THESIS Start
// candlestick patterns

Candlestick patterns:
the practical reference.

Most candlestick guides are encyclopedias — every pattern in print, no opinion on which actually work. This is the working reference: the patterns Thesis trades, what they signal, and just as importantly, when they fail. Pulled from running the detector live on real markets every hour.

// bullish reversal

Bullish reversal patterns

Small body, long lower wick. Buyers absorbed a sell-off intra-bar.
Two-candle reversal — a green body that swallows the prior red one whole.
Body-less indecision candle. Fires both directions; context is everything.
Long upper wick at the bottom of a downtrend. Tentative reversal signal.
Three-candle bottom: red, indecision, green. Strong reversal when it forms cleanly.
Two candles printing the same low. Buyers defended a level twice.
Green candle cuts halfway back into the prior red body. Cousin to bullish engulfing.
// bearish reversal

Bearish reversal patterns

Small body at the bottom, long upper wick. Sellers absorbed a rally.
Two-candle reversal — a red body that swallows the prior green one whole.
Three-candle top: green, indecision, red. Strong top-of-trend signal.
Two candles printing the same high. Sellers defended a level twice.
Red candle cuts halfway back into the prior green body.
// patterns we don't trade

The patterns we deliberately skip.

Most pattern lists include continuation patterns — marubozu, three white soldiers, three black crows, rising three methods. These are momentum signals: the trend has just confirmed itself, and the pattern says "expect more of the same." On the timeframes our universe trades, those patterns post-hoc look tradeable but rarely follow through. Our detector still recognizes them; the pre-filter rejects them on entry.

We trade reversals, not continuations. A reversal pattern fires after a multi-candle move and asks "is this the turn?" That's a question the AI reasoning layer can usefully answer with confluence — RSI, regime, news. A continuation pattern fires after a breakout and asks "will the breakout hold?" The answer is mostly noise without a deeper context model than we run.

If continuation patterns start working on different data — different timeframes, calmer regimes, broader universe — we'll re-enable them with sample size. For now, reversals only.

// how thesis trades these

Pattern detection is not the edge.

Every page on this list explains a pattern that anyone can spot on a chart. None of that is proprietary, and pattern detection alone has roughly zero edge — the win rate of "trade every bullish engulfing" is close to a coin flip.

What turns a pattern into a tradeable setup is the layer on top: confluence checks (RSI, EMA, news sentiment, market regime), an AI reasoning pass, and an execution layer that handles sizing and exits with discipline. That's what Thesis actually does. The pattern is the trigger, not the trade.

Read more on how the AI layer works or how the system is tuned for small accounts.

Watch the patterns. Trade the ones worth trading.

Free practice mode lets you see the live pattern feed before connecting a broker.

Create free account →

Pattern detection cadence isn't the same as trade execution cadence. Margin accounts under $25k are subject to PDT limits — see the small-account guide.