Candlestick Charting Explained: Timeless Techniques for Trading Stocks and Sutures by Gregory L. Morris

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 ENLISTMENT: GETTING READY FOR DUTY
 By purchasing this workbook, you have voluntarily enlisted to participate in
 doing battle with the markets. The markets are living, morphing entities that
 feed off of human emotion and trader losses. It is my intention to provide
 you with the weapons necessary to trade what you see, to help you harness
 the power of candlestick analysis, and to avoid unnecessary losses. We will
 start with the basics of candlestick lines and patterns and then add weapons
 to our arsenal as we progress. First, however, let me step you through my
 journey that has brought us together at this point in time.
 WHY BOOT CAMP?
 In 1971, after graduating from the University of Texas with a bachelor of
 science degree in aerospace engineering, I was faced with a country in
 recession, and the marketplace for new engineers was scarce, so I joined the
 United States Navy to become a fighter pilot. Of course, that meant that I
 had to become an officer, and that, in turn, meant that I had to attend
 Officer’s Candidate School in Pensacola, Florida. No problem, right?
 In October, 1971, I drove from Dallas, Texas, in my 1962 nonair
conditioned, faded-blue, four-door, standard transmission, six-cylinder
 Chevrolet Bel Air. This fine automobile had been with me since I was a
 junior in high school and had close to 175,000 miles. In the trunk, I had a
 box of my aerospace engineering books because I knew the Navy would be
 impressed and probably want me to teach others about aerodynamics, heat
 transfer, and boundary-layer theory. I started to include my golf clubs but
 later decided that I wouldn’t have that much spare time between learning to
 be an officer, teaching aerodynamics, and engaging in all the social aspects
 of being a Navy pilot. Additionally, I had been a private pilot since 1967
 and assumed that I knew all there was to know about flying airplanes. Wow,
 was I in for a shock!

After checking into a World War II barracks (I knew this was just
 temporary), I was told that I did not need anything from my car and would
 need only the clothes on my back. I was excited as I thought that I’d be
 issued my jet flight equipment and some officer uniforms. Then I was told
 to get a good night’s rest and expect to get up fairly early. When I dropped
 off to sleep that night (the barracks was not air-conditioned), it was the last
 moment of that part of my life.
 At 0500 hours (5 a.m., which later became 2 bells), I was startled awake
 with a horribly loud banging sound and someone yelling at me. The
 banging sound was made by a metal trash can being kicked down the
 hallway (which later became known as the passageway). The yelling came
 from a lean, muscular guy in a Marine drill instructor uniform, which was
 complete with a Smokey the Bear hat. Clearly, he was not aware of why I
 was there and had me confused with a felon, escaped convict, or something.
 This was the beginning of a four-month period of my life that I honestly
 believe I can recall every single minute of because it was so dynamic,
 frightening, tiring, scary, disconcerting, exhausting—need I go on? If you
 have never been on the other side of a United States Marine drill instructor,
 you have missed one of life’s remarkable events. His goal over the next four
 months was simple: break me down to almost nothing, and then build me
 up the way the Navy wanted me to be—an officer first, a pilot second. He
 did it.
 I could write volumes on just those four months, but this isn’t the place.
 Hence came the idea of calling this companion book to my Candlestick
 Charting Explained a “boot camp.” It is designed to clarify, simplify, and
 quiz you on the details of Japanese candlestick analysis.
 INTRODUCTION
 I attended a Market Technician Association seminar in Phoenix, Arizona, in
 1988. There was a large contingent of Japanese traders present, and they
 presented their charting techniques. It was the first time that I had ever
 heard of Hi Ashi, which is what the Japanese call their candlestick chart. I
 was working with N-Squared Computing then, and my colleagues and I
 decided to create a charting product using Japanese candle patterns with

Candlestick Charting Explained: Timeless Techniques for Trading Stocks and Sutures by Gregory L. Morris