It took some time to read through this thread!
Great stuff and after reading most of it concerning
the RandyCandles, I think it's been defined.
As I originally said (and intended) with the Steinitz thread, the RC's can be used to compliment any system.
My intent was to just share the RandyCandle period.
It seemed a really unique and helpful piece of visual data the more I used it.
So I thought I'd share it.
I did not steal it from any other system or person.
RC's painted and left the foot-print of price-action "in-the-moment" with better and more information than anything else.
I was already using the DiNapoli settings for Simple Moving Averages.
DiNapoli has his version of the Stochastic and MACD and several proprietary indicators. So, radatat's system is in good company.
I read his
book (excellent) and liked visually, how the price and his particular SMA's seemed to interact.
I printed up, made booklets, and studied hundreds of charts on several currency pairs with these references projected.
Months have become years.
I added many indicators to further compliment and try and build upon this foundation.
But I found myself always looking at the footprints of repeated price action behavior as "drawn" by the lines and the candles. Simple but, like you say, there REALLY is a lot of data buried in these "simple" charts.
After looking at so many charts, a couple of things became obvious:
Every significant movement on the 4H, had it's beginning on the 1H.
For every significant movement on the 1H, you could find it's beginning on the 30M.
The 30M to the 15M to the 5M to the 1M.
(no different then looking for a series of cascading "lights" being tripped on higher and higher timeframes.)
That birthed the observation concerning the concept of an "alert" candle.
I found a LOT of them on many pivots on many charts on many timeframes.
So I started trying to anticipate them and found it helpful.
Does it happen every time? No.
Does ANYTHING happen every time?
The best we can hope for is probabilities.
All I wanted were the probabilities leaning in my direction.
Next,
If I could "see" ANY patterns, any at all, going backwards in time painted on the charts,
could I then "see" just ONE pattern being birthed going forwards in time?
Because I was sure I had 2 good price action indicators that didn't repaint, I felt like the answer had to be drawn on those charts.
Hell, if I just found ONE (pattern) with a good track record, I figure I could spot it coming and pounce on it.
So I continue to study and compare, macro and micro, white to pink, white to blue, white to yellow, pink to blue, blue to yellow,etc. and confirm with RC's.
That's how I trade. I look for patterns to preceed fans. I wait until I find something that looks "familiar".
I then enter with the expectation of a fan developing. If it begins to grow (small profit), I then set stops to break even and watch for violations.
If it's a steep "stretch fan" I exit when I "feel" it fully stretched,(sometimes reverse at the stretch exhaustion points).
If its a small fan, and doesn't really stretch, then starts to violate the pink, I'm quick to take a small profit or small loss.
If it's a slow (hours!) "crawler fan", meandering but mostly parallel, I generally stay in and let it tap the D-Line. Again, set stops to zero and let it have it's slow, steady direction.
I start on the smaller timeframes and work up to the 15M to stay in the trade.
By all means.....talk up your own system!!!! What is working for you? Please share it and let's keep this thread helpful. RandyCandles are not the HOLY GRAIL!!!!
All trading is guessing.
There, I said it.
If you guess wrong, you're not stupid.
You just guessed wrong.
That's all. (Newbies take heart!)
If you guess right...make a note of it.
BTW,
I agree, Friday was horrible. Everything waiting for the U.S. data release.
I'll be out of town most of this week.
Happy Trading to all.
randy
PS: To all you Woodies CCI traders out there, if you like the Zero-Line Reject entry.... that is
identical to a failed cross
of the yellow D-line by the price (sma 1) where it comes up to, pops over the yellow (sma 25), pivots, then retraces.

but probabilities only seem effective on the 15M TF.