The morning star and the evening star are the last two candlestick patterns we will be studying.

Before we understand the morning star pattern, we need to understand two common price behaviours –gap up opening and gap down opening. Gaps (a general term used to indicate both gaps up and gap down) are a common price behaviour.  A daily chart gap happens when the stock closes at one price but opens on the following day at a different price.

M2Ch10-title

10.1 – The Gaps

Gap up the opening – A gap up opening indicates buyer’s enthusiasm. Buyers are willing to buy stocks at a price higher than the previous day’s close. Hence, the stock (or the index) opens directly above the previous day’s close because of the enthusiastic buyer’s outlook. For example, consider the closing price of ABC Ltd was Rs.100 on Monday. After the market closes on Monday assume ABC Ltd announces their quarterly results. The numbers are so good that the buyers are willing to buy the stock at any price on Tuesday morning. This enthusiasm would lead to stock price jumping to Rs.104 directly. This means there was no trading activity between Rs.100 and Rs.104, yet the stock jumped to Rs.104. This is called a gap up opening.  Gap up opening portrays bullish sentiment.

In the following image, the green arrows point to a gap up openings.

M2-Ch10-chart1

Gap down opening – Similar to gap up opening, a gap down opening shows the bears’ enthusiasm. The bears are so eager to sell that they are willing to sell at a price lower than the previous day’s close. In the example stated above, if the quarterly results were bad, the sellers would want to get rid of the stock and hence the market on Tuesday could open directly at Rs.95 instead of Rs.100. In this case, though there was no trading activity between Rs.100 and Rs.95, the stock plummeted to Rs.95. Gap down opening portrays bearish sentiment. In the following image, the green arrows point to a gap down opening.

M2-Ch10-chart2

10.2 – The Morning Star

The morning star is a bullish candlestick pattern which evolves over a three day period. It is a downtrend reversal pattern. The pattern is formed by combining 3 consecutive candlesticks. The morning star appears at the bottom end of a downtrend. In the chart below the morning, the star is encircled.

M2-Ch10-chart3

The morning star pattern involves 3 candlesticks sequenced in a particular order. The pattern is encircled in the chart above. The thought process behind the morning star is as follow:

  1. The market is in a downtrend placing the bears in absolute control. The market makes successive new lows during this period.
  2. On day 1 of the pattern (P1), as expected, the market makes a new low and forms a long red candle. The large red candle shows selling acceleration.
  3. On day 2 of the pattern (P2), the bears show dominance with a gap down opening. This reaffirms the position of the bears.
  4. After the gap down opening, nothing much happens during the day (P2) resulting in either a doji or a spinning top. Note the presence of doji/spinning top represents indecision in the market.
  5. The occurrence of a doji/spinning sets in a bit of restlessness within the bears, as they would have otherwise expected another down day especially in the backdrop of a promising gap down opening.
  6. On the third day of the pattern (P3), the market/stock opens with a gap, followed by a blue candle that manages to close above P1’s red candle opening.
  7. In the absence of P2’s doji/spinning top, it would have appeared as though P1 and P3 formed a bullish engulfing pattern.
  8. P3 is where all the action unfolds. On the gap up opening itself, the bears would have been a bit jittery. Encouraged by the gap up opening buying persists through the day, so much so that it manages to recover all the losses of P1.
  9. The expectation is that the bullishness on P3 is likely to continue over the next few trading sessions, and hence one should look at buying opportunities in the market.

Unlike the single and two candlestick patterns, both the risk taker and the risk-averse trader can initiate the trade on P3 itself. Waiting for a confirmation on the 4th day may not be necessary while trading based on a morning star pattern.

The long trade setup for a morning star would be as follows:

  1. Initiate a long trade at the close of P3 (around 3:20 PM) after ensuring that P1, P2, and P3 together form a morning star
  2. To validate the formation of a morning star on P3, the following conditions should satisfy:
    1. P1 should be a red candle
    2. With a gap down opening, P2 should be either a doji or a spinning top
    3. P3 opening should be a gap up, plus the current market price at 3:20 PM should be higher than the opening of P1
  3. The lowest low in the pattern would act as a stop loss for the trade

10.3 – The evening star

The evening star is the last candlestick pattern that we would learn in this module.

The evening star is a bearish equivalent of the morning star. The evening star appears at the top end of an uptrend. Like the morning star, the evening star is a three candle formation and evolves over three trading sessions.

M2-Ch10-chart4

 

The reasons to go short on an evening star are as follows:

  1. The market is in an uptrend placing the bulls in absolute control
  2. During an uptrend, the market/stock makes new highs
  3. On the first day of the pattern (P1), as expected, the market opens high, makes a new high, and closes near the day’s high point. The long blue candle formed on day 1 (P1) shows buying acceleration
  4. On the 2nd day of the pattern (P2), the market opens with a gap reconfirming the bull’s stance in the market. However, after the encouraging open, the market/stock does not move and closes by forming a doji/spinning top. The closing on P2 sets in a bit of panic for bulls
  5. On the 3rd day of the pattern (P3), the market opens gap down and progresses into a red candle. The long red candle indicates that the sellers are taking control. The price action on P3 sets the bulls in panic
  6. The expectation is that the bulls will continue to panic, and hence the bearishness will continue over the next few trading session. Therefore one should look at shorting opportunities

The trade setup for an evening star is as follows:

  1. Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star
  2. To validate the evening star formation on day 3, one has to evaluate the following:
    1. P1 should be a blue candle
    2. P2 should be a doji or a spinning top with a gap up opening
    3. P3 should be a red candle with a gap down opening. The current market price at 3:20 PM on P3 should be lower than the opening price of P1
  3. Both risk-taker and risk-averse can initiate the trade on P3
  4. The stop loss for the trade will be the highest high of P1, P2, and P3.

10.4 – Summarizing the entry and exit for candlestick patterns

Before we conclude this chapter let us summarize the entry and stop loss for both long and short trades. Remember, during the candlesticks study, we have not dealt with the trade exit (aka targets). We will do so in the next chapter.

Risk-taker – The risk-taker enters the trade on the last day of the pattern formation around the closing price (3:20 PM). The trader should validate the pattern rules and if the rules are validated; then the opportunity qualifies as a trade.

Risk-averse – The risk-averse trader will initiate the trade after he identifies a confirmation on the following day. For a long trade, the candle’s colour should be blue, and for a short trade, the candle’s colour should be red.

As a rule of thumb, the higher the number of days involved in a pattern, the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day.

The stoploss for a long trade is the lowest low of the pattern. The stoploss for a short trade is the highest high of the pattern.

10.5 – What next?

We have looked at 16 candlestick patterns, and is that all you may wonder?.

No, not really. There are many candlestick patterns, and I could go on explaining these patterns, but that would defeat the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal is to understand and recognize that candlesticks are a way of thinking about the markets. You need not know all the patterns.

Think about car driving; once you learn how to drive a car, it does not matter which car you drive. Driving a Honda is pretty much the same as driving a Hyundai or Ford. Driving comes naturally irrespective of which car you are driving. Likewise, once you train your mind to read the thought process behind a candlestick, it does not matter which pattern you see. You will know how to react and set up a trade based on the chart you are seeing. Of course, to reach this stage, you will have to go through the rigour of learning and trading the standard patterns.

So my advice to you would be to know the patterns that we have discussed here. They are some of the most frequent and profitable patterns to trade on the Indian markets. As you progress, start developing trades based on the thought process behind the bulls’ actions and the bears. This, over time, is probably the best approach to study candlesticks.


Key takeaways from this chapter

  1. Star formation occurs over three trading sessions. The candle of P2 is usually a doji or a spinning top.
  2. If there is a doji on P2 in a star pattern, it is called a doji star (morning doji star, evening doji star) else it is just called the star pattern (morning star, evening star)
  3. Morning star is a bullish pattern which occurs at the bottom end of the trend. The idea is to go long on P3 with the lowest low pattern being the stop loss for the trade.
  4. The evening star is a bearish pattern, which occurs at the top end of an uptrend. The idea is to go short on P3, with the highest pattern acting as a stop loss.
  5. The star formation evolves over a 3 days period. Hence both the risk-averse and risk taker are advised to initiate the trade on P3.
  6. Candlesticks portray the traders thought process. One should nurture this thought process as he dwells deeper into the candlestick study



826 comments

  1. Nitesh sharma says:

    Hi Karthik
    Is this a Morning Star ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes Sir, you can treat this as a morning star. However I would have been happier if the prior trend (down trend in this case) was a bit more pronounced and the 3rd day candle a bit longer. But I guess with some about of flexibility, we can consider this as a morning star. If I were trading based on this, I would expose very little capital on this trade simply because of the two point I just mentioned.

      • Nitesh Sharma says:

        Hi karthik
        My Knowledge is very less infront of you , so if you say sir to me it looks lil bad pls call me Nitesh only . 😀

      • Sachin Kanchan says:

        You might want to update the pdfs. While reading I found some mistakes that are corrected here on the Website.
        A new mistake I came across is: “The long red candle indicates that the *buyers* are taking control. The price action on P3 sets the bulls in panic”.
        Should be – “*sellers* are taking control”
        btw, nice explanation. Thanks heaps.

      • Hemant says:

        I’m a little bit confused. In the image mentioned above in the comment you said that the pattern is a morning star. But the closing of P3 is less than the opening of P1. So how it could be a morning star?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Sorry, I seem to have missed the closing bit. Nevertheless, as I have mentioned earlier, you need to have some amount of flexibility. Finding textbook definitions is not easy in real market situations.

      • Rakesh Hansalia says:

        My question is based on chart what Nitesh’s posted in above comment.

        1) Suppose if second day candle(P2) were formed as doji having BLUE short body then still we can consider as a morning start pattern ?
        2) Let’s assume conditions for P1 and P2 are satisfied then body color (blue or red ) of doji (for P2) does really matters in morning or evening start pattern ?

    • rohit.kumar4000 says:

      prior to your morningstar didn’t you see the bullish engulfing clear cut signal

  2. Gautham ks says:

    Hi Karthik
    what if a stock has complied with all the other requirements for an evening star,
    i.e —- prior trend is an clear uptrend ,
    day 1 is a long blue candle
    day 2 has a gap up
    day 2 closses as a doji/spinning top
    buy day 3 IS NOT A GAP DOWN opening….. still closes below or very near to day 1 opening.

    How important is the Gap up and gap down?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I would treat this on a case to case basis. If such a pattern appears and all other checklist items comply i.e volume, S&R, Risk Reward Ratio etc…I would go ahead and trade this confidently on the merits of an evening star.

  3. jagadeesh says:

    Hello Sir,
    I am now comfortably able to trade single candlestick patterns and that increased my success ratio quite well these days. But coming to multiple candlestick patterns, 3 out of 5 trades that i take on multiple candlestick patterns are failing. Is that because i didn’t train my eyes and brain enough to identify them correctly?? Also, does the volume in the P2 and P3 must be higher than the volume in P1 to consider it as a valid pattern??
    Thanks in advance..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Good to that you are comfortable with single candlestick patterns Jagadeesh. With regard to multiple candlestick pattern, please ensure the day you are taking an action i.e either buying or selling the volume should be above average. Also, one of the main things people miss is to validate the prior trend. So please make sure you are factoring this as well.

      • jagadeesh says:

        Yeah im not missing those two checklist points sir. I think i need to train myself in identifying support and resistance levels properly. The thing is, with the appearance of a candlestick pattern, i am totally biasing myself towards the trade direction and searching for the support around that area to support my decision. When the trade ended in loss, im realizing that area is not a major level.. 😀
        I think i need to change this behaviour. 🙂

  4. Ashwin says:

    Hi Karthik, First comment is to thank you for helping all of us with this. I have read through all the candle sticks over and over agin, but your explanations are state of the art.
    My question for these kind of patterns is, why can’t a risk lover can take the position at start of the day itself. Why would we wait for the confirmation till EOD. The same for the peircing and other patterns too. I am a bit confused here.

    • jagadeesh says:

      Hi Ashwin,
      Because you cannot cosider the pattern as valid until it completely appears on the chart. I think the main difference between the risk lover and the risk adverse is the former doesn’t need a follow through after the pattern appeared and the risk adverse guy need a follow through after the candle formation. But both these guys need a completed candlestick patter to appear on the screen which happens at the close of the day.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks Ashwin.

      Even for risk takers it would be prudent to wait for a confirmation. Think about it, the whole of candlestick patterns is actually based on price action and the markets reaction to it. We should give time for the price action to pan out. Hence for both risk takers risk averse traders it would make sense to wait proportionately (wrt to risk they want to take) ..before initiating a position.

      • Ashwin says:

        Thanks again Karthik! I completely understand and appreciate your statement ”Reaction of the market to the price action”,but sometimes due to market volatility and external factors affecting the market as a whole, there wont be any confirmation in the next day,it might become counterproductive for the risk lover,who has initiated the call only at 3.20 PM ,to get a loss the next. So, I am only trying to understand how early any breakouts like this can be capitalized.
        I have got the essence of both your point and the candle stick pattern, so may be with time and experience I might be able to answer it.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Absolutely, with time, experience, and the knowledge you have gained you will develop your own techniques of identifying markets. In fact in the long run this manifests as your edge as a trader 🙂

          • manishdjk21 says:

            What kind of discipline you’re referring to. like being able to constantly monitor the stock price during the day, keeping your news channel on for any update news or any other livewire news online? I really want to know this because, I’ll tell you something about myself. After working for 6 years in corporate world I Ieft my job in 2014, since then I have been looking for a job but no luck. Now I’ve started to think about making trading as my full time career. Thants why learning TA so that I can make money everyday. My first goal is to earn an avg income of 1 thousand daily by investing 10000 and doing margin trading. please share your thoughts on the same.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Many people quite their mainstream job to get into trading full time. The problem with this is, moment you put targets like Rs.1000/- per day then you are subconsciously adding a layer of stress on yourself, and when in stress, you cannot make rational decisions which is very crucial while trading. Frankly, the approach you are taking to markets is not correct. You will eventually come under a lot of stress and will find it very hard to benefit from markets. This may sound discouraging, but this is what happens to most of the people in your situation. How ever hard it is maybe, get a full time job, stabilize, and then trade without any sort of pressure (like making 1000 per day). This is when you will really start benefiting from markets.

          • manishdjk21 says:

            Hi Karthik,
            Thanks for the advise. On the contrary what I’ve experience in the past that it is very difficult and inefficient to do your day job in the office and place your trade, because once a person have placed the trade, then he/she tends to distract from his office work in order to keep a track on the trade and this creates a situation of see-saw where the attention is divided, which not good either. I did search for jobs a lot in the past two years, but no luck as of yet. That’s why I thought why not do trading full time, of course after getting a good understanding giving a time period of 3-6 months.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            True, juggling a full time job and trading gets distracting. But I do know people who manage this well….common trait across all these traders are that they place longer term trades. Something like a 1 week futures position or even equity position.

            Good luck and I hope you have thought through this well.

          • ZQ0852 says:

            Dear sir,
            Adding to the MANISH’s query (below), Is it possible to make money in market on daily basis and run your house, means Is it possible to generate a salary type income from trading.
            Regards

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            I’ll be frank. Its tough.

            Have a steady source of income like a salary and trade with capital that does not hurt your family needs. When you trade this way, the stress to make a fixed amount via trading is reduced, which means you can afford to be highly selective and trade only when you are thoroughly convinced.

            Place your family first, markets next.

            Good luck.

  5. Harshad Salvi says:

    Hi Nitesh,
    How did you manage to copy the chart of “LT” from icharts?

  6. Harshad Salvi says:

    Sorry Nitesh, Got it.

  7. Harshad Salvi says:

    HI Karthik,
    I know you haven’t touched the Head & Shoulders Pattern. But still would like to know from you that in the Wipro chart, can we say Head & shoulders Pattern is forming ? I think it is in the stage of forming it’s right top & also volume characteristics seem to be satisfying..
    Your thoughts pls..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I personally don’t like to track these formations. But yes, from what you have posted, it seems like it 🙂

  8. DJ9425 says:

    Dear Karthik I have attach here a chart of HDIL .Please confirm is it a morning star & followed by bullish engulf. And can we initiate here a option trade.

  9. vishvendra89 says:

    The long trade setup for a morning *start* would be as follows:, correction – *star* 🙂

  10. vishvendra89 says:

    In 10.3-evening star , point 5. On the 3rd day of the pattern (P3), the market opens gap down and progresses into a red candle. The long red candle indicates that the *buyers* are taking control. The price action on P3 sets the bulls in panic,
    correction – *sellers* 🙂

  11. Ganesh Naik says:

    Hello sir, this is a chart of Dabur EQ.. Can that second circle (right one) be classified as morning star? It does not have either doji or spinning top precisely.. but other conditions of gap openings are observed.. even volumes are not very impressive, but not less and qualifies our requirement.. while RSI is near 30, MACD does not give signals as Signal line is above Macd line.. first circle, which is an evening star, satisfies almost all conditions.. therefore, what do I classify it as?? and How to determine support for stocks that are in continuous uptrend since past two years and no prior levels at this range are available?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The doji/spinning top has a specific purpose in the star formation, hence it is mandatory for them to appear. Yeah, the 2nd pattern on the right looks like a morning start but I would be hesitant to call it the same. For stocks that are in a continuous uptrend S&R can be determined by drawing a upward sloping trend line. I have not spoken about in Varsity, but I guess it is necessary to do so considering there are many stocks displaying this pattern. Will do the same shortly.

