While reviewing some trading records recently, I suddenly realized that many people’s understanding of candlestick patterns is still at a very shallow level. As it happens, our domestic stock market started using candlesticks directly as far back as when it opened in 1990. But over all these years, the study of candlestick patterns has basically been built on Japanese foundations, and many people only look at single-candlestick setups or two-candlestick patterns—there’s no systematic understanding at all.

Actually, candlestick charts originated from rice market trading during Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate era, and were later introduced into the stock market. The reason they became so popular in Southeast Asia is that they are intuitive and highly visual in three dimensions, and they can predict the direction of future price action more accurately. But there’s an important misconception here: many people treat indicators and candlestick patterns as absolute truths. In reality, they are just reference tools—when it comes to actual trading, you still need to analyze the specifics, and you can’t copy and paste them mechanically.

Let me talk about a few of the most practical candlestick pattern combinations. The Morning Star is one of the reversal signals I value the most, and it usually appears at the end of a downtrend. Day one is a long bearish candle with strong sell pressure. Day two gaps down to form a doji or a hammer shape. Only on day three do you see a long bullish candle that recovers lost ground. The logic behind this candlestick combination is very clear—from extreme pessimism, it transitions into a gradual rebound.

Opposite to it is the Evening Star, which is a reversal signal in an uptrend. During an ongoing rise, an upside gap doji or hammer suddenly appears; then comes a long bearish candle. At that point, you need to be on guard—this could be a good opportunity to reduce positions or exit. When combined with trading volume, the accuracy becomes much higher.

The Three White Soldiers is the most common bullish candlestick pattern: three consecutive bullish candles that close higher each day, with each day’s open within the real body of the previous day, and the close near the day’s high. But the Three Black Crows is completely the opposite. It consists of three bearish candles stepping down in sequence. When it appears, it is usually at the top or in a high-level consolidation zone, and the subsequent downside often becomes more pronounced.

There’s also a candlestick pattern that’s easy to overlook called the Double Black Gap, which usually appears at a stage top. The stock price first shows a long bullish candle continuing the upward move, then gaps up but closes bearish; on the third day, it gaps up again but closes bearish. At this point, the bulls’ momentum starts to weaken, the probability of an island reversal increases, and you need to stay vigilant.

To be honest, after mastering these candlestick pattern combinations, my accuracy in judging buy and sell points has indeed improved a lot. But don’t expect them to be perfect every time—markets are always more complicated than we think. The most important thing is to keep experiencing them in real trading and make judgments by combining multiple dimensions such as trading volume and market sentiment. That’s how you can train true hawk-like insight.