[torero]

I will have to disagree with him and YOU, soultrader! (jk). I think patterns are extremely important, especially for me to find targets. Most people think it's useless but it's my guide to understand and calculate risk and reward. Simple as that. True that the patterns become less and less reliable as the lower the timeframe you are, but so is every other indicator on the market, including price action. No TA method is immune to this fact. Lower you get, more noise you get, straight up.

But there is a caveat for using patterns and trendlines, etc. and that it is must accompany price action. Yes, no indicator can be used properly without reading that dang price action, no matter how accurate the indicator is, price is king, simple as that. High or low timeframe, price action rules. So, when seeing the break of the trendline, or break of whatever pattern like triangle, price action must confirm that break, that is, if breaking down, I want to see lower high/low forming, if thrusting up, i want to see higher high/low forming. That's all I need to know to make my entry. So I got direction when a pattern or trendline breaks, the R:R calculated using patterns, and my setup ready with price action. 3 pieces of info to make my entry.

I don't use candlesticks but only for higher frames (60min and up) and candlestick patterns. I use only highs and lows of each bar as my main point of reading price action.