      • Ganesh Naik says:

        Oh yes sir.. Did you observe? the above stock I did analysis yesterday, rose by around 18 rupees today.. my target breached within same day.. what might have led to such a spectacular growth of this stock in one day.. I had expected these targets within 3-4 days..

      • legend says:

        Hi Karthik, You are hesitant to call it so because of the less volumes?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Pattern wise I would agree it is a morning star, but as you said the volumes look a bit less, although it is better to read the numbers rather trusting visual instincts.

  12. girish says:

    dear karthik ji…
    is this bullish sir…this is a paper umbrella indicator sir..?
    thank you sir…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This cannot be called a bullish engulfing because there is no prior trend, which is mandatory. At best it can be treated as a marubuzo. Even then, the volume seems to be a bit low.

    • rohit.kumar4000 says:

      This is a bearish engulfing see the prior signals all indicate bearishness in market

  13. DJ9425 says:

    Dear Karthik Sir,I am posting here IDBI eod chart,confusing to read it. does it consolidation after breaking resistace of triple top,OR is it inverted H&S,OR a flag breakout , OR a dark cloud cover because it again closing around multiple resistance.

    Thanks
    Haridas

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This looks bullish for me for these reasons –
      1) It is a breakout with good volumes
      2) Also, in has take out a multiple resistance zone (triple top), again bullish
      3) After a brief run up, the stock has consolidates and moved up again…this is also a good sign.

  14. girish says:

    dear karthik sir.
    thank you very much for best tutorial ta… almost i 10 chapter going well with reading with practice, few weeks i’ll send you all my practice pics with details karthik sir…may i ask you your mail id sir, because lot’s of pics i have practiced, here it’s not possible to add all those ta pics….
    thank you sir…
    i’m very happy to fun this ta, i feel like i’m a one of the nasa team….ha ha ha ha….thank you
    it’s very interesting, amazing learning technical indicators….one day i’ll also find imagine through indicator…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m glad you are liking the topics here Girish. Please upload 1 or 2 images here so that it can benefit others as well.

      • girish says:

        dear karthik sir.
        yes sir, others also must benefit of this ta indicators karthik sir…okay i’ll update one by one each related chapters.
        here i’m updating morning star indicator sir…but it’s looks like morning star, still i’m practicing…
        thank you sir.

  15. Charles says:

    Sir, Can the 3 day candlestick pattern formed in Nifty on 30th March be termed as Morning Star ?? Asking since the 2nd candle wasnt gap down opening nor a doji. Now even a spinning top has formed the next day. Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Charles, for the same reason that you have mentioned classifying this a morning star is a tough ask. However the fact that there is a spinning top right after a bullish candle is enticing for a long trade. However please make sure other variables are also suggesting the same. Good luck.

    • rohit.kumar4000 says:

      Leave morning start see it as a hammer in downtrend with bullish confirmation but hammer is in red color contradicting the confirmation so leave the trade or wait for more signals.

  16. Shainky says:

    Hi Karthik
    I have some doubts
    1. What is single vertical line in chart? What is meaning of this?
    2. If this single line comes in between 2-3 chart pattern (for both intra-day or day wise chart), should we consider that chart pattern?
    3. In moneycontrol chart, instead of taking open price as you mentioned in your chapters, they use previous day closing. This make any changes in chart pattern or any conditions?

    Some suggestions:
    1. Can you provide PI on web and mobile app also.
    2. Provide stable Zerodha app for Andriod 5 (Lolipop) version.

    I hope I am not bombarding you with too many questions.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No you are not bombarding us with you questions, always a pleasure relying to queries 🙂

      1) The single vertical line could be to highlight a specific day. So if there are two single vertical lines in a chart, it is simply referring to the time period encapsulated between the two vertical lines. Also, please note the vertical line is just a highlighter, it can be used for many things…so always view this in the given context.

      2) I guess the above answer also gives you clarity on your 2nd query

      3) It does make some difference, for charts I would suggest you look at chartink.com, they are quite good.

      4) For queries related to Pi, I would suggest you email [email protected]

      • Shainky says:

        Hi Karthik
        Thanks for reply.
        I have one more doubt:
        As you are mentioned that bar should be more than 1% and less than 10%. what should be bar length in case of intra-day?
        Can you suggest some app for intra-day or website which can be opened on mobile?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          The same rule can be applied for intraday trading. Not sure about an app for intraday charting. Have you tried moneycontrol?

          • Shainky says:

            In intra-day there might not come candle of length more than 1%. For example, in nifty 1% is equal to approx 82 now. In 5 -15 minutes chart, I think one bar may never come of 82 or more. Then what should be bar size?
            Moneycontrol chart is simple line chart with no option.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            True. In such a case you should visually develop a sense of the average size of the candle. Have you seen chartink.com?

          • Shainky says:

            chartlink.com is also NOT for intra-day.
            I am basically interested in intra-day for future and option. If you can suggest some chart app/website, it will be very helpful for me.

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Have you tried http://www.chartnexus.com/ or http://www.icharts.in/? They provide intraday charts but for a fee I suppose.

  17. T RAMA DEVI says:

    Sir,
    Iam unable to understand this rule “As a rule of thumb, higher the number of days involved in a pattern the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day`. Is it to enter on day 3 i.e P3. Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It means, for example – a bullish engulfing pattern (2 day pattern) is more dependable than a hammer (1 day pattern) and a morning start (3 day pattern) is more dependable than a bullish engulfing (2 day pattern). So higher the number of days in a pattern the higher the conviction to trade. Please note this is just mu personal observation while trading.

  18. Kartikey says:

    How to interpret a Hanging man and a consecutive Bearish Harami after a prior uptrend? Thanks

  19. madhu nair says:

    is this what is called exhaustion?? multiple bear candles. do you see a recognizable pattern?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Exhaustion is when the rally (be it upward or downward) starts to lose its momentum. This is bearish for sure, but no pattern as such.

  20. madhu nair says:

    there have been 4 attempts to breach 772 on this chart of century textiles, including yesterday. based on the 5 minute chart i went long at 773 yesterday and the price reversed. should the previous unsuccessful attempts to breach 772 been a signal for me not to enter the trade. also, yesterday the price of 773 was above R2 on pivot signals.

  21. madhu nair says:

    just that, the stock made four attempts to cross 772, as indicated by the blue line. my query was should that have been a signal not to go long at 773 as the price immediately reversed. on the pivot indicator for the day the price was way above R2.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Well, Madhu that itself should not be considered as a valid signal. These are just daily swings without concrete patterns…I would always prefer to set up trades based on time tested candlestick patterns.

  22. SaikiranGarapati says:

    Hi,

    Can any body tell below pic (in last) has Morning Star in KPIT?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Although the required gaps are missing, I would be flexible enough to classify it as a morning star.

      • SaikiranGarapati says:

        Thanks for Reply Karthik, But unfortunately stock down 20% to day…So from these type of situations how we have to escape? SL is the only way or is other options are there to survive in the market?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Saikiran, I have mentioned this somewhere in the module, unfortunately I cant seem to track it. But anyway, here is the thing – whenever you expect any sort of fundamental news, please do not trade the same stock on the basis of technical analysis. So KPIT had the qtrly results announcement, and the trade was set up based on a technical pattern…which should not have been done in the first place. Unfortunately even I was not aware of this, else I would have flagged you. For all these reasons and more keeping a SL is mandatory.

  23. madhu nair says:

    Hi Karthik, can we classify the pattern as an evening star? the gap up with a spinning top and the gap down on the third candle fits the bill. my worry was on the length of the third candle in the pattern. the volumes were strong and the RSI in the overbought zone. the pattern formed above the resistance line. was it too high from the resistance line? the stock did correct thereafter.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Exactly, the length is a bit worrisome, everything else seems fine to me. Also, the pattern has a good support below, which means tht could have served as a target for this trade.

  24. madhu nair says:

    Karthik, could have one gone short on the basis of the immediate black candle after an uptrend? it was formed with volumes too. can it be classified as a bearish marubuzo, albeit it had a lower wick. an other bearish formation with volumes was formed today. is it prudent to go short when you spot a bearish marubuzo with volumes anywhere on charts? thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes Madhu, whenever you spot bearish marubuzo with convincing volumes consider a short. However if you are not really certain or confident to short I would suggest you take a short exposure via options (buy a put option or sell a call option). If you have missed the short trade completely then I would suggest you wait for a low volume retracement (stock going up in this case) and again initiate a short. Good luck.

  25. madhu nair says:

    Hi Karthik, in this chart we have an evening star which satisfies all characteristics. As the pattern is formed at new highs can the zone be treated as new resistance as indicated by blue line? thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, this looks good and the level can certainly be treated as a short term resistance.

  26. madhu nair says:

    Hi karthik, can we be flexible and call the formation on support the morning star? gap down with a spinning top though , the first and the last candles have a lower and upper shadow respectively. the volumes are strong. The stock did rally today. would like to have your view. thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In fact this is a fairly decent morning star pattern, I would be happy to set up a simple options trade on this 🙂

  27. madhu nair says:

    Karthik, can we classify the pattern formed at a new high as an evening star? the reason i ask is, the second candle is a black candle. should the second candle in an evening star always be bullish?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The second candle in a star formation is either a spinning top or a doji. In both these candles (spinning top & doji) the color does not matter. The fact that the real body is so small in these candles suggest that the price action is not significant, hence the color does not really matter.

  28. madhu nair says:

    Got that …so would you say the formation was an evening star?

  29. Robin says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Thanks for these tutorials. Really enjoying it.
    Just wanted to confirm that I am reading the charts right. Attached is todays (13/5/15) NIFTY chart (2 months). Pls confirm …
    6th candle from right – Long red Marubozu…..signal to go short.
    5th candle from right – a gap down red Spinning top…. Uncertain markets (but it is a red candle which confirms the bearishness signal given by red Marubozu)
    4th candle from right – a gap up white candle.
    **Question 1**…Can these 3 candles be considered a Morning star pattern?…. doubt is regarding the 4th candle…even though it is a gap up opening, the length does not cover the 6th candle. Volumes are ok. (if I had gone long on the next day opening, I could have achieved my target of 50 to 60 points in intraday itself   )
    3rd cable from right – a normal white candle (confirms the bullish signal of Morning star pattern)
    2nd candle from right – a long red Marubozu… signal to go short.
    **Question 2 **… Can candles 3 and 2 be considered a Bearish Engulfing pattern? (Trend is minor uptrend in a general downtrend)… (if I had gone short the next day opening i.e today, I would have achieved my target of 50 to 60 points in intraday itself   )
    1st candle from right – a white Hammer…. Signal to buy. (general trend is down)
    **Question 3 **… Can candles 2 and 1 be considered a Bullish Harami pattern? (general trend is down).
    Please confirm if my reading of the candles are right…and also pls answer the 3 question.
    This has been a long posting… Thanks for reading this and thanks for ur time.
    ROBIN

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That’s a long list 🙂 But glad to know you are taking time to read up. My answers are as below –

      1) It cannot be considered as a morning star for reasons that you have stated yourself. The length does not justify. As far as the target goes (50 -60 points), your guess is as good as mine. It could be achieved on the same session or in few successive session. Cant really predict the same.

      2) Although the candle does appear to look like an engulfing pattern the lack of an uptrend prevents one to classify it as a Bearish engulfing. Again one cannot comment on the time for target.

      3) Yes, 2nd and 1st candle combined forms a bullish harami, you need to evaluate other parameters required for setting up the trade.

  30. Aditya says:

    Hello Karthik, Thank you for the usefule info. It helps to build confidence of a newcomer like me. Just one thing – When a gap is formed between closing of one day and opening of next, actually there was no activity happened in the market. But, the movement in market happend due to difference in demand and supply. Since market is closed, although sentiments might e high, but how did these sentiments got reflected in the closed market to pull (or push) it and made a gap?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the feedback Aditya.

      Well imagine this…you goto the vegetable market at 9:00 PM (assume you were the last customer) and buy a 1 KG of onions @ Rs.25. At 6:00 AM next day the truck drivers decide to go on an indefinite strike…therefore impacting the vegetable prices (because of the truck strike supply will get affected). Now imagine you goto the same vegetable market and same vegetable vendor (you are the 1st customer) to buy another KG of onions. Do you think he will sell it to you at Rs.25? Maybe not, he will sell it at Rs.28 or Rs.30/-. So the overnight change in sentiment has affected the onion prices and therefore the price of onions is said to have gapped up. Likewise in the stock markets!

      • civils.aditya says:

        Thanks for the prompt reply Karthik and the easy explanation. But one more question popped up. With your reply, I can now think that the sellers decided to go with the mood of market and accordingly decide price. But, there might be different sellers who are not even in contact with each other and might want to quote different prices at the opening of market yet the market opens with one price how this final price is arrived? Sorry to dig in so deep.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Well, the markets are interconnected. Information flows easily…and if a seller does not have the latest information he obviously has a disadvantage. In case of stock markets, the quotes are electronically updated and with the help of market depth the traders can see and gauge the mood of the market…hence majority of the traders are kind of in sync.

  31. SUNIL KUMAR says:

    Hello Karthik,
    You are doing a great job by writing these modules. It’s really good for beginners as well as for those who have mastered the art. Keep up the good work. An average Indian is scared of the Stock Market as he has no financial knowledge. But your modules are really informative and easy to understand. It will encourage new investors. Request you to make all the modules available in PDF format for download. As of now, only the 1st Module and Ch 1-9 of the 2nd Module are available. Looking forward for the other Modules to be available for download.
    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words Sunil. Words like these encourage us to do better and better 🙂

      We are working on converting the chapters into downloadable PDFs. Please bear with us for sometime. Thanks.

  32. madhu nair says:

    Karthik, an evening star was formed at a new high which probably is a short term resistance. The day after the formation the price did fall but recovered to form a doji . ideally the price should have fallen and stayed low. do you think the uncertainty as shown by the doji day would lead to price fall the next trading day? would like to hear your view.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Too tempting to stay short here – the presence of doji is conducive for a further fall in the stock. Good luck.

  33. madhu nair says:

    karthik, an evening star at resistance was formed a couple of days back. the fall though following that has been muted. do you think after a three candle bearish pattern the price correction should have been steeper? am i reading it correctly?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Well the job ends after spotting a valid pattern and placing the trade 🙂

      Once you place the trade, you just hope that the stock moves in the expected direction. The same is applicable here – its a valid pattern (and assuming everything else is well aligned) – the expectation is that the stock price will correct – when and how is difficult to estimate !

      • madhu nair says:

        i agree. what do you think of the other alignments? the volumes were good. the RSI is at over brought , the MACD signal blue line though was still above the MACD red line. how strong were the indicators for a short trade?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Both these indicators are good. But honestly my dependence on indictaors as such is low – especially for intrady trades. I prefer to emphasise more on candlesticks, volumes, and S&R levels…needless to the current news riding on the stock also matters to me.

  34. madhu nair says:

    secondly karthik, an other evening star at resistance with volume. my question is can this be considered as ES? the stock seems to be in a trading range. or, can it be treated as valid since it seems to be a part of secondary trend of the overall primary bearish trend. also, i am using a 14 day moving average for volumes and you have advocated a 10 day MA. hope that is fine.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      More than the ES pattern (which btw is not very convincing due to the lack of a proper uptrend)…the fact that it has formed a double top along with a ES is attractive.

      • madhu nair says:

        thanks. appreciate that. i am using a 14 day MA for volumes rather than a 10 day MA as you have advocated in the module. hope that is fine?

  35. Rishi Sekhri says:

    Hello Karthik Sir, I want to ask that 2nd candle in Morning Star needs to be a blue candle or it can be a red candle & 2nd candle in Evening star needs to be a red candle or can be a blue candle?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The 2nd candle in the star patter is either a Doji or a spinning top. Hence it does not really matter if it is bullish or bearish colored candles. It can be anything.

  36. Rishi Sekhri says:

    Ok Sir. Thanx a lot.
    One more thing, the time showing in the questions or answers do not match the ones when we post it.

  37. DJ9425 says:

    Dear Karthik,
    1) Is there any classification of CANDLESTICK PATTERNS , as power or intensity of that pattern for trend reversal ?
    2)Since we are using EOD charts for trading , should we take stop loss as closing basis or to put in system in live session. Because several times SL get triggered in live session but closing gets below SL and then target also gets achieved.

    Thanks.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) People do classify candlesticks based on success ratio, but I dont really rely on it much. I think it makes far more sense to classify it based on your own experience of trading the pattern, adaptability, etc.

      2) SL is usually on closing basis…however dont wait for the close. In case the mkt closes below your SL, next day could be a gap down and you could lose far lower than what you had originally budgeted for. Hence watch the close and in case the price is your lower than your SL level by 3:20, close the position. Also, having said this also be aware that the next day could also be a gap up :). I’m not trying to confuse you, but just being aware of possibilities helps!

