Do Candlesticks Pattern Work? Are They Reliable? A Quantitative Backtest Of 23 Candlesticks (Trading Strategy)

Last Updated on April 18, 2023

Candlesticks are a popular charting tool and are frequently used by promoters using anecdotal evidence. We use candlesticks in our charts ourselves, but not as a predictive tool in our trading strategies. In this article, we ask: do candlesticks work?

Yes, candlesticks work. We test 23 different candlestick patterns quantitatively with strict buy and sell signals. Perhaps surprisingly, some of the candlestick patterns work pretty well. Some of the patterns can highly likely be improved by adding one more variable. We provide the code for a small fee.

Candlesticks are a popular way to display quotes on a chart, something we have done since we read Gregory Morris’ Candlestick Charting Explained back in 1998. However, we have never implemented candlesticks in any of our quantified strategies.

Why do we use candlesticks in our charts? We agree with Mr. Morris, who writes this in the introduction of the book:

However, once you become accustomed to seeing Japanese candlestick charts, you will prefer them because their clarity is superior and allows a quick and accurate interpretation of the data.

Mr. Morris is right. Candlesticks are easy to digest once you get used to them. But do candlesticks have any predictive value? After all, we operate in the markets to make money, not to make nice visual graphs. Candlesticks might be popular, but we like to quantify to check for value.

Candlesticks explained:

If you have never seen a candlestick, it might be a little confusing to start with, but once you get used to candlesticks, you get a much better visual look at the charts – for example, where the stock opened and closed. This is the primary reason, in fact, the only reason, why we use candlesticks when we look at charts.

A black candlestick means the open was higher than the close, while a white candlestick means the close is higher than the open. The difference between the open and the close is called “the body”. The “tails” on both sides are the high and low readings that day (or whatever time frame you are using):

Candlesticks might have an appealing and/or easy interpretation, but does it add any value?

Are candlestick patterns reliable?

A quick search on the internet reveals many articles touting candlesticks’ importance and what formations to look for. Endless articles explain the formations, but as usual, without any empirical evidence about their predictive power. That’s a shame because it’s relatively easy to test candlesticks. Further down in the article, we reveal some quantitative results from 23 formations.

What is the best candlestick pattern?

In the 100% quantified test below there are surprisingly many candlestick patterns that look promising. There are at least 5 patterns that have a decent amount of trades and a high profit factor.

How many candlestick patterns are there?

Exotic names like Hanging Man, Bullish Engulfing Pattern, Shooting Star, Bullish Hikkake, One White Soldier, Bearish One Black Crowe, Piercing Line, and Hammer are just a few of the candlestick patterns that exist.

But how many candlestick patterns are there? We counted at least 64! We suspect that this is not all of the candlestick patterns, and there are probably around 100 patterns available somewhere on the internet.

We have no idea how many candlesticks patterns there are, but if you like to know more about candlesticks, we recommend this page.

We picked the 23 candlestick patterns because we more or less had the backtesting code at our disposal.

Do candlesticks work best in daily or intraday bars? (Best settings)

We recommend using different time frames in trading, but the best time frame for candlesticks seems to be daily bars. Daily bars seem to be much more reliable than intraday and weekly bars. Among many, the reasons are that there are many more transactions in daily bars than intraday ones, and daily bars, in general, attract more attention.

How to quantify and backtest candlesticks (Entry and Exits):

To backtest candlesticks quantitatively, we need to make rules based on strict criteria. Like most things that can be labeled technical analysis, no specific or mathematical definition of the candlesticks formations exists. However, most of the formations can be fairly easily defined and are already done by many on the internet. 

A strategy is not complete until you have exit criteria. Candlestick formations only look at “bullish or bearish” setups without considering any exit criteria.

Thus we need to make our own criteria for when to close the position. If you want to know our exit criteria and have the quantified code for all the 23 formations, please click on the link further down in the article under the heading called “Amibroker code for candlesticks”.

The exit criteria are a vital part of any strategy and can, of course, change results dramatically. Even a strategy based on random entry can generate splendid results using the “correct” exit criteria. And, honestly, when backtesting the candlestick formations, it would probably be fairer if we had different exits based on the number of days since entry. But we leave that backtest to another day.

Results and Performance: Do candlesticks work? A 100% quantified backtest

Some of the formations are meant as bearish formations. Nevertheless, we backtest all formations by buying, not selling/shorting.

We backtested the 23 formations on the S&P 500 using the ETF SPY from its inception in 1993 until the end of November 2020. The results are summarized in this table (the candlestick patterns are not revealed on purpose) :

Some of the formations give many signals, while others produce few signals. Only one formation produces negative returns.

What happens if we trade only the strategies with a higher profit factor than 1.5 from the table above? That is 12 patterns in total.

The compounded result is good: 975 trades, CAGR is 12.89%, the average gain is 0.36% per trade, max drawdown is 25%, and the profit factor is 2.02. The only negative year was 1994 and the total time spent in the market is 47%. The best year was 2020, with almost 41% return from 40 trades (!). Buy and hold was 9.9% during these 25 years.

The equity curve looks like this (no commissions and slippage):

The chart is compounded, starting with 100 000 in 1993.

We backtest Candelstick Patterns on QQQ, TLT, XLP, GLD, EEM and GDX

Do these 12 candlesticks patterns work on other ETFs (those formations with a profit factor above 1.5)? Here is a list of random samples:

• QQQ (Nasdaq100): 12.9% CAGR
• TLT (Bonds): 5.5% CAGR
• XLP (Consumer Staples): 9% CAGR
• GLD (Gold): 0.3% CAGR
• EEM (Emerging Markets): 16% CAGR
• GDX (Goldminers): 12.2 CAGR

Amibroker code for candlestick patterns:

We have developed code in Amibroker to backtest the 23 candlestick formations below. We have put in a great deal of time and effort to do this, and think it’s fair that we charge a fee for it.

If you want to have the Amibroker code for all the 23 formations, you can order it for via this link (23 candlestick formations Strategy no. 6):

BUY NOW

When you have paid, please press the link below to access the code (PDF file):

Media File(opens in a new tab)

Download 23 candlestick formations strategy no.6 by clicking here (you need to pay for access)

We also would like to give you a humble reminder about our subscription service called Trading Edges, where you get a monthly trading idea that can be used as a stand-alone strategy.

Why use Amibroker and not, for example, Tradestation?

• Thoughts on Amibroker

How to trade and use candlesticks?

To improve the results, you might want to add a variable. This variable could, for example, be:

Conclusion: Do candlesticks work?

Do candlesticks work? Some candlestick patterns show some promise, but most of the formations give few signals. However, the slightly data-mined backtest of using the 12 best formations beat buy and hold. This is promising considering that the time spent in the market is 47%, and the drawdown is just half of buy and hold.

Depending on the candlestick patterns, candlesticks do work.