A free-report-style Forex ebook that teaches you to read momentum and trapped-trader psychology in candles instead of memorizing forty named patterns. The ideas are sound as far as they go, but nothing in the book is backtested, dated, or shown failing.
The one idea
Chris Lee's pitch is that you do not need to memorize candlestick pattern names. Instead, every candle is telling you the balance of power between buyers and sellers at that moment, and once you can read that balance, patterns like the engulfing candle or the head and shoulders top just fall out of the same underlying logic on their own.
The book builds that reading skill in layers: a single candle's shape reveals momentum (a shaven candle with no shadow means one side completely overwhelmed the other), a candle relative to its neighbors reveals whether that momentum is building or fading, and a candle relative to a support or resistance line reveals whether the market is confirming or rejecting that level.
The psychological hook underneath all of it is that every candle's real body marks a price range where trapped traders are sitting on a loss and waiting to get out at breakeven. When price returns to that range, those traders' exit orders push the market the other way. That is the mechanism Lee uses to explain why engulfing patterns and support/resistance retests work, rather than asking the reader to just trust that they do.
What it actually teaches
The book is organized as four building blocks that stack on each other rather than a strict step-by-step sequence, so here they are in the order the author presents them.
READ MOMENTUM IN A SINGLE CANDLE
A 'shaven' candle (no shadow on the side price is moving) means one side of the market completely overwhelmed the other with no pushback, and the book's rule of thumb is the bigger the shaven candle, the further price is likely to keep running in that direction. A Doji (open equals close, no real body) means the opposite: either buyers and sellers are deadlocked at equal strength, or both sides are simply too weak to move price, and the book treats hammer and hanging man candles the same way as a Doji for trading purposes. Ignore both readings around high-impact news, the book names the Non-Farm Payroll release specifically as a time to sit out.
WEIGH SHADOWS AS REJECTION OR EROSION
One long shadow (buyers or sellers tried to push price and got shoved back) signals rejection: expect price to move opposite the shadow, and the longer the shadow, the stronger that expectation. But a cluster of shadows repeatedly testing the same level flips the read: the book calls this erosion of the level, and it argues price is now more likely to break through in the direction those shadows are pointing. A rejection signal is voided ('reverse rejection') once a later candle closes back through half or more of the original shadow; the book treats that as a cue to flip the trade rather than wait it out.
USE THE ANCHOR CANDLE TO TELL RETRACEMENT FROM REVERSAL
An Anchor candle is simply the one with a longer real body than the candles around it, and the book is explicit that there is no formal rule for spotting one: 'if you're having problems looking for one, it probably isn't there.' The trading rule that follows is concrete though: a reversal is only confirmed once a later candle closes past the Anchor's open price. Until that happens, any move against the Anchor is treated as a retracement, not a reversal, and the book uses this same logic to explain why engulfing patterns work without asking the reader to memorize them separately.
STACK CANDLES ONTO SUPPORT, RESISTANCE, AND BREAKOUTS
A support or resistance line tested twice without breaking is a double top or bottom; tested three times, it's a triple top or bottom and is treated as the stronger level. The book's central breakout rule is to never trade the first candle that pokes through a level, because that candle is 'emotional trading' that institutional traders are said to prey on. Instead, wait for the breakout candle to fully close beyond the line, then place the entry order 5 pips beyond that candle's low (for a sell) or high (for a buy), with the stop at half the body of that same breakout candle. Profit targets get four guidelines rather than one number: at least twice the stop-loss distance, a nearby support or resistance level, a round number, or the first sign of slowing momentum.
TRADE TRIANGLE COMPRESSION ON HIGHER TIME FRAMES
A valid triangle needs price to touch its converging support and resistance lines at least four times before the squeeze counts; the book compares the buildup to compressing a metal spring. Once one line breaks, expect price to fall back and briefly retest the broken line before continuing, so the book warns against placing a stop loss right at the break. It also warns against running this (or any of the book's setups) below the 1-hour chart, arguing that 5-minute and 15-minute stop distances get hit prematurely, especially around news.