  38. Alok says:

    Hi Karthik
    I am bit confused with p1 as 1st day p2 as 2nd day and p3 as 3rd day, if one is doing intra day trading with 5 min graph, if successive 5 min graph making morning or evening star will be considered.
    Thanks
    Alok

  39. SaikiranGarapati says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Can i expect last three candles are formed a Evening star in Ashok leyland chart

  40. Aditya says:

    Dear Sir

    please check weather the attached chart of RS software is giving MORNING STAR SIGNAL,i feel it is following the 03rules(marked in circle) .
    1. P1 is red candle(13/11/15)
    2.With a gap down opening, P2 is doji or a spinning top(16/11/15)
    3.P3 opening is gapup, plus the current market price at 3:20 PM (should be higher) is little lower than the opening of P1 but if consider another rule BE FLEXIBLE ,QUANTIFY .
    can it be consider as morning star ??. if yes what should be the targets.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Technically right, but I would not classify this as Morning Star….for a simple reason that P1 does not have convincing range for the day. It appears more like a hammer formation.

  41. Tanmoy says:

    Hi Karthik, At what time do we need to analyze charts for pattern confirmation in commodities & currencies trading? Adding to the above we have global economic events/news almost on a daily basis which impacts the movement so wouldn’t it be risky to take overnight positions if compared to equities

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I agree. Overnight risk for currency and commodities is quite high. Hence while trading currencies and commodities it is always advisable to have sufficient margins to accommodate for these swings and M2M movements.

      I would suggest you look at the pattern formation on a EOD basis.

  42. Rohan says:

    Hello Karthik & Team,
    Thanks for everything…This is really helpful..!
    I have a small doubt…all the candlesticks concept like engulfing,doji,star etc ..1) Can we apply all these concepts on any type of charts(specially Heikin-Ashi Candlestick chart)?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No, candlestick patterns are best applied to Candlestick charting alone…best not to mix it with other charting techniques.

  43. Raja says:

    Hello Karthik Sir,
    First of all thanks a ton for your effort you have put in here, its really very very helpful. Could you please tell me which Candle chart pattern is best for PI Users between the normal Candle Chart and Heikin Ashi for 5 mints or 15 mints intra day trade. Thanks in advance.

  44. Raja says:

    Sir… for Nifty Fut Intra Day trading which are the best Technical indicators to follow like. EMA/MA, RSI, MACD etc. I mean which indicators are most suitable to comprehend the Nifty trend for intra day trading. Thanks in Advance.

  45. SUBHANKAR says:

    Is this marking area bearish engulfing pattern?

  46. Rachit says:

    Is nifty forming a perfect evening star in last three candles
    Does it means a sharp fall is coming

  47. RK kumar says:

    hi karthik, all analysts used to give stop loss and shirk away from the responsibility of their calls,on normal days which could work perfectly :), but my doubt is what an investor can do on occasions like august 24th kind of 400 points fall ,jan 2016 fall on account of china ,in such cases when the market open itself it would be in deep red and much lower than your otherwise stop, while making up your mind it shall down further….it hurts option buyers most, itm contracts can become virtually worthless, what strategy can be adopted? how overnight risk can be managed?is any methodology in order placing that your order will execute first when such situation by which can salvage what ever can be redeemed?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      As you evolve as a trader you will realize that a spread position is far better than a naked directional position, its probably the best way to deal with overnight risk. A spread position reduces your overall profitability but at the same time gives a greater visibility on risk. In my opinion this is a far better deal. We have bee discussing spread positions here – http://zerodha.com/varsity/module/option-strategies/

  48. RK kumar says:

    hi karthik,admit that send some comments, as i am really excited to see what i have been searching, feel pity that i have not realized such thing existed while i was searching on YouTube and elsewhere, how your material stands above others cause you are perfect blend of both,good teacher with vast knowledge in finance domain besides active trader,normally will not get that mix…kudos

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words Kumar. Zerodha is really committed to provide the best and most practical trader education at free of cost. Comments like yours keep us motivate to do even better! Cheers.

  49. RK kumar says:

    Hi karthik,Thanks for your prompt reply that is inspiring..one suggestion from my end …why can’t design the comment page desing like fb…like,share etc…it would give nice interface and social media kind of advantages…Thanks.

  50. Joe says:

    Reading all these modules I must say Karthik, you are simply outstanding! I had no idea of these candle chart stuffs before reading this module but can now confidently proclaim that I’m not getting this. As usual apologies for some silly questions that I have while I read all these modules(since I trade in commodity)
    1. What is your recommendation to choose a time frame (whether 5 minute, 10 minute, 15 minute etc…) for a day trader like me ?
    2. I don’t keep any overnight positions, in that sense does these stars(morning, evenings:)) applicable?
    3. Last but not least with so many indicators we have what indicators I should use for day trading( I normally trade 3 hours 6 PM to 9 PM).

    I think you should write a book Karthik that will benefit millions of retail traders in India! who knows you could be the next popular like Robert Kiyosaki for ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’!

    • Joe says:

      some typo mistake in my first statement Karthik….please read as
      I had no idea about these candle chart stuffs before reading this module but can now confidently proclaim that I’m now getting this.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Joe, I’m glad you Varsity is helping you 🙂

      1) For day trading I’d suggest you look at 10 or 15 mins data
      2) Yes, they do matter. For example assume last two days the stock has formed a bullish engulfing…then on 3rd day you are much better off doing long intraday trades rather than short intraday trades in other words you need to be buying on dips
      3) MAs are quite effective I suppose.

  51. SaikiranGarapati says:

    Hi,

    Can i consider the circled candles as a Morning Star?

  52. Suresh.ks says:

    Hi sr ,
    Double top,Double bottom,Flags,pennants,Cup and Handle, Wedging,Island Reversal,Head and Shoulder,
    Rounding bottom….these are important patterns?
    Do we need to learn these?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The more you know, the higher is your conviction on a trade. The higher your conviction, the greater is your probability of making a profit.

  53. Suresh.ks says:

    Hi
    Could you include the patterns double top,double bottom,head and shoulder,flags,pennants ,wedging…in this module?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Double top/bottom, triple top/bottom is included in Dow Theory. Will include other patterns as well.

  54. Rohan Bhambhani says:

    Could you please explain the thought process behind ‘The Stick Sandwich’??

  55. tanmoy says:

    Hi Karthik, can we consider the below as morning star although gap down didn’t happen but it’s close considering flexibility.
    https://kite.zerodha.com/share/UG5FTYIN51.png

  56. Shafeeq says:

    Dear Karthik,
    In an multiple candlestick pattern, which day’s volume should be considered (as above average) for making a trading decision?
    Both the candles should be above average Volumes or the Last Candle should be above average volume?
    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Preferably the candle that triggers the action to buy/sell…this means the latest (P2 or P3) candles.

  57. Abhijit Mazumder says:

    Karthik,
    Quick noob question? Is making new high or new low is necessary for evening start or morning star respectively? The reason I am asking today Nifty looks like forming an evening star; but it is not at a new high
    Thanks,
    Abhijit

  58. RAJIV says:

    Sir, for Morning star pattern – should the P3 candle close be higher than the P1 Open or P1 Close? please clarify

  59. Vishal Javakhedkar says:

    HI Kartik, In case of gap up opening, does previous trend matter. So for example if last 3 candles are red then suddenly a gap up opening and if last 3 are blue candle and suddenly a gap up opening, do we need to read both these cases differently.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, it would but the gap up should be significantly higher than the last 3 candles.

      • Vishal says:

        Sorry I didn’t understand your answer, trend will matter or not

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Gap will matter if the gap opening is much higher than the last few trading sessions. For example if over the last few session stock has declined by 5%, but today the stock opens gap up 5%, then I’d assign more importance to the gap up opening.

  60. SaikiranGarapati says:

    Hi Sir,
    IDEA Cellular formed a Morning Star Pattern right?
    It is at support level and Resistance is at 100 as per mine,Can you confirm it please?

    Last ten days avg Volume is 63,36,509 and to day’s Volume is 10044807.

    Regards,
    SaikiranGarapati.

  61. vighnesh B says:

    Hi Karthik,
    First of all thank you for all the knowledge sharing through varsity.
    Would like to know your perspective on the following 2 points
    1. For a day trader scanning for stocks to trade the next day, what time frame candle stick chart should be researched and at what time?
    2. Does Zerodha have a stock scanner to notify say buy or sell signals generated with supertrend indicator on a 5 minute chart of all nifty stocka at a particular point in the day.

    Regards

    vighnesh B

  62. sarbojitg says:

    What happens if a Evening Star formation appears in a downtrend ? If you look at the Tata Elxsi share, its showing a evening star formation in a downtrend.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      An evening star by definition requires a the market/stock to trend higher as prior trend, absence of which it does not qualify as an evening start. So an evening star at down trend is not really an evening star.

  63. Divy says:

    Would a pattern be classified as Evening star if instead of 1 doji, there are 2 dojis ?

  64. Divy says:

    I want to ask you though. What made you write this module and who else are involved in creating it ? When will module 9 be ready ?

  65. Divy says:

    Hey, if a stock on P3 opens marginally lower than P2’s close and goes on to form a long green candle will that qualify as a Morning star ? Can you please check HUL daily for Morning star and do you think on the weekly chart its forming a bullish harami ? Thanks again.

  66. Divy says:

    What does it mean when a hammer and a inverted hammer are formed next to each other ? This is quite common and confusing as well. I cannot paste links here for some odd reason.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I know what you are talking about. Usually these formations occur when there is no trend in the market…very typical of a sideways market.

  67. Manish Agarwal says:

    I am just astonished, the quality information you have provided on TA. How come I could not come across VARSITY FOR SO LONG. I am constantly on internet.

    I have just read twice the TA till candle stick and have a query.

    You presented the idea of the presence of Doji in the Bullish/Bearish Engulfing pattern. My question is that can this be combined with other single candle stick patterns or double stick patterns or this theory should only be applied with Bullish / bearish engulfing patterns.
    For example
    1) what if a doji is preceded by a Bullish/Bearish Marubozu pattern.
    2) what if doji is preceded by a Bullish / bearish harami

    Other General risk related questions:

    1) You suggest that one who is new in trading should start with swing trading as opposed to Intraday. But I think swing trading can be riskier than the intraday. Because what I have observed is that market is very dynamic and is being affected by global news actions and stock markets like dow jones, etc. so keeping a trade overnight can be affected by the news action after the close of the market.

    what do you think about my thought process?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Manish – yes, you can combine dojis with other patterns as well. No problem with it.

      Intraday trading requires great amount of discipline and technique, you can nurture these qualities with swing trading.

  68. seemapv says:

    Dear Karthik, I read your TA both modules. Hats off!!! Thank you. One small correction that I noticed..(I know it is a typo error..) Under “10.3 – The evening star” just below the image, under point no. 5. of “The reasons to go short on an evening star are as follows,” ………red candle indicates that the SELLERS (it is printed as buyers) are taking control……….. Kindly, do the needful. Thank you again for such a magnanimity to share your wisdom! Warm Regards…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for pointing this out, will look through and me the corrections 🙂

      Also, happy to know you liked the contents here! Good luck and happy learning!

  69. Rajiv says:

    Hi Sir, Thanks for a great article. very useful. My query is: Has Maruti on Jan 13 formed a evening star pattern on Daily charts. Please clarify. Thank you.

  70. Rahul says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Thanks for all you are doing for novice traders like me . At many places, you have mentioned that you will trade a particular stock using options. I want to know in what situation, you trade a stock using option.

  71. AMIT KUMAR PANDEY says:

    sir suppose (from the Point of view of intraday) we found a Bearish Engulfing Pattern on EOD chart,and found a overbought stocastic crossover on EOD CHART and the TREND on Hourly and daily chart both are UP and if i follow 10 Min chart so whether should i look for long or shorting opportunity ?
    here if i go short i will be against trend and if i go long then i m ignoring the EOD bearish pattern?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’d avoid trading the scrip if there are opposing views. Look for opportunities where there is more clarity.

  72. ALOO says:

    Hello, I’ve a few queries.

    A.
    1) In this BPCL chart, as you said the 1st curve is a down trend. Can we call the 2nd curve marked with question mark an uptrend ?

    2) Also the last 3 candlesticks, does it form a morning doji star ?

    3) Lastly, if the volume is almost near average line but not touching it, can we take it as a yes ?

    Link – https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0bePrdjZCDoVFBiRTlrTkZ2SUZHUEFqT3VyVHlKMnphdkI4/view?usp=sharing


    B.
    1) In this INFY chart, has it formed a double bot dow pattern ? And the point which it is at right now can lead to either a breakout or back to in range ?

    Link – https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0bePrdjZCDoVFBIQnFyWjRReERmNGtCUlkyc3VvaDFBTXFv/view?usp=sharing

    2) A doji/spinning top after any candlestick pattern catalyses it ?

    C.
    1)In the chart below of Ambuja Cement
    Its a downtrend and further 2 hammer forms following a doji with good volume yet it didn’t go bullish. Why

    Link – https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0bePrdjZCDob0JKbWxvci1QV0U/view?usp=sharing

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes, you need at least 5 trading sessions to confirm a trend
      2) Yes
      3) Yes
      4) Yes – its a double bottom
      5) TA only increases the probability – does not give you guarantees.

      • ALOO says:

        Thank you for the reply.
        1) So, we can say that there could be a downtrend/uptrend in between of a overall uptrend/downtrend ?
        2) In the BPCL chart you said that it is forming a Morning doji star but in the chapter above, you’ve mentioned that the P3 must close above opening of P1 which is not the case in the chart then why is it a morning doji star ?
        3) So if the volume is little below the average volume it is ok and can be considered as a yes for trading checklist?
        4) Does a doji/spinning top after any candlestick pattern catalyses its effect ?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          1) Yes – these are called primary and secondary trend

          2) No harm being a bit flexible. It is hard to find textbook patterns in real markets.

          3) Just below average is still ‘ok’. Maybe 5%. Not drastically below.

          4) Yes. I’ve discussed this in the chapter.

          • ALOO says:

            Thank you for replying, as you’ve suggested earlier that above average volume signifies a strong pattern. So the patterns in which there are 2 or 3 candlesticks(like star and engulfing), are all of the candlesticks in the pattern
            are required to have above average volumes to be a strong pattern ?

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            Yes, higher the volume, the better it is.

          • ALOO says:

            😀 Thank you for all the replies! Could you please tell me how do I build up confidence even when trading in CNC that what I’ve figured out by lookin at the charts and matching it with the checklist is correct ? Because sometimes some patterns that are fulfilling everything doesn’t work but some patterns where volume or some other factor is quite less it still works and goes per the pattern..

            Also how much money should I start with as per a newbie

          • Karthik Rangappa says:

            The only way to build confidence is by actually placing trades and executing your ideas. Start with capital that you are not scared of losing.

  73. aravindt says:

    Hi can these candle-stick patterns be used in forecasting the market for intraday trading using 5 mins candlestick??

  74. ALOO says:

    Thank you for the advice! I’ll definitely try to place the trades by overcoming the fear.

    Is this an uptrend ?
    Because after a correction it made a new high
    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0bePrdjZCDoR0F0YklXa091X00

  75. Madan says:

    Thanks Karthik for really useful content. I have one basic question. I know how to place intra-day short trade. But, How do we short shares of a company at 3:20 using Kite without having those shares in demat ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It is the same way as you’d short intraday…except that you need to cover the position before 3:29 PM. I’d suggest you avoid doing this as it can get quite risky.

      • Madan says:

        So, when you are saying that a risk averse person will initiate trade(let us say short trade) at 3:20PM of the day after pattern, he will have to square off at 3.29PM? But then, how did he gain from it as actual gain is expected on next day.

  76. Ayush says:

    Who sets the gap up opening & gap down opening price.

  77. Shyam says:

    Hi Kartik,

    At the outset let me thank Zerodha for starting this initiative to spread knowlede on stock markets. This is truly a masterpiece.You surely have the flair for explaining such complex subjects in clear and lucid way. I have not come across any materials on technical analysis on web that is so simple and easily understood. Truly this is amazing!!!
    Coming back to technical anaysis, I request you to download the below link of Nitin spinners chart for your ref.

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxpxOUxrE_YbSE9wa2h3WG53cGs/view?usp=sharing

    I see a spinning top at top indicating a possible fall in price. But today I see that this stock has made a breakout abv 125 and is at a all time high@129. Can you please help in aanalysing what went wrong?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Shyam.

      Spinning top does not convey a change in trend. It just tells you that the current trend has paused. It may or may not continue. Expecting a fall solely based on ST is not justified.

      • Shyam says:

        Hi Karthik,

        Thanks for reverting. Though ADX is strong and even the +DI is way above -DI I exited my position after seing ST and even volumes were falling. Now that it has given a breakout at 125 ,i am thinking of re-entering this stock at current level and go long . Can you confirm if this is ok?

  78. Shyam says:

    Hi Kartik,

    Noted Parameters are diff for each pattern. For the above pattern if nitin spinners what shd be the parameters?

  79. Pankaj says:

    Hello sir,
    I am learning about stock market from this platform and i must say the work you have done to make it possible to feel stock market easy is incredible….
    sir, I wanted to ask you that is Harami pattern is exactly opposite to engulfing pattern????

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It is another pattern, similar to engulfing. The parameters are different, but works similar to the engulfing pattern.

