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Japanese Candlesticks have been around for centuries. In use since the early 1700′s Japanese candlesticks were first used to trade the rice markets. Over the last 400 years of course they have become popular to many including stock and forex traders.

Japanese candlestick charts display market sentiment like no other form of charting can. With candlestick charts you have basically 2 moving parts. (If you will.) The real body, can be full or hallow, and the wicks or shadows can be long or short, or gone – either way, together you get a nice picture of price action today, or over a period of time.

A high is marked by the top of the upper shadow or a wick. It indicates the highest point of the day in trading. The low is marked by the bottom of the lower shadow. If a security closes higher than it opened, then a hollow body is drawn. The top line of the body itself would indicate the close and the bottom line of the body would indicate the open. If a security closes lower than the opening price, then a filled body is drawn with the top line indicating the opening and the lower one indicating the close. (See below.)

Candlestick charting is much more intuitive than any other form of chart reading once you learn some basics. A candlestick pattern can reveal price action relative to the past better than any other form of charting available. Not only do you get instant insight into current price action, but also that action relative to the past.

All candlesticks have a body and a wick or shadow, unless the open close high and low are equal to each other in which case you would have a little dash and that’s it. A white body is an empty body, and a black one is a full body. The empty/white body represents a close greater than the open, and a black/full body represents a close less than the open. The size of the body represents the distance between the open and close.

Another characteristic would be a hollow or filled body with no shadows. These are called Marubozu or black & white. A white Marubozu would occur when the open equals the low and the close equals the high. A black Marubozu would occur when the open equals the high and the close equals the low.

Another important candlestick pattern is a spinning top. Spinning tops are represented by a long or short shadow / wick and a short real body. The short body tells us that there was a small gap between the open and close. If the shadow or wick is long it tells us that the highs and lows of the day moved hard but failed to remain strong. Whichever was long tells you of potential upcoming underlying strength.

There are literally hundreds of candlestick patterns that traders use to increase their trading performance. Best used with other technical analysis tools, here are the top 10 patterns that provide the most consistent results.

* The dark cloud: This 2 candlestick reversal patter shows its face at the top of a bullish trend. The first candlestick matches the trend with its bullish real body while the next candlestick appears on the open to be aggressive but immediately fails and heads down to close beyond the 50% point of the first candlestick, letting us know that the reversal has started.

* Doji: You will find doji’s where the open close, high and low are in close proximity. The candlestick ends up looking like a small cross. It means that the buyers and sellers are indecisive and can indicate potentially that a reversal is about to take place.

* The engulfing candlestick pattern: This formation consists of just two candlesticks. The first of the two will open and close within the real body of the second candlestick, and as such the second one will have an open and close outside the first candlesticks real body. This can be a bearish or bullish engulfing pattern depending upon the full or empty bodied candlesticks in the pattern.

* Evening Star: Commonly regarded as a bearish reversal pattern, this three-day pattern consists of a long white body, followed by a smaller gap up candlestick, with the third and final day closing below the midpoint of the first day.

* Hammer: When trading occurs significantly below the open, but ends well above the low and closes as its high, the candlestick formed has only one tail below its body. When this formation occurs during a downtrend, it often signals a reversal.

* The hanging man: The hanging man is like an upside down hammer. The hanging is simply a hammer on an uptrend, like I said its always bullish, in the case of a hanging man its a continuation candlestick as opposed to a reversal candlestick.

* Harami candlestick: This is a 2 candlestick formation. It resembles the exact opposite as the engulfing pattern. This pattern will show price opening and closing within the open and close of the previous candlestick and demonstrates a potential reversal in the short term trend. This can be bullish or bearish depending on the color of each candlestick and where it appears in the trend. Each candlestick will be a different color.

* Morning star pattern: A bullish 3 bar pattern. The morning star pattern will start out bearish continuing the prevailing trend. Then it will gap down and turn up ever slowly closing above but near the open. The next day BAM, it will gap up and close much higher than the open.

* Piercing Line: This is a two-day formation considered to be a bullish reversal. The first is a continuation of a downtrend with a long black body. The second day opens at a new low, but closes above the midpoint of the previous day’s trading.

* Shooting star: This is a single candlestick pattern. It looks like an upside down hammer and signals a bearish reversal. As such it’s best when found on a bullish uptrend. Look to the long upper witch for the intuitiveness in this candlestick. The bulls pushed hard like they did in the prevailing trend but the bears won the race by days end closing near the low / open.