Candlestick Charting For Dummies®

The Bearish Long Black Candle

The long black candle is a direct counterpart of the long white candle discussed earlier in this chapter. It’s a long candlestick compared to other candlesticks on the same chart, and most or all of it is made up by a solid candle.

The long black candle is as bearish as it gets. To see one of these candles means that sellers take over at the beginning of the day and push prices lower and lower until the end of the day. Typically, these sellers are just selling to get out, and their price sensitivity is low. Seeing this type of enthusiastic selling should give you confidence that the bears will be in control for a few more days after the long black candle appears, and you can capitalize on that.

Figure 5-13: A dragonfly doji not working out too well.

Understanding long black candles

A long black candle is created when the bears seize control at the start of a day and push until the day’s end. Figure 5-14 is a picture of a typical long black candle.

Figure 5-14: A long black candle.

For some quick insight on the numbers involved, have a look at Figure 5-15, which is an intraday chart of price action that creates a long black ...