  80. Ashwin says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Firstly I would like to thank you for amazing tutorial. I wanted deeper insight into the components of a single candlestick (Upper shadow, real body, lower shadow). I was able to describe the meaning of only some of them and it is as below. It would be very helpful if you can verify if the meaning of candlestick components mentioned below is correct and give the meaning of components I was not able to define.

    The meaning of the candle components individually without taking into consideration other parts of candlestick:
    1. Long upper shadow: The bulls tried to push the price higher but were not successful.
    2. Long lower shadow: The bears tried to pull the price lower but were not successful.
    3. Short upper shadow:
    4. Short lower shadow:
    5. Long blue body: The bulls tried to push the price higher and were successful.
    6. Long red body: The bears tried to pull the price lower and were successful.
    7. Thin body (color does not matter):

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Yes – they tried to push the price higher, but the high point wan not sustained
      2) Yes – they tried to push the price lower, but the low point was not sustained
      3) Means that the high was near to the close/close
      4) Means that the low was near to the open/close
      5) Yes
      6) Yes
      7) Yes

  81. Rajiv says:

    hi Sir, on Apr 28 2017 close, has TVS formed a bearish evening star pattern on daily charts. My concern is P3 is a green candle but still the p3 close is near to p1 open. please share your thoughts. Thank you.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hmm…along with P3, P2 also seems to be a concern. The gap is not convincing enough.

  82. gauravbhandari says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Request you to please look at TCS chart today….is it forming a valid Morning Star…I see that there is no gap down on P2 but can we consider it..Does it look good to place a trade?

    I’m not able to upload images here…can you help me with that also?

    Thanks

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not a MS for sure. You will have to validate the pattern and make a fair assessment 🙂

      • gauravbhandari says:

        Thanks Karthik. I have one doubt – how do you identify a uptrend or downtrend…should it be a steep slope…or variations are allowed. What if I calculate percentage for uptrend or downtrend…what is a good value to consider it…like 10% downtrend or uptrend starting from the 1st day I identify the trend till the most recent candle.
        If there is any other method that can be used please let me know.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          For all CS patterns, prior period trend should be at least 5%, but yeah something like 10% is great. I’d look at only the percentage basis. Slopes can be a little misleading at time.

  83. Rahul Sihara says:

    Hi Karthik, these modules are amazing thanks for them.
    My question is where to use these technical analysis? i mean for equity in CNC or MIS?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You can use it across any order type (NRML, MIS, CNC) and across any assets like EQ, Commodity, Currency etc.

  84. Amit Aggarwal says:

    Hello Karthik, had a question regarding the candle stick pattern. Are these pattern valid for 5 min candle stick pattern also.

    your early response will be highly appreciated.

  85. I am not able to grasp the pattern ONGC is following this days… please help me explain

  86. Valentine Gerard Edward says:

    Could you explain in detail why is the reason for stop-loss being the highest of high for bearishness and lowest of low for bullishness… With an example if possible…?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The highest point in case of bearish patter represents the level at which the bears managed to push the prices lower. Hence its perceived that this level will hold for the next few trading sessions. Likewise for the bullish patter with its low as the SL. Have included many examples in the chapter and the entire module.

  87. PrasanthG says:

    Hi karthik, I have a doubt. All these chapters ask me to initiate a trade at 3:20 .But Zerodha doesnt provide margin for trades that carry for next day.So how to go about this. Will zerodha give margin for 5 days like many other brokers do(although the charges are very high).If not how to make a profitable trade without that option?

  88. balaji says:

    karthick how is fortis health care in charts ?
    is it good or shall i sell?

  89. ram says:

    can we use this patterns in intraday (5mints & 10 mints )charts also ? it gives same results

  90. Pavan says:

    Hi Karthik,
    You were telling that a trader can go long when it is morning star etc. Do you mean that the trader have to buy normal CNC stocks to keep with him for more days and not intraday buy or sell stocks? Is my understanding correct?
    Please advice

  91. Rajinder says:

    Dear Sir,
    I have read yours so far single candle pattern only. There is one doubt if risk taker initiate call at 1520 hrs and on next day unfortunately call goes unfavorable to him, then on next he supposed to round off with minimum loss. But on the other hand there is some technical difficulties for next day selling.
    Now what he is supposed to do? whether he should wait for T+2 days and avoid technical problems with more losses?

  92. Aman kabra says:

    In Points for thought process of a morning star the point 7 states that P1 and P3 is forming Bullish Engulfing. i am not getting how it is forming Bullish Engulfing. Condition for formation of Bullish Engulfing is P1 is red candle with P2 engulf P1 real body. but here P2 is not engulfing P1.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Bullish Engulfing in the sense that P3 covers up the losses on P1. You need to look at this from a very generic sense here.

  93. Ash says:

    Hi Karthik,

    1. I think then candle stick trades can’t be fully utilized in cash trading and there will always be a loss if the pattern goes wrong somehow in the next two days after we make a trade, since the stock won’t be in our demat account (to sell off) in 2-3 days, correct?
    2. So It is always recommended to trade in stock futures?
    3. Also I don’t think we can play in options because we are looking at the stock price for patterns and not the option premium price, correct?

    Thanks,
    Ash

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) You can always opt for a futures or options trade instead of cash
      2) Maybe, it really depends upon your risk appetite
      3) You can. Premium is a function of the price in the spot market.

      • Ash says:

        For your reply to point 3, Are you saying these same candlestick patterns can be applied to option premium price too and trade options contract same way? Asking since I don’t think options price is just derived based on the price of the stock but also on other factors like time to expiry, demand etc. Let me know.

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          1) No, what I mean to say is that you can look at Candlestick pattern on the spot data to make deductions…you can act upon this in the options market.

  94. Sai Pramod says:

    Hi karthik,

    In the morning star pattern why should we wait for P3 when we have already know that formation of P2 is a trend reversal from single candlestick pattern. I think a risk taker would trade on P2 close when he himself understands it to be a doji or spinning top and expecting a trend reversal.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It really depends on how much risk you are willing to take. Also, A morning star is considered a morning start only upon the formation of P3, P1 & P2 forms nothing really.

  95. Sudipta says:

    Sir, when we look at prior trend, should every candle form higher high and higher lows (for uptrend) and lower high and lower lows (for downtrend)?

  96. RISHABH says:

    Is this all technical analysis studies also works for commodity?

  97. om says:

    In the candlestick chart there are 1 min ,5 min ,1 hr etc view and each one of the view make different pattern. which one should be consider for our technical analysis ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It really depends on the time frame you opt to trade upon. For example, a 1-day chart works best of swing trading. Minute charts for day trading. If you want to place 1 or 2 trades in a day opt for 15mins charts…for a higher frequency of trades you can choose lesser time frames. But do remember, lesser the time-frequency, higher is the noise.

  98. Kanika Agarwal says:

    Hello Karthik,
    There are thousands of stocks listed in the market. Obviously, it is impossible to use TA on all of them and then pin the few where one actually goes ahead for trading/investment. Any suggestions on how to narrow down the search for the stock? And if possible, can you tell this separately for short-term and long-term investment?

  99. Om Sharan says:

    Hi Karthik,
    To observe morning star which view of the candlestick would be suitable (1D, 5D)? This is a 3 day consecutive phenomena so in which view do we get the consecutive candlestick of three days?

  100. ARUN says:

    Hi karthik,
    Do technical analysis works on Nifty future??
    Plz share ur experience..

  101. KNV says:

    Don’t you think we should also look at traded volumes for any conclusion on Gap up or Gap down. Unless the preceding volumes are high & volume on the Gap up day is atleast 50% more than average volume isn’t it premature to conclude that Gap up is leading to a bullish trend. On many occasions I have seen gap ups & downs to be a passing feature. Pl clarify

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Gaps (either up or down) is just a reflection of sentiment on price for the given moment. Really don’t think the previous day’s volumes will have an influence.

  102. Anonymous says:

    Sintex industries is forming bullish engulfing Or half morning star… Will it go up monday also volumes are high?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      More like a morning star. Looks like it going up.

      • Manish Kumar Tripathi says:

        You mentioned about morning star (23 nov 24 nov 27 nov) which states – downtrend reversal signal. But the Sintex share price is going below and below. Could you clarify whether you find morning star wrongly or I am reading wrong?

  103. Himanshu modi says:

    Hi, karthik sir

    The above all and previous module was based on candle stick pattern. But what about other chart pattern like:-
    Flags & pennant
    Triangle
    Cup with handles
    H&S ,etc.

    What difference do they provide?? Will it be worthy to learn those?

    And thanks for varsity programme , enjoying great learning…!!!☺

  104. Karthik S says:

    How one can position himself as a bull or bear?

  105. Sachin Singh says:

    Slightly off topic but is there any site where the LTP of each day for Nifty might be available? Most sites have the closing price, not the LTP.
    Thanks!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not sure, Sachin. NSE has strict data vending rules, not sure if websites can easily publish the LTP.

  106. Rajesh says:

    How much percentage is considered as a gap ?
    Suppose a stock closes at 767.79 today and opens at 767.89 tomorrow… we canconsider it considered as a gap?an
    Kindly reply
    Thank you

  107. Prateek kumar jaiswal says:

    Hi Karthik,
    What a way to summarize candlesticks patterns with “What next?” section
    “As you progress, start developing trades based on the thought process behind the actions of the bulls and the bears. This, over time is probably the best approach to study candlesticks.” By far it looks one of the best lines to me. Still hard to believe such contents are easily accessible to us.

    Well I have one doubt related to Volume, what role volume will play here in morning/evening star patterns in entire setup, say p1, p2 and p3 candle, how much should it be. would be great if u could throw some light on volume?

  108. Paresh says:

    Hi Karthik
    Very nice and interesting content.
    I have following questions.
    1) is there any priority among different candle pattern?. I.e. two different stock trade conform with different candle pattern, which one is better?
    2) which indicator is used to detect fast momentum
    3)how to decide target(sell), is it always always equal to resistance?

    Regards

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) No, not really. You will have to experiment with patterns and estimate whats good for you over time.
      2) Maybe use a leading indicator like RSI
      3) No, not really – S&R gives you a good spot to identify targets and SL points. But this changes on a case to case basis.

  109. BKP says:

    Is the multiple candlesticks are equally useful in intraday or only meant for positional?
    Pls clarify.

  110. Aishwarya says:

    Hello Sir,
    1)For intraday trading, in 15 min chart, how many candles define the uptrend or downtrend??
    2)For intraday trading, to plot support / resistance, lookback period is 90 days??
    3)While plotting support / resistance, should we consider only the long moves (peak and trough) or the smaller ones can be considered??
    Thank u so much for all your efforts.

  111. Rajesh solaskar says:

    Dear Karthik sir… I’m studying all this modules very deeply. It’s very very useful. Actually come before varsity I was thinking to join any TA course. But now It seems needless. You are explaining it in very simple language. Thanks thanks thanks for it. Now coming to my query : In candle stick patterns which type of candlesticks we should use on chart to confirm the pattern?
    For example : On 17th Feb 18 there is a evening star on reliance capital Feb future chart. It clearly appears in heikin ashi type candlesticks chart but not in standard candlesticks type chart. Why so? Please explain…

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m so happy to note this Rajesh! I’m glad we could help and save you some money, which you would have otherwise save on a course 🙂

      Heikin Ashi is a different thought process altogether. Just like how a line chart differs from the candlestick, Heikin Ashi is different from the candlestick. I’d suggest you stick to candlesticks.

  112. Manu says:

    What should be the time frame window we should select to generate pattern. For e.g 1 minute, 15 minute or 1 day. I am asking is because for different different candlestick pattern is different. Candlestick pattern generated with 15 minute window refers we should sort market. Whereas 1 minute or 30 minutes candlestick pattern refers that we should buy.

    pls advice.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Manu, this depends on your trading style. If you want to carry position forward overnight, then Id recommend 1-day chart. If you want to trade intraday, I’d suggest you look at 15 mins chart.

      Good luck.

  113. chintan says:

    Hello Mr Rangappa, if you look at the module 10.3 (the morning star) line 7 which says “In the absence of P2’s doji/spinning top it would have appeared as though P1 and P3 formed a bullish engulfing pattern”

    Here if you look at the chart for the above mentioned reference, i dont think it should have been Bullish engulfing pattern as P3’s opening is higher than P1’s closing.

    By the way, the Varsity is amazing and very helpful, good work…CONGRATULATIONS!

  114. Varun Dhupar says:

    Hi Kartik,
    Could you please explain what exactly is booking profit. Is it similar to Shorting?
    Moreover, in the charts above 3-4 candlesticks have been encircled together which looks more or less like spinning tops. Does this imply that few spinning tops will always appear together over the period of trading sessions?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You buy an apartment at 1 Crore and after 3 years you decide to sell it at 1.5Cr. You have essentially made 50L profit on your investment or in other words, you have booked a profit of 50L. Booking profit is just a term used to convey the fact that you have made a profit and pocketed the same.

      Shorting is a trading technique where you sell first and buy later. More on shorting here – https://zerodha.com/varsity/chapter/shorting/

      No, there is no guarantee of spinning tops appearing anywhere in the chart. In fact, there are no guarantees for anything in the market.

  115. Mayank Bansal says:

    Hi Karthik Sir,

    Your notes are wonderful, i am in the learning phase right now and these notes really helped me in improving.
    My question to you is, Is it advisable to enter into the market just after analyzing 2 or 3 five minutes candles after the market opening for intraday trade ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Glad to note that, Manyank 🙂

      Yes, that should be possible, as long as you look at it along with the previous day’s 5 mins candles. Btw, its best if you stick to 5 or 10 mins candles.

  116. Siva says:

    Hi Karthik,

    According to the below statement
    The stoploss for a long trade is the lowest low of the pattern. The stoploss for a short trade is the highest high of the pattern.

    I assume “short trade” indicates – Sell and Buy.

    Corrections Appreciated.

    Thanks –
    Siva

  117. Kumar says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Just for my curiosity and to understand whether i am in the right direction ,Can you confirm whether evening star was formed in Bank Nifty Jun Future on May 14 to May 16.
    a)Market was in uptrend.May 14 was bullish.
    b)May 15 was a gap up,not considering whether it was a green or red candle.
    c)May 16 was a gap down and a evening star.

    Thanks
    Kumar

  118. Kumar says:

    On the similar lines has my above question ,Can we consider evening star was formed in Bank Nifty Jun future on April 9 to April 11.
    If yes why wasnt it bearish? Is it because the red candle on April 11 was not within the body of April 9th?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, April 9-10 is more like it, but still not very convincing. Candle patterns only enhance the probability. No guarantees, Kumar 😉

  119. Kumar says:

    I am going thru ur chapters and learning a lot of things and also coming up with a lot of questions.I learnt about a pattern named ” Three outside up” which generally suggests a bullish reversal.

    The description for “Three outside up” is as below

    a)This pattern is a more reliable addition to the standard Engulfing pattern.
    b)A bullish Engulfing pattern occurs in the first two candles.
    c) The third candlestick is confirmation of the bullish trend reversal.

    Now am bit confused since Engulfing pattern suggests Bullishness whereas depending upon the third candle it reverses the bullishness. How do we decide in such case.

    Example is KOTAK BANK (1D chart ) for 23-25th May.
    a)24th a Bullish Engulfing pattern was formed
    b)25th was a bullish reversal according to “Three outside up” and next two days bears took control.

    How do i decide upon this situation if am doing intraday in options?

    Thanks in Advance
    Kumar

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      What he means by a bullish reversal candle is that the bullish candle on the 3 day confirms the bullish reversal of the engulfing pattern, hence termed bullish reversal.

      • kumar says:

        Hi Karthik,

        Am still confused.The 3 rd candle is always bullish,So how can i decide whether the trade is going to be in uptrend or reversal of bullish reversal?

        Can you please elobarate?

        Thanks
        Kumar

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          3rd candle may or may not be bullish, in case its a red candle, then you may not want to take the trade as there is no confirmation of the trend.

  120. Ketaki says:

    Infinite thanks to you, Sir for presenting the knowledge in such a lucid way. You are adding to your good karma 😉 coming to my basic question, I mostly get into swing or positional trades(very small positions since iam just starting), so is it better to trade 3day candlestick patterns over 2day patterns?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Ketaki, thanks for the kind words!
      The number of candles which form a pattern does not really matter. When matters really is how well you know these patterns and the kind of conviction develop to trade the pattern.
      Good luck!

  121. Shyam says:

    Hi,

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lZYBB6TC3EXij0wC1P9GoTK_d3RSJE5p

    In tata motors chart can we say that this pattern is a morning star pattern?

    It has found support at trend line and price reversal has happened in 3rd candle? Im just waiting for confirmation from MACD crossover and ichi moku indicator before taking the trade.

    Also is that a bullish MACD Bullish divergence ?

    Seems good for swing trading

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, it seems to me like a morning star. Make sure things like volume also confirms. Good luck, Shyam.

  122. Ranil says:

    Hi,

    I am a beginner. In the candlestick pattern disussed we are entering against the trend. How we can take trade with the stock trend direction. Please correct me if i am wrong.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In fact, we are anticipating a trend reversal. All the candlestick patterns discussed here trend reversals.

  123. Vijay says:

    Hi Karthik,

    could you please provide check list for TA ?

