Doji candlestick patterns are like a coiled spring with so much stored energy ready to “jump!” And that’s what I like about trading doji candlesticks.
This is especially true if you find doji candlestick patterns that form in important levels such as:
- support and resistance levels,
- trendline touches
- and fibonacci retracement levels.
Generally, doji candlestick patterns are very short candlesticks compared to the other candlesticks and price is constrained within a very tight range and that is what creates the “coiled spring reaction” kind of situation:
Once price breaks the high/low of the doji, price shoots up or down and if you happen to catch that breakout of that “coiled spring”, you stand to make some explosive profits.
That is the MAGIC of trading Doji candlestick patterns.
Here is an example of what I’m talking about:
Doji Definition
What are doji candlesticks?
The doji is a commonly found pattern in a candlestick chart . The doji is characterized by 3 distinct features:
- it is “generally” a short candlestick in comparison to the other candlesticks. Being short means its trading ranges are very small (difference between its high price and low price).
- the opening and closing prices are equal or almost equal which means that it hardly has any candlestick body at all.
Doji in Japanese means “to hesitate”.
Now, you’ll see lots of information about doji candlesticks and how to trade them but in here, I will show you how I trade using doji candlesticks.
But first up, you need to understand the 5 different types of doji candlesticks patterns.
6 Types Of Doji Candlestick Patterns
There are 6 types of doji candlesticks you are going to learn here. Let’s start with the first one…
#1: Doji Star
A doji star is the shortest doji off the doji candlestick patterns (excluding four price doji) and this is what you’d see in an ideal situaiton on your forex charts; a doji with no body, just a cross, where opening price=closing price and much shorter wicks on both ends usually of the same length:
There are two types of doji star candlestick:
- morning doji star (bullish)
- evening doji star (bearish)
Where do you look for morning doji star candlestick to trade?
In a bottom of a trend or in a downtrend.
And also on:
- horizontal support levels
- resistance turned support levels
- fib retracement livels like 61.8%
- downward trendline break and retest
Where do you look for evening doji stat candlestick to trade?
- resistance levels
- support turned resistance levels
- upward trendline break and retest
- fib retracement levels
#2: Long Legged Doji
A “long-legged” doji is a far more dramatic candle than the common doji star.
In simple terms, the wicks on both ends are typically longer than the doji star candlestick.
So what does it mean when you see a long legged doji?
Well, it simply means this that at some stage during the formation of the long legged doji, both bulls and bears had the opportunity to dominate but really matched each other in the end.
And when the candle closed, there was really no winner.
Now, here are the 2 most important thing about the long legged doji candlestick that you should be know. You should really focus on the closing price in relation to the midpoint (the 50% of the length of the doji):
- if the close is above the midpoint, then it is considered a bullish. It almost looks like a bullish pin bar with no body. If you see this form in support levels etc, you should take notice.
- if the close is below the midpoint, then it is considered bearish. It would almost look like a bearish pin bar. If you see this form in resistance levels, you should take notice.
Now, remember, as I mentioned before, If the long legged doji forms anywhere on the chart, it is totally irrelevant and should be ignored.
If it forms on levels of importance like support and resistance levels, then you should take notice.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
#3: Rickshaw Man Doji
A rickshaw man doji candlestick is is to an extent, a long-legged doji that has an opening price and closing price at or in the middle of the shadows and it is the “longer” version of the doji cross, really, where the wicks are much longer and ideally, the opening and closing price happen at midpoint.
When you see rickshaw man doji pattern form in support and resistance levels, you should sit up and take notice.
This represents consolidation of price due to (maybe) indecision by trades as they sit on the sidelines and wait.
The breakout of the high/low of the rickshaw man doji generally results in price moving in the direction of the breakout.
#4: Dragonfly Doji
I don’t know why it is called a dragonfly doji cuz it doesn’t even look like a dragonfly at all.
Joke aside, this is what an ideal dragonfly doji pattern looks like:
The important thing to note here is that the dragonfly doji has a long lower shadow (or wick as it is sometimes called) and then open price=close price=high price in an ideal case scenario.
But in the real forex market, there can be a little bit of wick sticking out on the “high price”.
But for what its worth, the dragonfly doji is also one very very important doji you need to be aware of and there are two types:
- one that forms in an uptrend
- one the forms in a downtrend
Now, let me talk about each of these two cases:
- if a dragonfly doji forms in an uptrend, and if that happens to be in some sort of resistance level, I consider it as bearish signals. I would be looking to sell on the breakout of the low of that dragonfly doji.
- if a dragonfly doji forms in a downtrend and it happens to form in some sort of support level, I consider that as a bullish signal. I would be looking to buy on the breakout of high of that dragonfly doji.
#5: Gravestone Doji
Note that it is the exact opposite of the dragonfly doji.
There are two types of gravestone doji that I look for when I’m analyzing charts for trade setups:
- the gravestone doji that forms in an uptrend
- and the gravestone doji that forms in a downtrend.
Now for the gravestone doji the forms in an uptrend, I would take notice and consider it a bearish signal if it forms in some levels of resistance that price hits. When you think of it, this would look more like a bearish pin bar/shooting star kind of candlestick except that this one has little or no candle body at all.
For the gravestone doji that forms in a downtrend, I would consider it bullish signal if it forms in a level of support.
Now, for my case, if a gravestone doji forms anywhere on the chart, I don’t take notice…which means I don’t care.
But when a gravestone doji forms on these levels when price is in an uptrend:
- resistance level
- price hits falling trendline and gravestone doji forms
- or fib retracement levels or
- confluence of price action.
That’s when I take notice?
Why?
Because the price level where that gravestone doji forms has much more meaning than if it forms anywhere on the chart.
You got to pick your battle…and you want to fight where you know you have a greater chance of winning.
So how does the gravesone doji form?
Well, it is formed when the open price, low price and close price are the same or about the same price with one long upper shadow.
BONUS DOJI #6: Four Price Doji
I was deciding whether I should include this doji in this article or not simply because it is totally useless in the highly liquid forex market.
You may see this four price doji in the stock(share) market but in forex, I have personally never come across any.
So in my opinion, you are not going to need it, but for the sake of learning something new, I have to include it anyway.
This is what a four price doji looks like:
The four price doji simple means there was ZERO movement for that time period where that candlestick formed.
This means open price=closing price=low price=high price.
This results in:
- no candlestick body length
- there are no upper and lower wick on the four price doji
So what does it mean if you ever happen to see a four price doji in forex?
Well, should a situation like that happen, then it would mean that there’s a complete lack of indecision or zero trading activity at all.
SUMMARY: TRADING THE DOJI
Here is a chart showing these 6 doji patterns that you have covered so far in this article:
In my opinion, location or price level where a doji candlestick patterns forms is very important if you are going to trade doji patterns.
Doji’s can form anywhere on your forex charts you are looking at but that does not mean anything until a doji candlestick pattern forms on important levels like:
- support levels
- resistance levesl
- fib retracement levels
- trendlines etc
I sit up and take notice when I see doji patterns form on these important levels. Any other level, I completely ignore. That is how I trade doji patterns.