Candlestick Chart Patterns-History

Candlestick charts were first created by a rice trader in Japan named Homma Munehisa. In the 1700s, the charts gave Homma and others an overview of open, high, low, and close market prices over a certain period. This style of charting is very popular due to the level of ease in reading and understanding the graphs. Since the 18th century, there has been a lot of effort to relate chart patterns to the ldata points instead of one. The Japanese rice traders also found that the resulting charts would provide a fairly reliable tool to predict future demand.

CandleStick trading became more precise during the mid 1700’s. Munehisa Homna, the youngest son of the Homna family, inherited the family’s business due to his extraordinary trading savvy. This at a time when the Japanese culture, as well as many other cultures, thought it common that the eldest son should inherit the family business. The trading firm was moved from their city, Sakata, to Edo (Tokyo). Homna’s research into historic price moves and weather conditions established more concrete interpretations into what became known as Candlesticks. His research and findings, known as “Sakata Rules” became the framework for Japanese investment philosophy.

The method was picked up by Charles Dow around 1900 and remains in common use by today’s traders of financial instruments.

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