    It will be helpful for me to trade..

    Thanks

  124. Saurabh says:

    Hello Sir,

    What is the meaning of below line:-

    ”As a rule of thumb, higher the number of days involved in a pattern the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day.”

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      3 candlestick patter like morning star is better than a 2 candlestick patter like a bullish engulfing which is better than a single candlestick pattern like marubuzo. By the way, this is my perception 🙂

  125. shishir kumad das says:

    sir how many books you have study before making this chapters…
    and plz give us some book name also.

  126. Kaustubh says:

    Sir Please help me for intraday which patter i need to follow a single stick or multiple stick

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’d suggest you start with single candlestick pattern, Kaustubh. Once you are comfortable with it, you can increase the scope to other patterns.

  127. Siddharth says:

    Team Zerodha,
    thank you so much for this primer, the content and the examples so very well structured and easy to understand.
    I did have two questions though:

    1) In long trades, the settlement cycle works on T+2 basis but would we be able to exit a position within two days? The shares would not have hit our Demat account in this time so would someone be allowed to sell something they do not have in their demat account?

    2) In the context of Indian markets, are traders allowed to keep a short position for more than a day? I might short a stock expecting it to dip significantly over (let’s say) 3-4 days. Wouldn’t my broker force me to square off my short positions at the end of trading day?

    Sorry if these have already been answered somewhere else in the course or user questions 🙂

    Regards,
    Siddharth

  128. Amanpreet Singh Singh Chadha says:

    Hello Team Zerodha,

    Can you please tell me why there is no 2 Min time frame, we have 1 Min or 3 Min but why not 2 Min ?

    i wont mind if 3 Min is replaced by 2 Min !!

    Please share your thoughts.

    Regards,

    Amanpreet Singh

  129. S V Prasad says:

    Thanks for explaining the different candle stick patterns and en-lighting us. I have basic doubt, does chart software are capable to encircle and inform it is Morning star or evening start or Bearish or bullish engulfing patterns rather than looking manually. Once it highlights then we can confirm manually.

    Regards,
    Prasad

  130. Rohan Velhal says:

    I have went through all the lessons. But I need some more explanation on Candlestick patterns. If we change the time period (say 1 min to 1 month) each time the pattern that we get is different so how am I derive some conclusion out of it?

  131. Gaurav says:

    Dear Karthik Sir,
    I searched your profile on wiki but didn’t find. I think it is the high time your profile should be on Wikipedia.

  132. RAGHU says:

    is there any way to use Steve Nison candle scanner software in Zerodha?

  133. Srinathjayanna says:

    Sir I have a doubt.In market there is a saying which ever trade we initiate our losses should not be more than 1/2% how is it possible.If we do swing trades for example swing trades in nifty futures means there will be obviously 100-150 points difference in the price from the lows or highs on p2 on which ever pattern we initiate a trade so stop losses will be more than 7500+ since nifty lot size is 75 how can we restrict the losses to only 1/2%.

  134. hari SK says:

    sir i have a question. i understand that we can CNC buy a stock at 3:20 if the patterns are favourable but i dont understand the concept of shorting the stock at 3:20 because in CNC shorting is not possible because we dont hold the particular stock in the demat account ? please enlighten me on this topic

    • hari SK says:

      Like for example im wathcing the stock “X” and i get a bearish engulfing pattern on top of the uptrend and as a risk taker i would like to short the stock at 3:20 . my question is , is it possible to short sell a CNC product because you dont have the shares in your demat in the first place ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      For shorting, you need to look at the futures market, Hari. Not possible in the spot market.

  135. Shrey Jain says:

    In the Morning Star Example, (7th point) you mean to say it forms a Piercing Pattern and not bullish engulfing since it doesn’t engulf the close of the red candle?

  136. Sumeet Chavan says:

    Hey karthik. Actually i have tried to analyze many of the stocks and study the candles. I saw about 10-15 stocks. But i was unable to find any of the single or multiple candlestick patterns in it. So is there any mistake i am making in my analysis or it is that i should look out for and study more stocks? If it is so, then how much stocks should be studied by me so as to shortlist 2 or 3 stocks for trading?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      That does not seem possible, Sumeet. I guess you are going wrong somewhere. Please look at the candles carefully.

  137. Maaz Khab says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Suppose when I look at the intraday 6 hour candlestick chart, the last candle is a bearish marubuzo or a similar candle depicting a strong bearish tresh, however when I switch the candle timeline to 6 months or 1 year, the last candle becomes a bullish candle, indicating a bullish trend. In such case, which one should be weighed more for a swing trader?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Maaz, in such situation, pay more attention to the time frame that is relevant. For example, if you are doing swing trades, then 6-hour candlestick makes more sense.

      • Maaz Khan says:

        Hi Karthik,

        6 hour timeframe is relatable to an intraday trader, right? My question is, suppose I intend to hold stocks for a week, or a month, then the candlestick chart timeframe that should I be looking at, shouldn’t the charts be 1/3/6 month charts? Is there a correlation between the number of days you intend to hold the stock to the number of days you should look at on a chart?
        Also, when I plot the support and resistance lines, should I do that on a 2 year timeframe, irrespective of my holding period (ie intraday/swing trading)?

        • Karthik Rangappa says:

          Maaz, in my experience the EOD charts fits all purposes perfectly well. Yes, 2 yrs gives you good insights into past demand and supply activities.

  138. Yogesh Verma says:

    Are there any implications of gap up or gap down?
    Like if a stock opened gap down there could be less possibility of it being bullish that day or if it opened gap up it may not go bullish further? any such?

  139. Srinathjayanna says:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Adu5K56LCHSj1RxCaoeTssJ9RR9qDSn/view?usp=drivesdk
    Sir here is the link for India Bulls housing charts it has formed 2morning Star formations the first morning star has breached the stop loss and again it has formed morning star here but both formations are at 52week lows only.And I have back tested on so many stocks which has failed to hold the pattern formations formed at 52weeks low whats ur opinion on this.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      This is interesting, I’ve hardly seen two consecutive MS formations on the chart, thanks for sharing 🙂
      The reason why it may not hold up is that the sentiment at 52 week low is quite bearish and any bounce is looked up as an opportunity to sell. Perhaps, this is the reason so.

  140. Rudresh says:

    hey Kartik,

    really awesome material. i have read your all other materials and i can say that it is my bible for trading.
    i have few questions, i hope you can help me. i mainly trade intraday.
    1. i have been using Heiken-Ashi charts since couple of months with Supertrend and RSI and it has not been working good for me . so i thought of learning candlestick patterns and i am learning since a week, my doubt is that all the patterns like three white soldiers, three black crows,hammer,etc work on Heiken-Ashi charts or do i need to use standard candlestick to trade patterns ?
    2. if they only work on standard candlestick, how can i smooth it like Heiken-Ashi.
    3. i have read in few forums including Tradingqna that candlestick patterns do not work most of the times, can you please guide me on this. my plan is to study candlesticks pattern for better entry/exit and for trend reversal, and also i will use supertrend and RSI.

    it would be great if you help me, waiting for your reply.

    regards
    Rudy

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you like the content on Varsity.

      1) I’ve personally never used Heiken-Ashi, so I cannot comment on it. For the same reason, I’d suggest you look at candlesticks 🙂
      2) I need to do some research and figure this out myself
      3) Most of them fail to follow the checklist and the guidelines, so naturally, it won’t work for them. Besides people expect the CS patterns as a guaranteed way to make money, which is not possible. They need to understand that these techniques only improve the odds. This expectation has to be set right from the start.

      Good luck.

  141. Rudresh says:

    hey Kartik,
    thanks for your reply, i really appreciate it. i have given a link here which has a snap of the chart. i have marked a bullish engulfing and bearish engulfing with black lines. the supertrend tells to short the stock. my doubt is that
    1) after shorting the stock based on supertrend, should i exit the trade as soon as i see a bullish engulfing, you can see in the image that bullish engulfing was formed as soon as the supetrend indicated to short.
    2) after few minutes, a bearish engulfing was formed and the stock went further down,but if i had exited the trade based on seeing the bullish engulfing i would have made loss and missed the profits. so what should i do in these type of situations ? should i take the trade in which both the pattern and indicator are telling the same thing, or should i do anything else ?
    3) should i trade based on just patterns or should use a indicator ? if yes, then what are the indicators i should use with patterns ?

    This chart is of crudeoil , 5mins chart.
    https://ibb.co/JqBTGDk

    my setup is of Supertrend,RSI and volume chart, this was not working good so i thought of using patterns and hence all these doubts.i would be really happy if you solve my doubts.

    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) This is dependent on the trader. I give more importance to candlestick patterns, so I would pay more attention to it
      2) This is again dependent on you as a trader, identity which system (indicators or candlesticks patterns) matter more to your risk-reward temperament
      3) I’d say patterns 🙂

  142. Vinod namdeo says:

    Dear, i m confused wrt gap up and gap down.
    I observed that daily stock open up or down wrt last day close, so is every day is gapup or gapdown?
    Also, if after gapup opening, stock down or bearish movement, whether then also it called as gapup??

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hmm technically yes, but it really depends on the amount of gap that the stock creates. For example, a closes at 75 on day 1 and opens at 75.1 the next day, then this is not really worthy of considering a gap up opening. However, if it opens at say 74 or 76, then may it is. Look at it from a % movement perspective.

  143. Rudresh says:

    hey kartik,

    sorry to bother you again. till now patterns have helped me to reduce my loss by telling me when not to enter in a trade, but at the same time i have missed many trades because maybe i could not identify the pattern or there was no pattern before the trend started.
    i have few questions for you,
    1. i have given a link to a snapshot where there was good volume and indicator showed to buy but after a long candle, the crudeoil was not in a trend and there was a formation of three black crows and a hanging man, what should i do when patterns are formed in not so trending time. after few candles(intraday 5mins chart) there was again a good move of 15-20 points and i regretted not entering the in the trade.
    https://imgur.com/mQahpRa
    2. how to decide if the trend will continue after a consolidation period or it will reverse, even if there are any pattern formation in the consolidation phase, we can not trade it because the market is not trending ,right ?
    like in the above example there was a good move and for few minutes the stock was in consolidation and again it resumed its movement. here is another snapshot, where i have drawn a arrow where all the confusion is and then you can see that the trend resumed.
    https://imgur.com/zqJ1cAh

    your help will be appreciated.
    thanks a lot.
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) This depends on the priority you assign to indicators and patterns. I primarily look at patterns, indicators are secondary. By the way, that was a classic entry point 🙂
      2) This is hard to figure out. The ones that you’ve marked are classic retracement setups post-breakout.

  144. Rudresh says:

    hey,

    thanks for the reply,really appreciated.
    1) i mean how did you figure out that it was classic entry point/retracement. because the prices moved in a range for about 30 minutes and then the trend resumed. can we trade based on the patterns formed in a rangebound. for example if a hammer is formed in a rangebound, can i go long ?
    2) if there is a breakout in a particular direction with huge volumes, will the trend continue in that direction.
    3) i know that the color of the volume candle does not matter, but there have been times when prices move up supported by huge volumes and then the next candle, prices move down supported by huge volume, so what should in these situations?
    i think i am really bothering you now, i am sorry. and yes that was a classic entry point because it gave a good move of 35 points after it.

    thanks a lot.
    Regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Based on the low volume retracement. Guess I have discussed this either in this chapter or somewhere else in this module
      2) It is likely to continue, but as I’ve said before, there are no guarantees in the market 🙂
      3) These are indications that the volatility has increased, I’d stay away

      No problem, please feel free to clear up all your queries 🙂

  145. Rudresh says:

    hey Kartik,

    thanks a lot for quick reply. i have removed all indicators from now on and using S&R,patterns and volumes. will let you know the progress as soon as possible. you are the best.

    regards
    Rudresh

  146. Rudresh says:

    hey kartik,

    i hope you earned some profits from yesterday’s crudeoil. here is the image where i have encircled my entry point and volumes. my strategy was that if the price closes above the support line and the 9-21 ema crossover happens i will go long. all the criteria met and i went long but after that the price came down touched the support and again continued the uptrend which was around 60-70 points which i missed 🙁 . i do not know where i went wrong. there was no pattern formed which would have told me that prices will go down. i have encircled in yellow where it bounced backed from the support line. if i had know that the prices will go down, i would have gone long where the yellow circle is and the profit would have been enormous.

    https://ibb.co/MRGhWY1

    thanks a lot.
    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, buy on strength (green candle) and sell on weakness (red candle), is the very first violation here. 2nd, when you entered, did you estimate the reward to risk ratio?

  147. Rudresh says:

    i agree to your first point and i did not calculate RR ratio as i always keep stop loss as 10 points by default. in this case my support would have been stop loss and the RRR would come to 1:2, which is not good. my bad. should i always keep RRR in my checklist ?

    regards

  148. Rudresh says:

    thanks for the reply kartik. I don’t know why my every reply is showing as a new comment. we need to buy on green and seep on red, suppose i am want to buy and the candle is green but after i buy the candle turns red and closes in red….i follow 5 min candle, should i buy at the 5th min ?

    regards
    Rudresh

  149. Rudresh says:

    hey karthik,

    my doubt is specific to crudeoil as there is no spot market for it. so finding S&R for it becomes very difficult and also we can not find any patterns on EOD data as only current month is active. so how should we approach this problem ? crudeoil trades is ranegbound everyday from 9am to 1pm approx, so i draw S&R on this range, is this the correct way ?

    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, you can use the crude’s futures price for this. I understand this not the best approach, but that alright in case of commodities and currencies.

  150. Rudresh says:

    hey Karthik,

    i have read many of your posts and in the comments you have mentioned sometimes that 5min candle for intraday is good enough for both price action and indicators and sometimes you have mentioned 15min candle is good enough. what timeframe would you recommend for crudeoil considering its volatility. in my experience 5 minute candle generates more of false signals and less accurate signals.but i want to know your views on this.

    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, I agree with you on the whipsaw from 5 mins candle. I’d suggest you look at 10 or 15mins candle for this.

  151. Prateek vyas says:

    The trade setup for an evening star is as follows:

    Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star
    To validate the evening star formation on day 3, one has to evaluate the following:
    P1 should be a blue candle
    P2 should be a doji or a spinning top with a gap up opening
    P3 should be a red candle with a gap down opening. The current market price at 3:20PM on P3 should be lower than the opening price of P1
    Both risk taker and risk averse can initiate the trade on P3
    The stop loss for the trade will be the highest high of P1, P2, and P3.

    How can some one short at 3:20 at the end hours

  152. Rudresh says:

    Hey Kartik,
    i am back with few of my doubts, what can i say. there is so much to learn, specially in intraday trading.

    1) The trend is up or down and then there is a range bound phase..what happens after this is phase is that the trend continues most of the times or a trend reversal happens. my question is that how to confirm that the trend is going to be resumed instead of a reversal, because it’s in a range bound phase and even if a pattern forms we can’t trust it right ?
    in the below image i have marked a hammer which was formed after a range bound phase instead of after a downtrend and it went up after the hammer. so how should we approach this problem.

    https://ibb.co/Cb6jJvR

    2) when the market opens at 9:15 and everything is telling to short the stock except RSI…. it’s under 30 but the stock keeps falling. because of this i have missed many chances. i know that indicators are distorted at the start. if i wait till 9:45, then as you know i would have missed some major move. so what is your approach to this.

    i really your appreciate your efforts and time and i can’t thank you enough.

    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, the image does not load, but I do get your query –

      1) The stock can be range-bound for many weeks or months. Remember, Reliance was rangebound between 800 – 1000 for almost 3 years. It is hard to figure which way the stock will trend after the sideway movement, but in case of a strong prior trend before the sideway movement, then the trend is likely to be in that direction. This is just based on empirical observation, like always, there are no guarantees in the market 🙂
      2) I’d pay less attention to the indicators, the bulk of the analysis is on the candlestick patters.

  153. Rudresh says:

    hey karthik,

    thanks for the reply. today there was an amazing chance in ZEEL stock, it made a hammer at 216 (around 9:40AM) and went till 250. i went long at 220 but BO were disabled on this in zerodha, i don’t know why. i hope i keep finding more chances like this. here is my last question which i forgot to ask in the last comment.

    suppose there was a pattern formed at 3:15PM on a 5 min candle,let us say that it was bullish engulfing. will the stock go up the next day ? because the pattern was formed on 5 min candle at EOD. i am attaching a picture for exmaple. the circled pattern was formed at the EOD and the next day the stock went up as you can see in the image.

    https://ibb.co/GpPmXVK

    regards
    Rudresh

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Rudresh, it is not a good idea to look at the intraday chart of the previous day and make calls for the next day. So I’d suggest you have to look at the EOD chart and see what pattern the stock has formed for the day.

  154. Rudresh says:

    Hey Karthik,

    Just a quick question. how many bars would you consider for a trend in intraday ?
    Now i am using 5 bars. if the last 5 bars went up,so i would classify it as a uptrend.

    Regards
    Rudresh

  155. Nikhil Khetan says:

    Hi Karthik,

    You had advised to make a list of which candlestick pattern is applicable on which stock by backtesting. Is this method also applicable on the Indicators?

    Should I make a list of which Indicators have worked on which stocks most of the time by backtesting?

