Candlestick patterns are designed to identify reversal patterns in price trend. There are some types of patterns to identify trend continuation, but mostly they are reversal patterns.

Japanese Candlesticks were initially developed to track the "barter" action of a local open market. Thus, they were designed for longer-term trends (probably weekly and monthly).

Most traders currently try to deploy them for daily or intra-day charting. Our belief is that traders should also use/incorporate longer-term charts into their analysis.

Large pattern (size) does not indicate a greater "probability" of a candlestick pattern. In fact, often, large sized patterns are directly attributed to volatility of the market. Often, smaller patterns form just before a big trend move.

Confirmation of a candlestick pattern is a good way to provide further evidence of a potential trend.

Bullish Confirmation is when a buy signal is followed by a white bar with a higher close, higher low, higher high.

Bearish Confirmation is when a sell signal is followed by a black bar with a lower close, lower low, lower high.

Dojis are not only congestion/reversal signals. They also identify support/resistance.

Dojis are NOT action signals. Dojis should be viewed as "warning signals" of some potential trend change/continuation.

There is no "one pattern" that is more reliable than others. Candlesticks are unique characteristics of price action. Thus, often we find that a variety of patterns work well for different symbols. Confirmation is a good way to identify which patterns are working better than others.