Customer Reviews

The Candlestick Course

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Steve Nison, CMT, the author of two previous volumes on candlesticks, and an educator, trader, and seminar speaker, has written a basic workbook on the fundamentals of candlestick charting and how to interpret and use only the most significant patterns. I attended one of his Nison's candlestick workshops at an investor expo, as well as reviewed his video and found them to be excellent educational vehicles.

This book is for those individuals who like to read about certain candlestick characteristics, and then test themselves on their level of understanding. Each chapter begins with a bullet-pointed list of learning objectives and key terms to watch for. It then explains the concept, shows examples, provides highlighted key points, and then provides review questions, and detailed answers. In most all of the chapters, the review questions and answers take up more pages than the explanation of the candlestick pattern or the concept being taught. So, this is more of an instructional and teacher-student approach to the subject.

One chapter entitled "Progressive Charting" is about 50 pages long and contains a walk-through of an unfolding market scenario, a few candles at a time using 88 annotated charts. The purpose of this approach is to help the reader interpret each candle or pattern in a real market situation and learn from his/her experience.

The last chapter entitled "Bringing It Altogether" asks you 42 questions about candlestick charting and provides the detailed answers. This allows the reader to determine his/her level of understanding and areas for further study. The book contains a short "visual" glossary illustrating candlestick patterns.

For readers who are avid students and like to work through numerous exercises and examples of the basics of candlesticks, this book will serve their needs well. For other investors who want more "meat" and detailed information and explanation, then I would recommend Nison's "Beyond Candlesticks" instead.

This is a great basic primer on candlestick charting techniques by the guy who allegedly introduced it into the west fifteen years ago. All the basic one, two, and three formations from spinning tops and high wave candles to piercing lines and cloud covers to three soldiers, harami cross and evening doji stars are there. It is pretty amazing that candlesticks are so much simpler but contain more information than standard western tick and point-and-figure charts. Among the things I learned were that hammers must have shadows twice as long as the real body, and the way windows (gaps) are used for support in Japanese trading. The book is arranged with quizzes, and while repetive (and there are a couple of minor mistakes, including on one of the questions), Nisson really drives home the message. Among the things he emphasizes are that candlesticks are best for signaling reversals, and that they are best supplemented by western techniques for price targets and confirmation. Although not quite a complete novice, I'm a slow reader but it only took me three hours to read this in the library. The last part of the book takes you through a chart and points out the formations-dispelling the common critique that technical analysis is completely subjective. Highly recommended and quite a contrast to the information overload of many other trading books.

I'm reading this book now and it's amazing how much you can learn in so short a time. This is a small book but the information and the way it's presented is outstanding. I wish all of the books that required study put their material in this format. Each section has a quiz to determine that you understand the material. Not only that but detailed answers to each of the questions is included. You're getting double re-enforced learning. While it starts with the basics of candlesticks the book concludes with real examples of applying these patterns. What's really the kicker is that Steve shows how he integrates Western charting techniques with candlesticks to greatly improve the odds in trading.

I don't expect to be a trading wizard after reading through this book but I do expect my trades will be thought out more thoroughly with the right techniques.

Get this book even if you don't use candle charts now.

This is a wonderful book. It does exactly what it claims. I've read a lot of trading books, and this is probably the only one that I've given 5 stars. Every trader has some familiarity with candlesticks, usually just enough to get into trouble trying to use them. Candlesticks can show changes in market psychology much more rapidly than traditional bar charts, but you need to know how to properly use them before using them as a major trading tool. This book really is a course that starts with the basics, then steps you through graduated complexity to using candlestick signals to trade a historical chart. Each section is followed by a quiz, with the answers provided. The answers are actually expanded course material. I learned the difference between a valid and an invalid signal. More than that, I learned how to properly use the signals. The book moves along rapidly, without a lot of irrelevant discussion or philosophy. It stays focused on the subject. I completed it in just a few hours. Get this book! Learn how to properly use candles in your trading. This course has made a difference in my trading. What more can I say?