    Thanks in advance.

    Nikhil

  156. sumanth says:

    hi Karthik sir
    Ar u explained lot of candlesticks beautifully.but is this candlesticks used for intraday trading.

    ->By these candlestick patters ar we trade intraday
    ->Ar they used for entry and exit points in intraday

  157. Shreedhar says:

    Sir ,

    In The Same Context Question Number , Q4 – At 1.14PM , a Technical Analyst is Looking at the 5- Minute Chart of Indigo . The OHLC Of this 5 Minute Candle will Represent – Selected a wrong answer but your Answer is confusing ,Could you please Explain – How can any one Know the Closing Price at 1.15.59 when the Current time is 1.14.00 ? , How can one Find a Closing price of future for sure the Difference is 1.59 Minutes . Are you saying He predicted the future ? if yes on what basis ? the Complete Candle Forming time should be 1.20.00 on a 5 minute Candle , Right ? what is the Logic behind 1.15.59PM ? . or else you were thinking of 1.14.59PM and 1.15.59PM was a typing mistake ?

    I Also Counted the Number of 5 minutes Candles not once but several times to make sure it adds up to 9.15 AM but that is where i lost my time .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Can you please help me identify where you spotted this question? Will help me get the context better. Thanks.

  158. Shreedhar says:

    Hello Sir ,

    in this link : https://www.tradingview.com/x/4wvqIJCp

    Will This first one Qualify as an Evening Star ?
    Will The second one Qualify as an Morning Star ?

    For Gap up and Gap Down Patterns , Prior Trend is Essential is that correct ? if the trend is wrong is that not going to work , or it will Work But will not have so much of impact ? .

    Also to Point Target and Exit in mean to say S&R : is Dow Pattern the Only option for a swing trader ? a Combination of two or more points over a period of 6-12 months ? what if the prior trending is Too High or too Low . The Prior Trend was Souring high as far as yes bank is concerned . in such cases what do you advice in therms of determining S&R .
    Please Advice .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Evening star – no, because there is no prior trend
      Morning star – no, because P2 does not satisfy the condition.

      Gaps – not really as this is more of dow theory. The prior trend is core to candlesticks.

  159. Advik says:

    how do you differentiate between a single candlestick pattern and multiple candlestick patterns

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If you are trading based on only 1 candlestick, then it is a single candlestick pattern, else it is multiple.

  160. Advik says:

    so you can choose which one you want to look at it as

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      In a sense yes, you can choose to trade just the multiple candlesticks and ignore the single candlestick pattern

  161. Veerappan L says:

    Hi Karthik thanks for this excellent article, I gained some insights in to reading candlestick patterns. My question is ,how significant are these patterns when they occur on an intraday charts (say 1min,3mins and 5mins),can we initiate intraday trades based on these patterns?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      As a thumb rule, the higher the timeframe, the better is the quality of the signal. Hence, I’d rely more on a 15min compared to a 10mins candle…and maybe more on 10min, compared to 5 mins one.

  162. Yogesh says:

    Hi Karthik,
    Can you please tell what wrong am l doing.
    1. TCS stock (NSE) 03/12/19, bullish harami pattern, stop loss hit.

    2. EMAMILTD stock (NSE) 02/12/19, bullish harami pattern, stop loss hit.

    3. TORNTPOWER stock (NSE) 04/12/19, piercing pattern, stop loss hit.

    4. Apollotyre stock (NSE) 15/11/19, morning star pattern, stop loss hit.

    5. INDIGO stock (NSE) 25/11/19, morning star pattern, stop loss hit.

    Is there anything wrong i am doing. Please guide.

  163. Yogesh says:

    Yes Sir, I have complied with the checklist. In all the cases there was a downtrend, volumes were above 10 days average, the low of the candlestick pattern was around the support level, in the case of torntpower and apollotyre double bottom is also forming. I humbly request you to please check all these trades and guide me if I am doing something wrong. I will be very grateful to you. I have spent two years doing research in market but couldn’t get any lead yet. Thank you for replying.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) TCS, no downtrend. Downtrend should last for at least 6-8 session leading to at least 5-10% erosion in value.
      2) Same as above, also these are not harami patterns
      3) This is unfortunate, although the low of P2 was not lesser than the close of P1 and the volumes were just about ok

      I was unable to check the rest, suggest you give it another look at figure what really went wrong. Mainly on identifying the prior trend.

  164. Yogesh says:

    With due respect Sir in the case of TCS 1 day candlestick chart the price of TCS fell from Rs. 2284 to 2016 which is 11.73% and it has fallen this much in 21 candles. Will it not be considered as a downtrend. Also I want to know that in harami patterns whether the P2 candle including its body and shadow must appear to be contained within P1’s body or is it only the body that must appear to be contained within P1’s body. Thank you once again for replying.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yogesh, I will double-check TCS. I just skimmed through the charts in a hurry. 11.73% over 21 sessions can be considered as a downtrend. It is best if the entire candle of P2 is contained within P1.

  165. Siddharth says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Can we trade options using the candlestick data? I mean, if it is a bullish candle day, can i buy options. If not, can you guide me to which chapter in varsity should I be looking at to understand the bulishness in option if there is one?

    Regards.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, Siddhart. CS patterns help you build a point of view. How would you want to use that POV to trade is upto you. You can choose to trade with cash, futures, or option.

  166. gorav says:

    How it is possible to Short the stocks at 3:20 PM (in case of patterns like evening star) as shorting is intraday?

  167. Dipak Prajapati says:

    Hello Sir,

    Pls suggest any best web-site , software or application in which we use Screener to find out Candlestick Chart patten easily.

  168. Srinath jayanna says:

    Sir morning star and evening star are 3candles formation can we consider if there are four candles formations like this in m&m.
    Here is the link:
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YonP3YOgnfL0KF80n0Bxy-rlSOaj9eZo/view?usp=drivesdk

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Unable to see, but 4 candles may not work. At least I’ve not tested it, please do look for past behaviour before placing the trade.

  169. Gaurav says:

    In 10.3 , while explaining evening star , the picture depicted does’nt satisfy the rule because the P3 candle has not opened on a gap down so how does the scenario satisfies to be of the evening star?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Sort of. But this is ok for a pattern which develops over 3 days. Remember, one of the rules of TA is to be flexible, quantify and verify 🙂

  170. Rajeev Sharma says:

    How the gap up and gap down prices are decided if there is no trading activity. also understood the concept of gap up and gap down price behaviors but how it increased if there is no trading between the closing and opening day. If the above example you mentioned ABC ltd price went from 100 when it closed to 104 when it opens the next day. how this 4 rs increased is decided? I’m a bit confused. I have got the positive news about ABC lead to this but how this 4% change occurred or calculated as the market was closed during that time.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Think of it as the overnight demand-supply. Imagine this, onions today cost 30/- per KG…night 8PM there is a news saying there are no more onions in the city, so will the seller still sell the onions @ 30 the next day morning? No right? He will sell it at a higher price due to short supply. Just like this, the demand-supply situation influences the stock’s opening price.

  171. Lokesh says:

    Hi Karthik,
    I didn’t get one thing. What do you mean by shorting opportunities? During the evening star formation when we already know about the market going down why to even trade at such time? I have seen similar things in the previous lessons also. I’m quite sure I’m missing something here as I have just started. Please help me out and thanks in advance.

  172. Nikhil Palem says:

    If you think the stock is going to be bullish(up), it means you “long” the stock. i.e., you buy the stock first at lower price and sell later at higher price. Similarly if you think stock is going to be bearish(down), it means you ” short the stock” i.e., you sell the stock first at higher price and buy the stock later at lower price. The shorting opportunities will be provided by SEBI in intraday, derivatives and commodities. Basically, you cannot short delivery trades.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      SEBI does not provide any trading opportunities 🙂

      You can short in the futures market though.

  173. Aniket says:

    Hello, thank you for sharing your knowledge with us 🙂
    I would like to ask if multiple candlestick patterns can be applied on intraday basis with a time frame of 15minutes?

  174. shiva says:

    Hi Karthik, this information and the queries posted in the forum are very useful for learning. For some reason, i couldn’t see any of the charts people have been posting their queries based on. I tried it both on Safari and chrome latest versions. Can you please help

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      These are user uploaded charts, if they have deleted it then we won’t have access to it. The charts posted in the chapter remains.

  175. Siddhartha says:

    Hi Karthik,

    I have a confusion for the multiple candlestick patterns. For the bearish patterns (evening star, bearish engulfing pattern etc), it has been said that we can short the stock by end of P3 (around close of 3:20 PM). However, shorting is valid for intraday which ends at 3:20 PM. So should we buy and sell in that short time frame (5-10 mins)

  176. Milan says:

    Hi karthik!
    I was looking at some 4-hour chart, it shows a perfect entry point for going long. but then I look at the same chart at 1-hour or shorter time frame it just shows the bearish trend. How to proceed in that dilemma.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You have to stick to1 time frame. The different time frame has different data points, hence different outcomes. Does not help.

  177. Suyash says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Firstly, I would like to appreciate and thank you for putting your intellect in such a flawless manner. Zerodha Varsity material helped me to identify proper trade set up and make capital (at the same time it also emphasizes on exiting the trade when SL is hit)

    Secondly, I would like to share some trades as under I took based on TA in the month of May 2020. Thanks to Kartik sir.. 🙂
    1. Reliance Industries Limited formed an evening star pattern on 12 May 2020. (short selling opportunity)
    2. HDFC Bank formed a bullish harami pattern (due weightage was given to Volume, Support, RSI and Bollinger Band) on 20 May 2020. Entered a trade at 838 and sold at 878. I wish i could carry it but the noise around the RBI presser made my trade vulnerable.
    3. Asianpiants formed a morning start pattern on 21 May 2020 (due weightage was given to Volume, Support, RSI and Bollinger Band & MACD). Entered a trade at 1515 and sold at 1595.

    Currently, I am analyzing L&T Infotech which may provide us with an opportunity to short sale soon (hope an evening star pattern gets formed on Tuesday). Also keeping a tab on banking sector, what’s your say on it @kartiksir 🙂

    Thanks a tonne.. 🙂

  178. KALPESH TURAKHIA says:

    sir can u check and tell chart of ABB 22 may 2020.last 2 candles and what does that say and what is that pattern called as.

  179. Muzzammil Bambot says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Varsity is excellent in explaining all these concepts in such a simplified manner. Keep up the great educational work.

    I had one doubt. For the trade setup for an evening star pattern you had mentioned short the stock on P3 at the close of trade ? From what I’ve read on the Zerodha FAQ pages short selling needs to be closed in the intraday window itself or is it possible to carry forward shorting trades ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You can short and carry forward the position overnight in the futures market. If you short in the equity market, then you will have to close the position the same day by end of day.

  180. siddharth kasma says:

    sir could u pls check, not able to see any chart which someone has attached in the comment. if someone has shared a link able to see it. earlier u said that if someone has deleted the chart, we can’t see it, but it is happening with every comment chart. hard to believe that everyone has deleted it. Could u pls check sir, would be a great help to see the chart and see ur reply against that query.

  181. aman says:

    hi sir,
    why do i am unable to see charts of comment section. i have tried various browsers , on mobile too, even on ipad ….TIA

  182. sunil says:

    Dear Mr Suyash, I was going through the comment. On 20th may, the closing of HDFC was 857 after Bullish Harami was formed.
    As per your comment, you entered the trade at 838. Can you tell when did you entered the trade and when you made an exit. I am newbie here and trying to understand the candle stick pattern.

  183. Ritwik Guha says:

    Hello,
    “As a rule of thumb, higher the number of days involved in a pattern the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day” Not understood this point. Could you please clarify again?
    Thanks!!

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      A bullish engulfing is better than marubuzo and morning star is better than engulfing. So on a so forth. That’s what I mean by this.

  184. Sanket Patil says:

    Initiate a long trade at the close of P3 (around 3:20PM) after ensuring that P1, P2, and P3 together form a morning star.

    My question is:
    Then product type should be MIS or CNC?
    If we place MIS then
    All open MIS orders are auto squared-off by our RMS team at 3:20 pm* and you will be charged Rs. 50 (+GST) for that.

    what should be the product type?

  185. Shreya Dangayach says:

    Hi Karthik,

    In the gap up chart, the upper shadow shows that the bulls are pulling the market up right, so shouldn’t the upper wick be longer

  186. Amit Bhardwaj says:

    Dear Sir,
    I’ve studied all the candle stick patterns you included in this module of TA.
    I have a doubt.
    In explaining all the patterns, you took reference of 1 day candle.
    Can all these patterns be applied to 1 minute candle in options trading as well?
    Please let me know.
    Thank you.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hmm, you should not be looking at the options chart to trade options in my opinion. But anyway, yes TA can be applied to any time frame. However, I’d personally avoid looking at 1-minute charts.

  187. Mrinal says:

    Hi Kartik,
    Please explain the following statement a bit, as it is still unclear to me ? Are you talking about the higher no. days in the prior trend or higher no. of days for the pattern itself (single candle, 2-day pattern, 3-day pattern etc ? )

    “As a rule of thumb, higher the number of days involved in a pattern the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day.”

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m referring to the pattern itself. For example, you may want to act quickly on a morning star but may want to wait a day more for engulfing.

  188. Naresh P says:

    Very well explained the patterns, with good examples.
    Looks like, need rigorous practice to apply this learning to take right calls.

    Thanks a lot, it’s very informative.

  189. Harsha says:

    Hi Karthik,
    In the attached NIFTY day candle chart, it seems to be an evening star pattern formation. off course third candle (P3) doesn’t open as a GAP DOWN but it seems to have all other factors in it!!! it even engulfed First Candle(P1). could you advise whether it can be considered as evening star or not.

    Thanks.

  190. Tushar says:

    Can you also help to teach us on heiken aish pattern. This I guess is a very important pattern for traders.

  191. Satish NL says:

    Dear Karthik,

    When I look at a monthly timeframe chart, it shows banknifty is below support.
    But when I look at a daily chart, it shows some positive candles formed.
    In this scenario, how to decide which timeframe to follow.

    Thanks and Regards,

  192. meena says:

    INFY today’s Gap-Up (https://imgur.com/a/es1JA6E)

    Sir my doubts are,
    1) Is it possible to catch the GapUp initial trend?
    2) Is it advisable to trade based on the financial result?
    3) since there are 4 quarter result, and an annual result in a year, when will companies usually post these result and is there is any place to track the upcoming results?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) Not unless you have a position the previous day
      2) Yes, but you need to have the right setup
      3) They usually let the investors know when the results would be announced in advance. You need to keep track of the announcement.

  193. Sukruth says:

    Hey Karthik , had a doubt does the color of the doji/spining top make a difference provided it has opened gap up/gap down respectively .

  194. Sandip says:

    On an average how many previous days need to consider for detecting prior trend for swing trader?
    Is it last 5 days trend or 10 days or more than that?

  195. Satvik says:

    Whats the time frame for morning star

  196. Pankaj Soni says:

    Dear Sir,

    Thank you so much for educating us.
    My doubt is , here you’re teaching us to predict the trend with 1,2 or 3 day candle.

    But what about a day trader, I’m actually not a day trader but does trading in futures of stocks, whenever a sudden spike comes, I don’t know when to exit.

    So during day trading what candle patterns to be followed. Pls guide.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’m using EOD data to set up EOD trades. You can use the same technique for intrday trade. YOu just have to look at an intrday chart and apply the same.

  197. Rajnish Sinha says:

    Hey Karthik,

    As per my understanding, look back period for any stock should be 6-12 month for swing trade. Hope I am correct? If not,what should be look back period for swing/positional trade ? Also, in current scenario of pandemic whether this rule is still applicable ? Kindly guide.

    Thanks in advance.
    Regards

  198. Rajnish Sinha says:

    Thank you so much for prompt reply.

    Please let me know what is bullish harami cross pattern ?

  199. Rajnish Sinha says:

    Okay. Thanks a lot! Should we take long trade on Bullish harami cross pattern ?

  200. Rajnish Sinha says:

    Hi, I know we should go long on bullish harami pattern. My query is should we take long trade on Bullish harami cross pattern ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yes, may not have the same conviction as a bullish harami pattern, so you may want to reduce the exposure to the trade.

  201. Rajnish Sinha says:

    Thanks a ton!

  202. Jaswanth says:

    In all the candlesticks patterns in the modules you are explaining using 1 days candles.
    My question is can i take a trade by recognizing patterns in 15min or 30min candle?
    Do all the patterns work in lower time frames? Else please list out which can work well in shorter time periods for intraday trading

  203. Rajan says:

    Hi Karthik,
    As you explained w.r.t to Gap up and down, that it occurs due to new information or change in sentiment while markets were closed.

    But how are these new information quantified into a price. What formula is used to calculalte this price change or new price? As trading is closed and markets participants cannot affect price.