What it looks like Monday morning
A reader picks one pair on the 1-hour chart or higher and, for a week, just labels candles: which ones are shaven (strong momentum), which are Doji (no conviction either way), and where the most recent Anchor candle sits relative to the last few closes. No trades yet, just labeling, because the book's own worked examples are entirely hypothetical walk-forward narratives ('turn the page to see what happens next') rather than dated charts, so there is no track record here to lean on without testing it yourself first.
Once that reading habit is automatic, the concrete piece worth carrying into a real trading plan is the breakout construction: never enter on the candle that first pierces a level, wait for that candle to close, then set the entry 5 pips beyond its high or low with the stop at half its body and the target at minimum 2x the stop. That is the one part of the book stated as an exact, repeatable rule rather than a judgment call.
| Element | Rule given in the book |
|---|---|
| Entry | Wait for the breakout candle to fully close beyond the support/resistance line, then place a pending order 5 pips beyond that candle's low (sell) or high (buy) |
| Stop loss | At half the body of the breakout candle |
| Profit target | At least 2x the stop-loss distance, or the next support/resistance level, or a round number, or the first sign of slowing momentum, whichever comes first |
This is the only setup in the book with fixed numbers attached; everything else (Anchor candles, reverse rejection, triangle validity) is left to the reader's judgment.
There's no scientific rule to determine an Anchor candlestick. Simply use your judgmentChris Lee, Candlesticks Made Easy
Where it fails
- Nothing in the book is backtested. There is no win rate, no sample size, no equity curve, and no dated chart anywhere in the 67 pages. Every example is a hand-drawn, idealized sequence of candles narrated forward ('let's see what happens next... turn the page'), which means the reader has no way to check whether real markets behave the way the book's scripted examples do, only whether the logic sounds plausible.
- The core signal has no defined rule, by the author's own admission. The Anchor candle drives most of the reversal-versus-retracement logic in the book, and the text says outright there is no scientific rule for spotting one, you're told to 'use your judgment' and that if you're struggling to find one, it probably isn't there. That is a discretionary, after-the-fact pattern with no objective threshold, which makes it very easy to see clearly in hindsight and very hard to apply consistently in real time.
- Every worked example only shows the trade working. The step-by-step walkthroughs (the reverse rejection setup, the multi-page price-action exercise, the triangle breakout) all resolve in the direction the book predicts. The book acknowledges in passing that shaven candles and momentum readings are 'not 100% accurate,' but never shows a full example where following the method loses money, so a reader has no sense of what a failed setup actually looks like on a chart.
- It assumes screen time across multiple time frames and an existing trading system. The Time Frame Principle section requires zooming from the 1-hour chart down to 15-minute candles to judge relative strength, and the book repeats several times that candlestick analysis should only be 'one criteria' layered onto a trader's existing technical indicators or system. A reader with no other trading framework and no time to watch multiple charts intraday is not who this book is written for, even though nothing on the cover says so.
- The profit-target and risk rules are guidelines, not tested numbers. The stop-loss is set at half the breakout candle's body and the target at a minimum of 2x that stop, but the book gives no reasoning tied to actual win rates for why those particular ratios were chosen over any other. They read as sensible defaults, not numbers earned from any data shown in the book.
Who it is for
Buy it if
You are new to candlesticks, trade Forex on the 1-hour chart or higher, and want a plain-English mental model for reading momentum and trapped-trader psychology instead of memorizing forty pattern names. It works well as a short, free-feeling primer to build intuition before you go looking for a tested system.
Skip it if
You want backtested statistics, a defined edge, or rules precise enough to automate. You also don't need this if you already trade a full system with entries and exits defined, since the book explicitly says its candle reading is meant to be layered onto something else, not to stand alone.
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