Candlestick Patterns on a Live Gold Chart

What it shows

Each label carries the pattern’s code, for example H for hammer, BE for engulfing, D for doji, MS for morning star and 3WS for three white soldiers. Twins share a code and differ by colour and side: a blue BE under a candle is a bullish engulfing, a red BE over it a bearish one. One candle can carry several labels, since a hammer, for example, usually passes the long lower shadow test too.

How Pravex works it out

1. Every pattern is checked on every candle, with the same rules as the single pattern indicators. Each one also has its own page in the Indicators list of this site.
2. For the pattern, a body is the distance between open and close, and long or small is judged against a 14-candle exponential average of those bodies: above it is long, below it is small. The first 13 candles have no average yet, so no pattern is found there.
3. In the pattern, a doji body is at most 5% of the candle’s range (high minus low), on a candle whose range is above zero. A missing shadow is one of 5% of the range or less, a short shadow one of 10% or less, and a long shadow at least 2 times the body. Two prices count as equal when they are within 5% of the average body.
4. For the patterns that need a trend before them, the trend is read at the pattern’s first candle. With the default SMA50, an uptrend is a close above the 50-candle simple moving average and a downtrend a close below it. Reversal patterns need the opposite trend to their direction, continuation patterns need their own. Patterns without a trend rule, such as the doji, the marubozu and three white soldiers, ignore the setting.
5. The side setting then decides which labels are drawn. The three neutral patterns (Doji, Spinning Top White and Spinning Top Black) are drawn with either choice.

Settings

Setting	Default	What changing it does
Trend check	SMA50	The trend test for every pattern that has one. SMA50 compares the close with the 50-candle simple average. SMA50, SMA200 also asks the 50-candle average to be on the same side of the 200-candle one, so fewer patterns pass. The last choice turns the trend test off and marks every shape wherever it forms.
Which side	Both	Choose bullish to see only bullish and neutral patterns, bearish for only bearish and neutral ones, or keep both to see everything.
Bullish label colour	Blue (#2196F3)	The fill of the labels under bullish patterns.
Bearish label colour	Red (#F23645)	The fill of the labels over bearish patterns.
Neutral label colour	Grey (#787B86)	The fill of the labels under the doji and the two spinning tops.
Pattern switches	All 44 on	One switch per pattern, from Abandoned Baby - Bearish to Upside Tasuki Gap - Bullish. Turn off the ones you do not trade and the chart gets much quieter: the doji, the spinning tops and the long shadows alone can crowd a 1-hour chart.

How traders read it

Start by trimming the list. With all 44 on, labels pile up quickly, and most of them are small single-candle shapes. Keeping a handful you understand (engulfing, hammer and shooting star, morning and evening star, for example) gives you labels you can act on instead of a wall of codes.

Then read a label for its place on the chart, not on its own. A bullish pattern at a level price bounced from before, after a clear fall, is a different thing from the same pattern in the middle of a range. The label tells you the candle shape is there; the chart around it tells you whether it matters.

The side setting helps when you have a direction in mind. If you are only looking for long entries, the bullish choice keeps the bearish labels out of the way, and the neutral dojis and spinning tops stay as a reminder of where the market paused.

When it misleads

The patterns that need a gap between candles (windows, kickers, abandoned babies, tasuki gaps, dark cloud cover, piercing) are rare on spot gold, which trades nearly around the clock, so most of the labels you see will be one- and two-candle shapes. The trend test is a single close against the 50-candle average and is easy to pass after a short move. Small and long are measured against the last 14 bodies, so after quiet hours an ordinary candle can count as long. The candle still forming is checked again on every update, so a pattern label can show up on it and vanish before the close; only a pattern label on a closed candle stays.

Questions and answers

How many candlestick patterns does Pravex find?

There are 44, from the abandoned baby to the upside tasuki gap. Each is also available as its own indicator, and All Candlestick Patterns runs them together.

What do the letters on the labels mean?

Each is a pattern’s short code, such as H for hammer or ES for evening star. Blue under a candle is bullish, red over it is bearish, grey is neutral.

Can I show only some patterns?

Yes. The settings have one switch per pattern, all on by default, and the side setting can limit the chart to bullish or bearish patterns.

Which candlestick patterns are the most reliable?

No pattern works on its own. Patterns that show a full turn, like the engulfing and the morning or evening star, carry more information than a single small candle, and any pattern at a clear level counts for more than one in the middle of a range.

Related: Hammer - Bullish, Engulfing - Bullish, Doji, Morning Star - Bullish, every indicator.