  204. Prashant Yadav says:

    Hello Sir! On Friday Morningstar Pattern was formed on the daily chart of Bharti Airtel. The prior trend was a downtrend and the pattern formed near the support and yet it failed today. Here is a screenshot of it
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EWsJyu2H9AcKpyykbZV_sDiB25TGHruh/view?usp=sharing

    I’ve been trading for 3 weeks and the market is hardly respecting any pattern. It’s been a frustrating experience for a beginner like me. Please give some advice.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Markets will rever respect the patterns, if only it was that easy. Patterns indicate the probability of an event occurring. There is no guarantee here 🙂

  205. Prashant Yadav says:

    Lol! Sir are you trolling your student? If markets would never respect patterns, how are we supposed to get the trades right?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not trolling Prashant, its the truth. Imagine a situation wherein a pattern occurs and markets have to obey that pattern and behave in a certain way? That would make life easy for everyone right? Patterns are only an indicator of what is likely to happen, not a guarantee. Thats what I meant to say 🙂

  206. Mohit Jain says:

    Sir, here can the encircled one be marked as an evening star?
    https://www.tradingview.com/x/GI9lCUn3/

  207. Dr. Gargi says:

    Hello sir,
    I noticed in chat IQ , it identifies some multiple candlestick patterns ,not described in varsity,
    What can be a good place to read about these , or is there a detailed manual on zerodha’s platform itself?

    Also , there are a big variety of indicators in “studies” section.
    Where can we find a detailed explanation of each of them?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Dr.Gargi, the list of CS pattern is endless. Instead of learning all, it is better to figure the price action context so that the moment you see the chart, you’ll now if its a bullish or a bearish setup.

  208. Gaurav Kapil says:

    Hi Karthik,

    10.2 Morning Star, pointer # 7 : In the absence of P2’s doji/spinning top it would have appeared as though P1 and P3 formed a bullish engulfing pattern.
    My question is – Is it necessary for P1 & P3 to appear as ‘Bullish Engulfing’ only or it can also appear as ‘Piercing’. In the morning star tutorial chart, P1 & P3 don’t really appear to be bullish engulfing and looks like piercing instead as P3 doesn’t really engulf complete P1 candle.. Kindly advise! Regards, Gaurav

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It can appear as a piercing pattern also, and if it does then you will have to treat it the same way as you’d treat the piercing pattern.

  209. Gaurav kapil says:

    one more point to clarify – or P3 can also be further gap up and green candle instead of Bullish Engulfing or Piercing? would it be considered as morning star?

  210. Gaurav Kapil says:

    Okay, Thank you!

  211. Ganesh says:

    Hello Karthick!
    First of all thanks for the wonderful content.
    what is the exact reason for gap up or gap down? can we assume it is bought or sold between 9-9.15am?

  212. Ganesh says:

    Hi karthick..
    with reference to the previous comments,
    My Question: what is the exact reason for gap up or gap down? can we assume it is bought or sold between 9-9.15am?
    Your answer: Ganesh, sudden excess demand or supply leads to the gap in prices.

    How will the exchange know there is excess demand or supply overnight, i mean after market hour? can you please elaborate?

    Thank you so much..

  213. Chandu says:

    In P3 gap up opening and candle closed 50%the range of P1 candle can be considered as morning or evening star

  214. PRASHANT THORAT says:

    Evening star: How to short at 3:20 PM (Intraday shorting square off will be done by 3:15 right?)

  215. Nilesh says:

    Sir,
    How many candles should be considered to recognise the trend (uptrend/downtrend)?
    Most of the times, there are only two or three consecutive candles going in the same direction and then it reverses.

  216. Nilesh says:

    Thanks

  217. Vaibhav says:

    Sir,
    If there is a doji at P3 I am sure both risk takers n aversers wouldn’t want to invest, right?

    Beautiful explanation

  218. Vaibhav says:

    I would personally not make an investment in this case. Would it be wise considering the formation of a doji?

    Thank you.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Depends, on what strategy you are following. Short term trades can still be considered, but maybe not investments.

  219. Soban says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Aren’t short positions only intraday?
    If we short at 3:20 they will be squared off at 3:30

  220. Soban Khan says:

    I am sorry but I didn’t quite understand that.
    Should we short future contract of our target price? or something else
    but even they will be squared off by EOD?

  221. Hamza Bandookwala says:

    Hi Karthik!

    Are these pattern and strategies equally profitable for any Time Frame. What Time-frame is considered the best, Daily, weekly or Monthly? What has been the most profitable from your experience?

  222. Paras Kukreja says:

    Dear Sir
    The way you explained the candle stick patterns is just amazing. Feels the hard work you did to prepare this material, that to free of cost. Thanks again for spreading great content. Happy trading!!

  223. Nikhil says:

    sir, if a big red candle(p3)(but forms a dragonfly doji) doesn’t form after a evening star and a big green candle(p3)(but forms a gravestone doji) doesn’t form after the morning star and yet the trend is downward and upward respectively, are the patterns qualified to be called what we usually call them?

  224. Nikhil says:

    Sir, sorry for not being lucid. Let me try to ask again.

    , if a big red candle(p3)(but forms a dragonfly doji) doesn’t form after a evening star and a big green candle(p3)(but forms a gravestone doji) doesn’t form after the morning star and yet the trend is downward and upward respectively, are the patterns qualified to be called evening and morning stars respectively?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Nikhil, you are saying big red candle but a dragonfly doji, both are contradicting right? Is there a chart you can share for me to understand this better?

  225. Nikhil says:

    Sir this candle is small but can it be called bullish engulfing?
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/12KIJiOs0Ei42uELUAsHE-bqmXeQwwUdo/view?usp=drivesdk

    Thank you sir.

  226. Nikhil says:

    Sir, in an uptrend it suddenly starts to consolidate and then a big green candle appears , do u call this support area? Please take a look at the pic shared and let me know your explanation 😊

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/12YHzyjSva_QWu62_cyT7n0Enl1wPjv6z/view?usp=drivesdk

  227. Nikhil says:

    wow, what a point you just made sir. I wasn”t looking at it from the trendline support point of view. Sir, if there wasnt a trendline and I was just looking it from the previous support area, could you have called this candle a support area? Its a tad confusing sir.

  228. Nikhil says:

    Exactly sir. I thought the same bcz if changes it’s direction from there, you could call it support area. Even the below pic can’t be a support area, right sir?
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/12YHzyjSva_QWu62_cyT7n0Enl1wPjv6z/view?usp=drivesdk

  229. Vibhor says:

    Hi Kartik,
    would be very kind if you explain
    All the candlesticks pattern you’ve mentioned it is only effective for day trading
    can we use this pattern for 10,15,30 min. candles and is it the same like the day pattern

    and I’m new to the trading could you give me some tips about it as i can’t afford to buy costly softwares for observing about stocks, wanted to trade some units initially for practicing & maybe in large in the future – (using zerodha kite currently)

    and congratulations for all of your articles.These are very helpful and effective for the new people.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thats right, Vibhor. You can use the patterns across all timeframes and are not restricted to just EOD trades.

  230. Nikhil says:

    Thank you sir😊

  231. Aman B says:

    Hello sirji, aman here. how are you? I hope u remember me. Sirji, if I am entering the trade(long) on top of a candle should my stop loss be below the present candle or below the previous candle?

  232. Nikhil says:

    Sir , according to you should I enter after 1st resistance or second resistance? Let me know your opinion, sir.

  233. Nikhil says:

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/13H0GU1kiIUrzGo_p6EKqVar7JQF1g62T/view?usp=drivesdk.

    I forgot to post the link in my previous message, sorry sir.

  234. Aman B says:

    Suppose there r two candles sir, the present n the previous, if I am entering at the top of the present candle, should I stop loss be below the present candle?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      If the two form a pattern, like say bullish engulfing, then take the lowest low of the two candles as the SL.

  235. Nikhil says:

    Karthik sir, i would pershallt enter after it broke the first previous resistance. That’s a safe move? What would u do?

  236. Aman B says:

    Sirji, I got you but if the green candle 2 opens above the close of the green candle 1, n I enter on the top of candle 2 , should my stop loss be below the candle 2 or candle 1?

  237. Nikhil says:

    Sir when taking a short position should I even consider these small support zones? Please look at the pic, sir.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/13Q3hLYltohE1pBDt4XI_DqmrhQJ7tG6W/view?usp=drivesdk

  238. Nikhil says:

    Sir, no matter how trivial or insignificant a small support or resistat zone is it should not be overlooked? I have this bad habit of overlooking, plz enlighten me.

  239. Akil says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Is there a free software/chart which can identifiy the candlestick patterns automatically that you have mentioned so far?
    The reason I ask the question is that I want some validation/verification that I am identifying the patterns correctly. Without that, it doesnt provide me the confidence to enter into a trade as a beginner. Is there a zerodha community chat/channel where these patterns & indicators are discussed?
    Appreciate if you can guide me to the appropriate chat/channel which discusses about the pattern formation and analysis.

    As many of them suggested, it will be really great if you can introduce some LAB/practical simulation sessions which can provide confidence for a novice.

  240. Nikhil says:

    sir, is it really possible to calculate risk reward ratio while we are about to enter the trade? I mean it takes time and i could end up missing points. Please enlighten me, sir.

  241. Nikhil says:

    sir, is this a 1: 2.82 trade? I am not understanding how to read it. can you please guide?

    Thank you.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Looks interesting. I’m a bit confused about the entry-exit points, do apply this formula –

      RRR = SL points/Target points.

  242. Nikhil says:

    Sir risk to reward ratio is calculated from sl to entry n then till the target, right?

  243. Nikhil says:

    Sir, should I rely on indicators in sideways or bear Market? In bull Run it’s not really needed. Can you please enlighten me?

  244. Nikhil says:

    Ok sir, thank you.

  245. Aakash says:

    Are these 1Day Charts?

  246. Kundan Kumar says:

    Sir kindly clarify
    How it is possible to Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star.
    Case 1 INTRADAY Order
    How is it is possible in intraday to Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star?
    CASE 2 CNC ORDER
    How is s it possible to Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star?
    Sir could you please clarify when and how to short our position on P3 on 3:20pm. Can it be possible to carry forward our CNC shorting order for next days or or more days?

  247. Nikhil says:

    Sir, when the higher timeframe such as Monthly n weekly r down but I see a price hike in daily, hourly, can I just overlook them saying it’s only a correction n then the price will go down?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Hmm, that would be a tough call. You need to see the overall trend and get a perspective on how the market is moving before you take any action.

  248. Nikhil says:

    sir basically I have this doubt plaguing me. If the higher time frames such as monthly n weekly are down, I should consider any bullish pattern in daily or hourly as either short lived or invalid since the higher time frame is bearish. sir, in such cases I should treat lower timeframes as we treat them when the higher timeframes are bullish, right? Kindly clear my doubt, sir. Its been hindering me .

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The shorter time frame could pose a secondary trend which can be a counter trend, although this may not sustain through. You need to be aware of this and trade accordingly.

  249. Nikhil says:

    I got it and that doesn’t mean I should back out from going long with a short time bullish mindset, right?

    Thank you sir.

  250. Nikhil says:

    got it sir. Sir , do we even consider dojis or spinning top in bear or bull counter attacks?

  251. Kushal says:

    The colour of the (2nd pattern) evening or morning star doesn’t matter?

    Thanks a lot.

  252. Nikhil says:

    sir, I just now created a zeroda account . can I change my bank account linked to zeroda account anytime?

  253. Nikhil says:

    sure sir. Besides if I see two bullish patterns at one time, is it a strong sign of a bullish reversal?

  254. Nikhil says:

    sir, I have got the TPIN to avail e-DIS facility and while tracking the status of my account, its saying that the login crendentials have been mailed but I dont see any mail as such.

  255. Nikhil says:

    sir, I got the login credentials, thank you sir!

  256. Nikhil says:

    Sir, what is the buy signal in ADX? I have chosen 60 and 40 for RSI. please let me know abt the ADX.

    Thank you.

  257. Nikhil says:

    sir, when the resistance is broken n the prices come back in we call it fake break out but when the price breaks resistance makes a U shape (rounding top)n come back in again, can we call it a fake break out? please take a look at the image below.
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JqXC85qfCrjM_qwGszUcHjE-0ZqOzjtE/view?usp=sharing

  258. Nikhil says:

    sir, the most important thing we have us understand is like support n resistance zones ,even a single candle(its high n low) acts as support n resistance, right?

  259. Nikhil says:

    Sir, cnc is equity and mis is intra day?

  260. Bhavesh says:

    hi kartik
    the doji/spinning top (p2) should be bullish for morning star or can it be bearish ? And vice versa for evening star?

  261. Nikhil says:

    Ok sir, I want to start with equities so what option should I select?

    Thank you.

  262. Bhavesh says:

    Thankyou Sir

  263. Nikhil says:

    Sir, for my equities I see that I got to choose CNC for delivery. Now what is trigger stop loss, sir?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      SL is the price at which you intend to book a loss, in case the stock is moving against you. Tink of the trigger price as a means of activating the SL price.

  264. Nikhil says:

    sir, I have a doubt. when the candle closes above the resistance line and becomes support and then a red candle closes exactly at the resistance line that became support, sir should we say the red candle went to retest the support line?

  265. Nikhil says:

    yes sir, they are interchangeable, a red candle after a green candle means it came to retest the support line,right ?

    Thank you sir.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yup. However, what matters more than the colour of the candle itself is the current market price with respect to the S&R lines.

  266. Nikhil says:

    sir, before trading in a stock from an index, in this case say Nifty Metal, should I check the Nifty Metal chart ?

  267. Nikhil says:

    one more thing what I am noticing is sir, the support and resistance zones of the sector n its stocks remain the same. Is it because the stocks move the sector?

  268. Nikhil says:

    wow! sir, what is surprising is all the stocks from a sector move similarly, how is it possible?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Think about it – HDFC Bank, ICIC Bank, Kotak Bank, all Pvt sector banks and they move similarly. Do check their charts. Likewise TCS, Infy, HCL. BPCL, HPCL, IOC etc. This is because, for the given sector, the factors that impact the sector are all similar.

  269. nikhil says:

    wow, that’s quite amazing as well as astonishing to know!

  270. nikhil says:

    sir, all moving averages hold significance in all the timeframes, right? I have been giving more importance to 20 day moving averages in daily but not in hourly n 15 mins. Please clear my doubt.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not really, for example, I’d not use any moving average on 1 minute chart. Its too much noise anyway.

  271. naman says:

    Good evening Karthik ji, I have a follow up to the other gentleman’s question. is 50day Moving averages work as effectively in 15 mins as it does in hourly and daily? I see it does but I just want to know the expert opinion.

    Thank you Karthik ji!

  272. nikhil says:

    Ok nice. Sir I traded Bajaj Finance today n my doubt is it’s a part of nifty 50 as well as nifty finance so which sectors chart should I look at? I’m confused.

  273. naman says:

    karthik Ji, in your experience do 100 and 200 Moving averages act as support or resistance?

  274. nikhil says:

    sir, but sometimes I feel its the stocks that move the sector, so why should I look at the sector? Can you clear my misconception?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      They are all related, especially if the stock is a sector heavy weight. For example HDFC Bank is a banking sector heavy weight.

  275. Ruth Mathews says:

    This is w.r.t to Morning star. In day 2 ,can we say that buyers feel that falling price as a good opportunity to buy at cheap price. This might be one of reasons for indecisiveness, hence doji formation?

  276. nikhil says:

    Sir, nifty auto sector is at resistance right now n is resisting, but I don’t see any resistance zone in bajaj auto but it’s still resisting, this is bcz of the sectoral impact?

  277. nikhil says:

    sir, if sector is resisting, stock will resist na sir? Please give in your detailed explanation.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Not really, Nikhil. Why do think so? While a stock follows the sector trends, stocks can also have their own factors (unsystematic influences) which can move the stock.

  278. nikhil says:

    sir, you mean to say its the stock that move the sector and bcz the stocks are at a resistance the sector is resisting?

  279. Nikhil says:

    Sir for a better example, nifty 50 n nifty bank sectors are at an all time high and resisting, this is bcz the stocks are resisting, right?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Nikhil, what I’m trying to say is, yes there will be interdependencies, but its not necessarily true all the time. For example, a bunch of stocks can be a resistance zone, which means Index too may be at a resistance. However if an index heavyweight, like HDFC is trending, then the index is likely to move.

  280. nikhil says:

    yes sir, if a stock with heavy capitalization starts to move , it will move the sector. But when a heavyweight starts to move does it also move other stocks?

  281. nikhil says:

    sir , now why should I look a the sector? Just to see what majority of the stocks are doing ? I mean when I see sector going up, being at resistance I can deduce that the most of the stocks are going up and are at resistance respectively?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The easiest way to test this is by eyeballing and check what happened in the past. That will give you a quick perspective.

  282. nikhil says:

    sir, I got what you are saying. I read them over and over and they gave me an idea. Sir now my doubt is if the sector is resisting then obviously most of the stocks are resisting and now if a few stocks start moving up, should I be suspicious or I should consider that they are moving up bcz of their own factors(stock specific)?

    Thank you so much,sir!

  283. nikhil says:

    sir, when you say stock specific in this scenario it means despite the sector at resistance some stocks till move up bcz of their own factors?

  284. nikhil says:

    thank you karthik sir! you solved my big doubt.

  285. Moin Pasha says:

    Sir,

    Please add multiple candlestick time frames analyasis chapter for the benefit of traders

    Thanks

  286. Kaizu says:

    It will be so nice, if you guys make complete video guide, the learning would be at next level..:)

  287. Hitendra says:

    Hi,

    Hammer or Marubozu formation on weekly ,monthly chart is more strong signal to buy stock for longer duration ?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Yeah. If you are looking at weekly charts, then your holding period should be long enough.

