Dodge Pattern: My Honest Take on the Market's Indecision Signal

Over the years of my trading, I have seen quite a few technical indicators, but the doji has always evoked mixed feelings in me. This candle, where the opening and closing prices are nearly the same, looks like a small line with long shadows. It seems like a simple pattern, but there is so much noise around it!

When I see Doge on the chart, I immediately understand - the market is in confusion. Bulls and bears have clashed, and no one wants to give in. It's particularly amusing to observe this confrontation after a prolonged trend - everyone is frozen in anticipation, as if before a storm.

Types of Doge and What They Tell Me

The standard doge is the most faceless. The body is tiny, and the shadows on the top and bottom are roughly the same. Honestly? It doesn't mean much without context.

The "Grave" doge always makes me uneasy. When I see it after a prolonged rise, I immediately sense something is wrong. The price jumped but then quickly returned, showing the weakness of the bulls. Often, it is right after such signals that crashes begin.

"Dragonfly" is its complete opposite. The long lower shadow tells me that bears tried to push down, but bulls did not give up. Sometimes this foreshadows a reversal upwards, but I wouldn't bet all my money on it.

How I use Doge ( and why I often ignore )

The main problem with dodges is too many false signals. I remember once seeing the perfect "graveyard" dodge on the hourly chart of Bitcoin at resistance. I decided to open a short, and the price shot up another 5%. A costly lesson.

Now I never open positions solely based on dojis. For me, it's just a reason to take a closer look. I always check:

1. Where exactly did the doge appear? At a support/resistance level or just in the middle of a trend?
2. What are the trading volumes? Low volumes often mean that a doji is worth nothing.
3. What do other indicators show? If the RSI is in the overbought/oversold zone and a doji appears — that becomes more interesting.

It annoys me when trading gurus glorify dojis as the holy grail of technical analysis. Nothing like that! It's just one of many signals that rarely works on its own.

My main mistakes with Doge

The dumbest mistake I made was trading doji on small timeframes. On one-minute and five-minute charts, doji appear constantly, and most of them mean nothing.

The second problem is ignoring market sentiment. Even a perfect doji on the daily chart may not work if the global trend is strong or large players have just started pumping liquidity into the market.

You won't believe it, but some traders look exclusively at the shape of the candle, forgetting about the context. It's like trying to understand a book from a single torn page!

Dodge is just a moment of market indecision. Sometimes it precedes a reversal, sometimes it continues the trend. A smart trader uses it as one of the tools, not as the ultimate truth.