You only need to know 15. You don’t have to spend late hours or drudge time to memorize all of the known candlestick chart patterns. You can learn the most important 15 in a hurry. It’s not difficult at all. You will learn very quickly that you will recognize them on sight, and searching for them can become a very interesting quest, and even a game, especially if more than one person is nearby.

It is important to remember that the most useful aspect of the candlesticks is their ability to help you unearth reversals of trend, as they are occurring or as they are about to emerge. With that thought, you need only to focus on the top 15 or so – the powerhouses which are most prevalent and which have the best record in terms of predictive accuracy.

My own personal favorite candlestick chart pattern is the “Shooting Star,” probably because it looks like a shooting star: located up there in the sky above the surface of the world, heading down straight toward us, with a bright bulb at the head of it and a long tail following along. The Shooting Star can only occur after a time (preferably a long time) of rising prices. Your eye will spot it on the charts in an instant. In candlestick analysis, the Shooting Star is considered to be a bearish signal. If prices do in fact close lower on the day after the Shooting Star appears, its bearish connotation is amplified.

The same pattern (in reverse) can appear at the end of a long downtrend, too; but in this case it’s not a Shooting Star, it’s a Hammer. It is given the name “Hammer” because it shows that the Bears tried to drive prices down, but when all was said and done they failed, and prices closed somewhere close to their opening, near the very top of the pattern. As you might imagine, the connotation of the Hammer is very bullish.

There is nothing mysterious, or time-consuming, or difficult in learning the 15 or so key candlestick chart patterns. You will come to understand them quickly and naturally. It’s actually fun. Once you learn them, you’ll never forget; just as you could climb aboard a two-wheeler today and ride off on it, even though you may not have ridden a bike in years and years.

The author’s “Candelaabra” technical analysis system elevates the Candlesticks to a point closer to perfection. Candelaabra is available individually or together with Genesis in a risk-free 30-day joint trial of Candelaabra and of “Trade Navigator” at http://www.candelaabra.com/