  288. Abhisekh says:

    7. In the absence of P2’s doji/spinning top, it would have appeared as though P1 and P3 formed a bullish engulfing pattern.
    Did you actually mean PIERCING Pattern ?
    As the Blue candle (P3) doesn’t cover the whole of Red candle (P1).
    Thanking you in advance.

  289. nikhil says:

    sir, what trading platform does Zerodha use?

  290. HARSH GUPTA says:

    Sir this was the far best interpretation of candle sticks i could have ever got.
    nice words simple words point-to-point things and many other things which let us go more deeper in the chapters-modules.
    Cant thankyou enough for writing this, you are a true insipiration sir :).

  291. Vidya says:

    Thank you for the clear and concise explanation on candlesticks. Is there any app/ site where we can practice predicting the trend based on the candlestick pattern? Thank you

  292. Ashvik says:

    What should be the trade if there is continuous Doji formation for the past 1 week and then (P1 Doji formation on P2 it is a bullish candle ) what we should be expecting eg Rpower

  293. Sugam Shah says:

    Hi Sir,
    What if there’s a situation where we see a gap up and also there is some bearish formation like shooting star on the same day. You can see it on the last example of gaps in 1st image.

  294. CVSN Reddy says:

    Zerodha university people explained concepts very well and Kudos and Hats off to you. I love zerodha professionalism in all aspects. Great platform to trade and great university to learn.

  295. Damanjeet Singh says:

    hey karthik,
    I wanted to know if I can use these candlestick patterns in a pullback/retracement?
    for example, the stock’s primary trend is uptrend but then it retraces or there is a pullback, and then it forms a bullish reversal candlestick pattern like a hammer or a bullish harami or a morning star pattern so then can I buy the stock, based on that bullish reversal patterns in pullbacks or retracements where the primary trend is an uptrend?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Of course, you can. The point is that candlestick patterns are manifestation of price action, hence you can use this to identify pullbacks and retracements.

  296. Indranil Chatterjee says:

    Hi Karthik

    A lot of the modules mention “the risk taker places the trade on 3.20 PM on the last day of a pattern”. If the trade is a short trade, how can one place a short trade at 3.20, the same day? Shorting for stocks only works intraday and auto-settlement kicks in at 3.20 PM on Zerodha, so how can the trade go through the same day? Are you always referring to futures when it comes to shorting?

    Indranil

  297. Deathstroke08 says:

    hello Karthik
    suppose the stock is in an uptrend and then there is a pullback/retracement in the stock and then it forms a bullish reversal candlestick pattern like a hammer or an inside bar so in this case, I should be taking a long position in the stock. so how should i know that the momentum is strong and this is a good trade to take?
    how should I confirm on a larger timeframe that the momentum is strong?
    or
    should I be looking at a larger timeframe or a smaller timeframe to confirm the momentum?
    and how should I confirm the momentum? like should I be using an indicator for this on a larger or smaller timeframe? If yes, then which inicator should I be using?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The only way to get a sense of how strong the momentum is to look at the previous trend and figure how bullish the stock was. If you see a nice rally with very little volatility, then it indicates a strong bullish undertone.

  298. Deathstroke08 says:

    but if then there is a pullback and a retracement then how will I know that that is the lowest low of the pullback or it is not the final low of the retracement then I should take the trade then?

  299. Dipankar says:

    Hi Karthik
    Hope you are enjoying the festive season.
    I had a question regarding today’s bank nifty movement (14-Oct-21) from 38825 at about 1:00 pm to 39000 and beyond half an hour later. I didnt notice anything significant in the candlestick pattern and closed my call buy position with a minor loss based on the Stop Loss. But then it simply zoomed and I missed out on the opportunity. So wanted to know what did I miss in the charts? Thanks for all your help and support
    Regards
    Dipankar

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Trading has multiple dimensions to it. While you pay attention to candle patterns, you also need to pay attention to the market demand and supply situation. Excess demands tends to increase the stock price and it may not always show up in candle patterns.

  300. RJ says:

    Sir,
    How does a Gap Up or Gap Down opening actually occurs, what is actually going on at technical levels ? like when a stock that closed at 100 for the previous day, the next day the buyer’s intent would be to buy it at 100 only or rather less, right even if there is some good news? so why would he put down an ask for Rs.104 ( would he try multiple asks and try to get it at any cost – can you please explain the technical aspect of actually doing this on Zerodha like
    1) maybe the buyer would place a Market order, so if the seller offers at 104 the buyer would get the stock at 104- but does this mean that the sellers come first on the market but when the buyer actually bought the share at 104 = then the system decided the Opening price of that particular stock ?
    2) what happens if the buyer has put up a limit order to buy ? will his order will remain pending throughout the day? but then how was this new opening price decided on system /exchange?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Think about a regular vegetable market – the price of Onion is 30 per Kg on a closing basis. Market closes for the day. Overnight, there is rain destroying the crops. Do you think the price of onion the next morning will still be at 30? No right, it is bound to increase and will probably open at 40 or 50. Same thing with stocks, overnight news can after the open price leading to gap up or down.

  301. Rutuja says:

    Hii Karthik ji. Your lessons are super easy to understand. They are helping me a lot, who thought that it will be impossible for someone like me to even understand how the markets work. Thanks for this initiative! I have one doubt that might have been covered in the following lessons still I am asking anyway. If we are gonna buy only on the blue candlestick day and sell on the red candlestick day then how are we gonna make a profit in it?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Rutuja. The idea is to buy when the trend is picking up and sell when we identify a reversal. It is impossible to catch the entire trend, aim of the game is catch at least a portion of it, consistently 🙂

  302. Riadh says:

    Do candlestick patterns still work? I mean, I have read a number of posts online which outrightly put down the effectiveness of candlestick patterns. Is that so? How reliable are the patterns today?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Riadh, each trader’s experience is different. I’d suggest you figure this by making your own observations and trades in the market.

  303. Pavan says:

    1)How do we overcome false signals? is there any strategies?
    if we take an example of TATA STEEL, 3 days back(21 dec) it forms bullish harami with satisfying check list like good volume and also met with good support area.But from yesterday it starts again falling,
    2) In these conditions what to do? (not only tata steel, some times other stocks also do as it is)

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      There are no pre-set formulas to overcome these false signals, but over time, as you gain more experience in the market, you will know which signals to avoid. One thing that helps though is to check if the trade that you wish to take is aligned with the overall direction of the market. For example, if I were to go long on Tata steel, I’d be happy to see that the overall market is also bullish.

  304. Pavan says:

    Sir,
    I have seen your story on instagram, Congratulations for reaching that mark sir, your efforts made us to gain more knowledge about trading, markets and investing.
    And also I noticed that your starting video series on marketing, is it true? if yes when will you releasing it, where and is it paid or free?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks Pavan. The series is live, please click on the video icon (1st 3 modules), its right below the module name in the landing page.

  305. Veni Madhav says:

    P3 candle should close above P1 appears to be a bit confusing as texts elsewhere do not mention this. In fact P3 closes below P1. Kindly clarify.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Which pattern are you referring to, Veni? If its the morning star, then you need to ensure P3 closes above P1.

  306. Kishore says:

    I have just started learning about stock markets in my investment journey, and after learning about all the candlestick patterns, I am longing for one question: How to apply these patterns ? I mean what time frame should I look for (days, weeks, months) if I am a beginner and want to learn long term trading (as suggested in one of the discussion forums) ??

  307. Alex says:

    Sir.
    I like to do Swing trading..which time frame is good to find candlestick patterns?

  308. Vishal vishwas yadav says:

    Sir
    Is any continuation candles .
    Is exist , how much they are because this time market goes in trend.
    And many times also

  309. Sameer Sinha says:

    Hi Karthik,
    How can this morning and evening star pattern be used in intraday trades as well? Like in 15 mins and 30 mins or 1hr timeframe. Is it possible?

  310. Vatsal says:

    What if the fourth day produces a doji or a spinning top, considering i am a risk averse trader?

  311. Vatsal Shah says:

    I have a lot of similar doubts about patterns and their behavior. Also, how do I go deeper with technical analysis? This is because I am genuinely interested in the way these systems are created. I am not only asking for trading-related purposes.

  312. Kalyan says:

    Hi Karthik

    Can you please explain me the statement?

    :::QUOTE::
    The trade setup for an evening star is as follows:
    1. Short the stock on P3, around the close of 3:20 PM after validating that P1 to P3 form an evening star
    ::UNQUOTE::
    If I understand right, you can short equities only for intraday positions. This means on day 3 if you short at 3:20 PM, your position will be closed by 3:30 PM. This means that you will be holding only for 10 mins. Is my understanding correct?

    Thanks
    Regards
    Kalyan

  313. Midhun says:

    Hi Karthik,

    Good Day! Thank you for helping the retailers with your extensive knowledge.

    Couple of doubts about candlesticks formation in the intraday chart.
    1. What would be the minimum ideal timeframe to check for the candlestick formation? 5 mins /15 mins?
    2. In Nifty and Bank Nifty, I see multiple candlesticks formation at consolidation, Eg: Bullish engulfing followed by a morning star and then a hammer. Or a failed Dark cloud, then an evening star followed by a 2-3 Doji etc.

    Are all these candle stick patterns valid in consolidation as well?

    Posted 2 charts of BNF :
    https://postimg.cc/rdGp73zg (Morning star candle on 23 Jun 1:30 PM in 15min Time frame)
    https://postimg.cc/47J3GP9G (Series of candle stick patterns on 23 Jun 10:55)

    Please advise.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      1) I personally prefer higher time frame candles. So 15 mins is better for me compared to 5.
      2) Yes, this is quite common. Usually you act basis the latest candlestick pattern. So if you spot bullish engulfing and set up a trade, you wont exit that trade just because the following pattern is bearish marubuzo. You hold on to the initial trade either till your target is achieved or SL is triggered.

  314. Tejas says:

    Sir, a different doubt than what you have taught in this module…..so sir in the first image where you shown the gap ups there there is blue long candle after a downtrend in the stock….can we say that the long blue candle is a bullish bald candle right?

  315. Tejas says:

    yeah

  316. Manoj says:

    Hello Karthik,

    I would like clarity on a query already posted by Rakesh Hansalia as I did find a clear response.

    Let’s assume conditions for P1 and P2 are satisfied then body color (blue or red ) of doji (for P2) really matters in morning or evening star pattern?

    Thanks.

  317. Manoj says:

    Correction *did not*

  318. Binil says:

    Sir,I Would like to know one thing if you don’t mind please…My doubt is that you people by owning a Trading Platform with crores of rupees Turnover and also by painstakingly creating this zerodha varsity for educating common people about stock market trading,why you and other stalwarts of Zerodha try to demotivate people from entering stock market for trading in all your the interviews given and in various tweets ..being Highly paradoxical.. Could you please give some light in to it ..So that this will help people like us to know whether to learn this or stay away from this..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      The problem is that people take up trading full time by sacrificing their primary careers. They look at stock markets as an easy source of revenue. But over the years, we have seen that it is not. You need to have a main profession that pays a salary, and your family’s safety is taken care of. Trading can be a supplemental source of income, provided it’s done right. We try to educate people on this aspect.

  319. Binil says:

    Thank you Sir for your reply ..So could you please clarify that, Is Zerodha Varsity just a business perspective to attract people towards Zerodha rather than educating people ..Sorry to be blunt ..Not trying to belittle your effort although..and I have also seen one of Zerodha owners Interview stating Zerodha’s 95% Revenue comes from stock traders rather than Investors.. So are all these people wasting their time and Money…or Is it a good profession if one is skilled in trading ..

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      No 🙂

      Intent is to educate people interested in trading and investing to do it correctly. Provide them with all the information and knowledge without holding back anything. We try to say is that, dont make trading your full-time profession by sacrificing your main profession with an agenda to make a living out of your trading career, because of all the reasons I explained in my previous comment. Keep trading as a secondary source and do it well. The resources provided is to help you do that.

  320. pankaj prajapati says:

    hello dear Karthik Rangappa sir
    i have one question that is in gap up and gap down opening the trade transaction will take place at what time i am bit confused in this.
    is it before pre marketing hours or after 9:15

  321. assac says:

    sir, as you have mentioned in module these are profitable patterns for indian market, is it not applicable on any foriegn markets?

  322. Pc says:

    Sir,
    Can u plz tell what to expect when a doji occurs right after a bullish engulfing pattern?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      I’ve explained this in the chapter itself. A doji after any pattern enhances the probability of the outcome that the patter suggests.

  323. Vaibhav says:

    In evening star If we short at 3:20 it will square off automatically by Zerodha at the end of trading session… I don’t think you imply that gain will be made in just next 10 mins…next day a new short is to be opened… plz revert….

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Certainly not by shorting in the cash market. The assumption is that the shorts are made in the futures market or via an options instrument.

  324. R.Rohit says:

    Hi Karthik,
    As per the explanation to form the morning star pattern we have to wait for 3 days and then take the trade.
    What if the same morning start patterns come in an hourly time frame during intraday can we trade on it considering it as a morning star pattern?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It still works the same, the idea is to ensure that 3 candles form the pattern. It could be over 3 days or 3 hours, or even maybe 3 minutes.

  325. Shubham says:

    Hi Kartik,
    Why do gap openings occur? Is it due to the traders putting AMOs and/or bidding in the pre-open market?

    Thank you

  326. Amar says:

    As a rule of thumb, the higher the number of days involved in a pattern, the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day.
    What does this mean?
    And I am a big fan of yours karthik🙂

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Amar, thanks for the kind words!

      So what I mean by this is that….on a marubuzo candle (single candle stick patter), you can choose to act the day its formed or the next day. But something like a morning start, which takes 3 days to evolve, you are better off initiating the trade on the day the patter evolves.

  327. Rakesh says:

    what will be the conditions and code for 3 outside bullish pattern ,it is not defined in varsity?

  328. Amarnath says:

    As a rule of thumb, the higher the number of days involved in a pattern, the better it is to initiate the trade on the same day. what does this mean?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      It just means that in longer patterns, even the risk-averse traders can initiate the trade on the pattern day only and there is no need to wait for another confirmation day.

  329. Shoeb says:

    Sir, Even if a company announces something which is super positive, it does not make sense that share prices are opened with a Gap Up the next morning without any trading activity. In fact, it suggests that there are factors which can easily manipulate prices other than trading activity.

  330. Izak says:

    what should be the prior trend in Gap-Up or Gap-Down opening?

  331. Akshay Reddy says:

    Karthik sir,
    can we use these single and multiple candlestick patterns also in 5 and 15 min charts?

  332. Urooj says:

    Sir I have a confusion regarding shorting of the stock after identifying the candle patterns. As discussed in the earlier module it was said that shorting is an intraday activity but how can we short a stock @ 3:20 PM ?

  333. Gourish says:

    In the text, it is mentioned that a risk-taker enters the trade on the last day of the pattern formation around the closing price (3:20 PM). If a risk trader shorts a trade at around 3:20 pm does he have to close the trade by 3:30 pm that day itself?

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      You must short via derivatives (via futures or options) to carry forward the positions, Gourish.

  334. Urooj says:

    thankyou karthik and gourish.

  335. Jaiprakash says:

    Hey kartik
    So going well with zerodha but does all these patterns we studied wroks on 1 day frame or any time frame?
    Please reply

  336. Devak Desai says:

    While analysing an intraday 15 min chart how do I check the bullish engulfing or any 2 day pattern without having the day complete and can you please also tell me the trade setup for a 15 min time frame?

  337. Kashvi says:

    Sir I just want to know that what is the effective way to practice or use to with candlestick pattern as I am a beginner n eagerly understand the pattern style pls.n suggests some paper trading app or website
    Pls

  338. Virendra says:

    Karthik sir 🙏
    Because of your teaching and great module I am understanding share market to some extent.
    Now my problem is, I am unable to see the charts in comment section. I tried all way but has been failed to see the chart. Please help me in this regard.

    • Karthik Rangappa says:

      Thanks for the kind words, Virendra. I’m glad you liked the contents on Varsity 🙂

      The charts in comment section is uploaded by users, they usually provide links to Google drive from where one can see charts. If they deleted or changed the location of the file, then it will no longer be available for review.

  339. Akshit Bansal says:

    Hey Sir,
    Firstly, thanks a lot for the valuable resources; they’ve been incredibly useful. As a beginner in stock market trading. Should my initial focus be on shorter time frames, such as one day or less, to anticipate market movements?

  340. R Ramaratnam says:

    Hi, What is meant by long trade and short trade. I don’t understand when you say the highest of the high is the stoploss for long trade and lowest of the low is stoploss for short trade. Should I understand them as buy and sell respectively?

  341. Rakesh says:

    Hi Karthik. Can I follow the candel stick patterns on future and option? If yes what time frame(5mn/15mn/1hour) will I follow?

  342. Udit Jarwal says:

    Hi Karthik sir,
    Can doji or spinning top of be any color red or blue in both morning and evening star?

  343. Jacky.shamdasani says:

    hi,

    do you have any whatsapp group where you share knowledge and stock market update. if yes kindly add me.

    9970250000

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