they should be correct if they appear in the book. I guess the author expected reader only read the candlestick, instead of looking at the formulars. Anyway it's the best book on the subject.

This text is a great intro. to the basics of reading the Candlestick charts, and I found that the plurality of patterns analyzed in the text will be very helpful in future trading decisions and software development. The author has a good reputation and is quoted widely, so the quality of the text is not surprising...

This was an excellent book for learning candlestick charting and analysis. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to learn equity charting... especially if you are doing options.

This was an excellent book for learning candlestick charting and analysis. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to learn equity charting... especially if you are doing options.

One of the best books of TA that you should have on your bookshelf. I was a non believer of Candlestick few years ago, but after being recommended a few times by my friends, the impact on my trading was phenomenal. However you still have to combined western techniques to this highly profitable charting method. This book will not give you an entry and exit method but instead on how you should react when finding a reversal pattern.
It is nice to be able to visualize what the market participant would do to some certain stocks.

Investing world we heard Warren Buffett(57-69 Dow 152% Buffett Partnership 2794.9%), Charles Munger(62-75 Dow 96.8% C.M. Partnership 1156.7%), Bill Ruane (S&P 14yr 70-84Q1 270% Sequoia Fund 775%, Walter Schloss(S&P 28.5 yrs 887.2% WJS Ltd Patners 6,678.8%)
- The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsvill - The Intelligent Investor Appendix D.

So far I didn't see steve nison, candle stick and all TA stuff is Reading tea leaves.

Investing is most intelligent when it is most business like
-- Benjamin Graham.

The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing: Morningstar's Guide to Building Wealth and Winning in the Market - Pat Dorsey

The Intelligent Investor Revised Edition. - Benjamin Graham

The Essays of Warren Buffett : Lessons for Corporate America by Warren E. Buffett and Lawrence A. Cunningham

Investing world we heard Warren Buffett(57-69 Dow 152% Buffett Partnership 2794.9%), Charles Munger(62-75 Dow 96.8% C.M. Partnership 1156.7%), Bill Ruane (S&P 14yr 70-84Q1 270% Sequoia Fund 775%, Walter Schloss(S&P 28.5 yrs 887.2% WJS Ltd Patners 6,678.8%) - The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsvill - The Intelligent Investor Appendix D. So far I didn't see steve nison, candle stick and all TA stuff is like Reading tea leaves. Investing should be Value Investing, fullstop. For beginner I'll suggest
The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing: Morningstar's Guide to Building Wealth and Winning in the Market and then The Intelligent Investor Revised Edition.

It is exactly what it was advertised to be and has been very helpful

This is the book I was looking for.

There are a lot of books on this subject on the market,
but this one beats them all.
It is really worth the money.

regards
Walter Lussi, Switzerland

Among my many books on technical analysis of the financial markets I rate this book as excellent and highly recommended to more middle to experienced trades. Motivation for the latter statement is that in my opinion one needs some basic knowledge of technical analysis before delving into Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques. The book is very comprehensive with many candlestick charts that are easy to understand with detailed, easy to follow explanations. It also compliments other books on technical analysis such as "Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets by John J. Murphy".

I think this book is really good and full of a lot of information. However, I had to take it down a notch and start with "candlestick course" by the same author. It gave a more simple explanation of what I was reading. Then once I understood the basics, I was able to apply "Japanese candlestick charting" a little easier.

the candles give very useful reversal signals when combined with traditional technical analysis indicators. A must read for everyone in the investing business.

Candlesticks are becoming more and more popular which is why I highly recommend this book. However candlestick charting is geared more towards day, swing and possibly entry and exit points for a position trader. This book is not designed to look at long term patterns.

As with most of my reviews, my intent is to tell you whether a book is worth the money or not. If you are a beginning trader/investor, spend your money elsewhere (see some of my other reviews on market books.) If you are interested in getting more into the details of charts and technical analysis, specifically 'candlestick charts', then this is the book to have.

Steve is considered the 'Father' of Candlestick charting in the US and probably the westerm hemisphere. He pretty much single-handedly brought the concept here from Japan. So,if you want to learn about something, might as well learn from the horse's mouth.

Do you need to understand how candlestick charts work and how to use them in order to be a successful trader? If you are only investing on a long-term basis, probably not. If you want to 'swing trade' over a few days or weeks, or day trade, it would probably be useful to have some understanding of the basics (and perhaps the advanced) concepts of candlestick charts.

As Steve himself says, don't use candlesticks as your primary decision factor for making trades. Used in conjunction with other technical indicators, it is useful to check the candlestick charts to make sure you aren't about to jump into a trade expecting 'sunny' going when the previous day's candlestick chart showed a "Dark-Cloud Cover". Yes, there are lots more interesting patterns and names (Hanging Man, Doji Star, Abandoned Baby) that are entertaining, and sometimes useful to know about and understand.

So, if you have $50 or so burning a hole in your pocket that you have no other good use for, having purchased and digested this book you will know all one needs to know about candlestick charts.

If you want to know about candlestick patterns and theory, this is an excellent book. It is expensive, but there's no comparable books of this quality that I know of. Very thorough but not over complicated. Great charts.

Will you make money using candlesticks? That's another issue :)