Neutral Patterns

Doji

Doji (同事)

The Doji is the quintessential indecision candle where opening and closing prices are virtually identical, reflecting a perfect tug-of-war between buyers and sellers.

Doji Cluster

A Doji Cluster consists of two or more consecutive doji candles, indicating prolonged indecision and compressed volatility that typically precedes a significant breakout move.

Four-Price Doji

The Four-Price Doji is the rarest doji variant where all four price points (open, high, low, close) are identical, appearing as a horizontal line and signaling complete market inactivity or perfect equilibrium.

Hammer Doji

Tonbo (トンボ)

The Hammer Doji (Dragonfly Doji) features a long lower shadow with the open and close at the session high, showing that sellers drove price down sharply but buyers recovered all losses, creating a neutral signal that depends on context.

High Wave

Takuri (たくり)

The High Wave candle features a small body with extremely long upper and lower shadows, signaling intense intraday volatility and extreme indecision that often precedes a significant directional move.

Inside Bar

The Inside Bar is a two-candle pattern where the second candle's entire range is contained within the first candle, signaling a contraction in volatility and a pending breakout in either direction.

Inside-Outside-Inside

The Inside-Outside-Inside (IOI) is a three-candle pattern where an inside bar is followed by an outside bar and then another inside bar, creating a compression-expansion-compression sequence that often precedes a significant breakout.

Long-Legged Doji

Juji (十字)

The Long-Legged Doji features extremely long shadows in both directions with the open and close near the center, representing the most extreme form of single-candle indecision and a potent warning of momentum exhaustion.

Northern Doji

The Northern Doji appears after an uptrend and signals that buying momentum may be exhausting. While it warns of potential reversal, it can also be a pause before continuation, making it a neutral alert rather than a directional signal.

Paper Umbrella

Karakasa (唐傘)

The Paper Umbrella is a context-neutral candle with a small body at the top and a long lower shadow. It becomes a Hammer in downtrends (bullish) or a Hanging Man in uptrends (bearish), but without trend context it is a neutral indecision signal.

Rectangle

The Rectangle is a chart formation where price consolidates between parallel horizontal support and resistance levels, creating a box-like pattern that can break in either direction.

Rickshaw Man

Jinrikisha (人力車)

The Rickshaw Man is a specialized long-legged doji where the open and close are positioned exactly at the midpoint of the candle's range, representing the purest expression of market indecision with perfectly balanced shadows.

Shooting Star Doji

Tohba (塔婆)

The Shooting Star Doji (Gravestone Doji) features a long upper shadow with the open and close at the session low, showing buyers drove prices up but sellers reversed all gains, creating a context-dependent signal that leans bearish in uptrends.

Southern Doji

The Southern Doji appears after a downtrend and signals that selling momentum may be exhausting. While it warns of potential reversal, it can also be a pause before continuation lower, making it a neutral alert requiring confirmation.

Spinning Top

Koma (独楽)

The Spinning Top is one of the most common candlestick patterns, featuring a small real body with shadows on both sides, indicating mild to moderate indecision where neither buyers nor sellers gained meaningful ground.

Squeeze Breakout

The Squeeze Breakout occurs when volatility compresses to extreme levels (tight Bollinger Bands or low ATR) before an explosive directional move, representing the market's transition from consolidation to trending.

Symmetrical Triangle

The Symmetrical Triangle is a chart formation where converging trendlines of roughly equal slope create a coiling pattern, indicating a period of equilibrium that will resolve with an explosive breakout in either direction.

Tight Coil

The Tight Coil is a multi-candle pattern where each successive candle has a smaller range than the last, creating a coiled-spring effect that typically precedes an explosive directional breakout.

Volatility Contraction

The Volatility Contraction Pattern (VCP) shows progressively smaller price swings as ATR declines, signaling that the market is absorbing supply and preparing for a significant directional breakout.

Wedge Apex

The Wedge Apex occurs when price reaches the convergence point of two trendlines that slope in the same direction, creating maximum compression that forces a breakout. The pattern is neutral at the apex because the breakout direction depends on context.