This book is very good to refine and hone your skills. Each chapter has questions at the end. Many books that have questions only ask two or three. In this book however, most of the chapters has as many as 20 or more questons and you need to think before answering. After the quiz you will fine the answers plus an explanation.

In the chapter on using candlestick anlysis the reader is shown charts then the reader writes down his/her anlysis/market observations by answering the same four question for each chart. Afterwards Mr. Nison gives his market observations.

In short this is an interactive book. You will not only read about candlestick charting and patterns but will need to get out your paper and pencil and do work which I found a great learning tool. Mr. Nison has used another type approach to help people learn the art of using candlesticks.

I have found this book very informative. I didn't know a lot about the candle charting. Very easy to follow through the concepts the author has dicussed. I would encourage any trader to take a look at this book. It really tells you about the market psychology. Towards the end, one chapter goes through all the concepts the author covers in the previous chapters to refresh the concepts you have just learned. Remember, candle charting is just one of the techniques to mix up with other technical indicators. It helps me a lot about the understanding of the varous candle patterns.

I began reading this book with great enthusiasm. At the beginning of each chapter, Nison lays out the objectives and goals that you will learn, including key terms to watch for.

So as I was reading through the book, thinking "I really love the writing style of the author and am learning some valuable information," and before I knew it, the book was over. I was finished reading in 2 hours.

Nison only talks about the most popular candle lines/patterns, but he doesn't even go into great detail on the candles/patterns that are presented. The material only fills up about 100 pages, the other 100 pages show you a chart piece by piece and have you try to figure out what will happen next.

At $44, this book is a waste of money. After being disappointed, I bought Morris' Candlestick Charting Explained. The difference between these two books is night and day. Morris goes into significantly more detail about different candle lines/patterns, not to mention he talks about almost every candle stick you will ever see. So if you want a kiddy version of candlestick charting, go with Nison's, if you want a serious book, go with Morris'.

The content of this book is good. My criticism is that the layout is badly planned. You have to refer to charts on different pages, then look at the questions on another different page, then refer to the answers on another different page etc. Lots of flipping pages back and forth, kind of ruined it for me.

I really liked the fact that this was in a text format with questions as well as answers provided. The title says "Course" and I believe that is exactly what it is. It provides a lot of detail in such a short span of just over 200 pages. The question and answer format really helps to cement the content. As other reviewers have indicated, there was a lot of page turning back and forth to find the right chart to go with the right question but there are plenty of charts to support the material provided. I found it was just what I was looking for as a formal introduction to candlesticks from someone definitely in the know.

Happy trading!

I was very excited to start this book, thinking I would find a trading tool that matched my visual senses. However, I was disappointed to find that there really is no difference between candles and OHLC. It's true, that candles are a more visual representation of the same data. But, not any more useful. One annoying aspect of Nison's personality is that he keeps trying to convince you how much better candles are than OHLC. Aside from the visual acuity (i.e. colors, wider bars), it's the same Steve! Sorry.

Western culture interprets the OHLC data differently than the Japanese, that is all. So, to that effect you learn how the Japanese interpret the data. But, they still can't be used reliably without other Western indicators. So, if you already have a trading strategy that you think might be enhanced by another "edge", go for it. Don't think you can use candles all by themselves though.

As far as Nison's style of writing, I found it a bit insulting on an intellectual level. I kept feeling like I was sitting in elementary school holding a pair of dull scissors. I realize that in order to learn, ideas must be repeated. However, he goes a bit overboard with the repetition. If the book were written better, I think as an educated adult I'd choose to read it again to get to the appropriate level of repetition. However, it's so "dumbed down", I don't think I can sit through it another time.

But, I did learn what the basic candle signals are; and perhaps more importantly what they are not. So, I give it a thumbs up for the basic material. But, thumbs down on being engaging and or something I would read again.

Also, I agree with the previous poster that said the layout is poor, and all the flipping back and forth to look at charts and answer questions was annoying. At one point I had 3 fingers holding places to go back to, and then got lost amongst the charts and was using the wrong chart to answer the question... Then was frustrated to find I'd done so when referring to the answer section to check myself.