Gravestone doji

8/28/26:

This stuff never worked for me in my trading. Never. The only thing that seem like a lead-pipe cinch to be meaningful is a head-and-shoulders chart.

The Dow Jones showed one back in 2008, not long before the crash. I traded it, and made money off of it. Other than this, can't say that I've had any luck with Candlestick analysis.

As for the Dow having a Head and Shoulders chart, it wasn't a permanent decline. The Dow rallied into the stratosphere. Yep, I'd say that there's a risk in the markets about now.

There's a lot of rosy talk, too.

But on a serious note, the future isn't certain. As Yogi Berra once said: Predictions are hard, especially about the future. But here's another thought: Why bring this up now? There's an election. Somebody stands to gain if there's a stock market sell-off... I'm just saying it to put it out there....

12/16/14: The original post follows:

Japanese candlestick analysis is but one of many methods to read the financial tea leaves as a manner of speaking.  Just noticed a gravestone doji pattern in both the stock market and the gold market.

What does it mean?  Nothing good, I don't think.  Doji patterns indicate indecision---the market doesn't know what it's direction is to be.  In this pattern, it starts and ends at about the same price, but has a rally intraday.  Clearly, the rally will not hold, so this is not good.

Here's today's chart, courtesy Yahoo.  Note the rally and the opening and closing prices.

The Japanese Candlestick pattern for this would look like a horizontal line connecting the open and close, with a line going up to the high.  It looks like a gravestone, hence gravestone doji.

The fundamentals behind all of this is the FED.  If the FED attempts to normalize interest rates, the party is over and a bear market should ensue.

We'll see.

Update:

The gravestone doji analysis just died big time. What can I say?  These things are not science.

Update:

There's a press release from the FED which suggests that normalization of interest rates won't be happening soon.  That's what probably moved the markets yesterday.  It only proves that the markets are addicted to easy money.  The easy money has to end sometime.  Evidently, not now.