I’ve tried to compare several candlestick patterns and wins only 30-40% of the time. Is it so unreliable? or do I need to combine it with indicators too?
Candlestick pattern is reliable however how a trader read it also does matter.
They are rather subjective, you’ll need to combine it with a variety of other techniques and indicators to get a solid idea of where a price may go. If you place trades solely on candlestick patterns its a very risky strategy in my opinion!
what other techniques and indicators are you referring to? I use Candlesticker by Americanbulls.com - Candlesticks as reference for patterns
I like to use stochastic and RSI for indicators. I like elliots wave theory and gartleys patterns. But i also look for the basic patterns like wedges and pennants etc. Its all in babypips school!
what’s your average lose/win ratio using those indicator? thanks
For me ratio of win/loss does not matter. Its the amount you win and the amount you lose that matters. IF you win more pips then you lose, regardless of ratio…its all good!
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I am a novice like yourself so i have only placed a few trades, however i have blogged the most recent ones, you’ll find a link to my FXbook on the blog as well where you can see the stats of all trades i have ever placed.
I’m assuming you’re using stochastic and moving average? where can I download the scripts for these indicators? and where can I learn how to read these indicators and how it relates to the candlesticks? thanks. The one in pipschool is not very clear to me.
Well I switch indicators around but i always use Stochastic. I’ve not downloaded anything specifically, the software i use is from Oanda and it comes with a wide variety of indicators installed. Everything i have learnt is from this website, either in school or by looking around on the forums. Afraid i have no other specific links for you. You can always google search tutorials, try YouTube as well there are many videos to watch which may help explain if you get confused.
I think the combination of candlesticks and indicators is rather subjective (personal opinion) but for example if i see a shooting star candlestick and the stochastic is indicating that the pair is overbought, this is probably a good sign that the pair will go down, so its an opportunity for a sell position.
Honestly though, work through the babypips school. It really really helps.
Check out the thread called ‘forex price action’ or ’ price action for dummies’. These will show you how to use price action trading profitably.
thanks, will read those links.
What kind of risk-reward are you using? Where are you placing your entry and exits? Patterns and candlesticks tend to be more reliable on liquid pairs like the EURUSD or USDJPY during the London / NY sessions. (if you’re trading intra-day). Daily timeframe tends to be more reliable as well, but you’ll gimp your risk-reward (something that I noticed in my backtests).
Are you crazy? 30% is a very good chance, getting to 10% is difficult. Use a reward risk ratio higher than 1:1 and you will be fine. I use price action and i seek for a specific candlestick pattern.
30% is good? AFAIK, anywhere between 60 - 70 is considered good, above that is “lucky”. but below 50 means not so good.
Yes, 30% is good, with good money management can be profitable. Most of your trades will be wrong anyway.
I’m mostly confused with requirements to categorize a candle as a doji. Do the open and close must be exactly the same? My broker use 5 decimal digits, so if this standard is used, doji will very unlikely to appear. But visually, a candle really looks like a doji, but when I look closely at the open and close, they miss by 0.00001 pip or 0.0001 pip. how does a candlestick categorized as doji?
Experience, meere expereince, it must not close precisely on the same price, it can have a little body if shadows are much larger and the relative size with adjacent and past candles. You have a long way to go. I avoid dojis anyway.
I have always wondered about that. Even for a purely randon trader, over the lnog run you should have the market direction right about 50% of the time since it can only go up or down. Is that not correct?
I mean ofc there are stops and profit targets taht scewer data, but removing them, is my assumption not correct
With random entry, 1:1 risk-reward and ignoring transaction costs, you should be right 50% of the time. 
thanks,
it seems that way anyways; so even a slightest edge to beat transaction costs should be sufficient (in theory :D)