Chart Techniques for Traders
These guides explain the chart techniques behind our forecasts. Karsten Kagels has traded mainly at support and resistance since 1980, and our forecasts are built on the same kind of key levels.
Start with the task you have right now. Each guide shows real charts, including examples where a level did not hold.
Guides in this topic
- Draw key levels
Support and Resistance: How to Draw and Use Key Levels
Where useful levels come from, how to draw zones with a stated rule and how to turn a level into a trade plan.
- Read price action
Price Action Trading: How to Read Charts Without Indicators
Market structure, key zones and three bar patterns, with a core setup and a real SPY example where the signal failed.
- Read candlestick charts
How to Read Candlestick Charts: Body, Wicks and Context
Open, high, low and close in one candle, body and wicks, two real Gold candles read step by step and how often patterns really occur.
- Know candlestick patterns
Candlestick Patterns: 10 to Know, Tested on Real Data
Ten patterns with rules and a cheat sheet, counted on DAX, S&P 500, EUR/USD and Gold since 2014: most are rare, none is a signal on its own.
- Combine timeframes
Multi-Timeframe Analysis: A Weekly and Daily Workflow
How to combine the weekly chart for context and the daily chart for entry under one stated rule, with a documented SPY case from June 2025.
- Trade pullbacks
Pullback Trading: Entries, Stops and Failed Setups
Pullback or reversal, limit against confirmation entry, and one fixed rule set on three real QQQ cases: a target, a stop and a cancelled setup.
- Trade sideways ranges
Range Trading: Boundaries, Orders and Two Documented Fades
A 14-session rule to draw horizontal boundaries, three order-type variants and two Alpaca-verified SPY fades, one that reached the target and one that was stopped out.
- Read chart formations
Chart Patterns: Reversals, Continuations and Failures
Reversal, continuation and bilateral formations with the measured-move convention per pattern and two documented SPY rectangle cases.
- Trade breakouts
Breakout Trading Strategy: Entries and False Breakouts
How often breakouts fell back into the range in our count of 1,472, and how to plan entry, stop and position size.
- Draw and trade trendlines
Trendline Trading: How to Draw Trendlines and Trade Them
How to draw trendlines with a fixed rule, four strategies for bounces, breaks and retests, and a real SPY line break without a lasting reversal.
- Use Fibonacci levels
Fibonacci Retracement Levels: How to Draw and Trade Them
How to calculate and draw retracement levels, trade pullbacks with confluence and a stop at the structure, and what a ten-year test says about the levels.
- Set Fibonacci targets
Fibonacci Extension: Levels, How to Draw It and Calculator
Three-point extension targets from the end of a pullback, why they differ from levels beyond 100%, a free calculator and three SPY swings, one without a single target reached.
- Trade gaps
Gap Trading Strategy: How to Trade Gaps and When Gaps Fill
Opening and full gaps, the four classic gap types, how often SPY gaps filled in our count since 2001, and plans for gap fill and gap and go.
- Calculate pivot points
Pivot Points: Formulas, Types and How to Trade Them
Formulas for standard, Fibonacci, Woodie, Camarilla and DeMark pivots, a free calculator, which session counts and a real SPY day.
- Swing trade
Swing Trading: 4 Strategies, Risk and Real Examples
Four swing trading strategies on the daily chart, position size, gap risk and US rules, with two hypothetical SPY pullbacks: one hit its target, one was stopped out.
- Identify market stages
Stage Analysis: Stan Weinstein's Four Market Stages
Stan Weinstein's four stages on the weekly chart, a Stage 2 checklist and two TSMC breakouts: one ran for a year, one gapped through its stop.
- Screen for growth leaders
CAN SLIM: William O’Neil’s Seven Rules for Growth Stocks
William O'Neil's seven CAN SLIM criteria with thresholds, his selling rules, a free screen with real counts and what the tests really show.
- Read Wyckoff ranges
Wyckoff Method: Accumulation, Distribution and Springs
Accumulation and distribution with phases A to E, springs and upthrusts as optional tests, and two real TSMC ranges read with and without hindsight.
- Trade Darvas boxes
Darvas Box Strategy: Rules, Entries and Stop Losses
The box rules step by step, when the edges become known, where the stop goes, and a mechanical test on TSMC in 2024 with two honest results.
- Count Elliott waves
Elliott Wave Theory: Rules, Patterns and Fibonacci
The five-wave pattern, three hard rules, zigzags, flats and triangles, Fibonacci ratios and a real DAX count, from the first German translator of the standard work.
- Understand Smart Money Concepts
Smart Money Concepts (SMC): What They Are and What Holds Up
The seven SMC building blocks, BOS vs CHoCH vs MSS, one labeled SPY sequence that held, one that failed, and what a chart can and cannot show.
- Understand ICT trading
ICT Trading: Silver Bullet, Killzones and What Holds Up
Michael Huddleston's Inner Circle Trader method: Silver Bullet, Judas Swing, the 2022 model and killzones in New York time, with one SPY setup that worked and one that failed.
- Trade order blocks
Order Blocks: How to Spot, Draw and Trade the Zone
The three conditions behind a valid order block, entry and stop at the zone, two SPY cases from 2026 and a 25-year count where a fixed rule lost money.
- Trade fair value gaps
Fair Value Gap (FVG): How to Spot, Trade and Test It
The three-candle rule, bullish, bearish and inverse FVG, two SPY cases from 2026 and a 25-year count of how often gaps were revisited and traded.
- Trade inverse fair value gaps
Inverse Fair Value Gap (IFVG): Rules, Examples and a Test
When a broken gap counts as inverted, three entry styles, one SPY retest that held, one that failed, and a 25-year test with trend and sweep filters.
- Trade failed breakouts with Turtle Soup
Turtle Soup Trading: Raschke Rules, ICT Version and a Test
Linda Raschke's original rules, Turtle Soup Plus One and the ICT version side by side, two SPY examples and a 25-year test on SPY and QQQ.
- Read a break of structure
Break of Structure (BOS): Rules, CHoCH vs MSS and a Test
Which swing counts, BOS vs CHoCH vs MSS under one stated convention, two SPY breaks that won and lost, and a 25-year test against ordinary days.
- Read a change of character
Change of Character (CHoCH): Rules, BOS vs MSS and Data
The first close against the trend, close versus wick, CHoCH vs BOS vs MSS, two SPY cases and what the trend did next after 287 CHoCHs on SPY and QQQ.
- Read a market structure shift
Market Structure Shift (MSS): Rules, BOS vs CHoCH and Data
MSS as a CHoCH with a sweep and a fair value gap, the comparison with BOS and CHoCH, two 2021 cases and what 14 daily MSS on SPY and QQQ did next.
- Draw supply and demand zones
Supply and Demand Trading: Zones, Rules and Real Data
Base and departure rules, the four base patterns, how zones differ from order blocks and SMC, two SPY cases and a fixed test of 86 zone trades on SPY and QQQ.
- Read liquidity sweeps
Liquidity Sweep: How to Spot It and Trade the Reversal
Sweep or run, buy-side and sell-side liquidity, internal and external targets, SPY reversal, continuation and failed-reversal examples and a 25-year count of a fixed sweep rule.
- Interpret volume
Volume Analysis in Trading: How to Read Volume Honestly
What volume counts in stocks, futures, forex and crypto, how to read it against its own average, and our SPY test of high-volume days since 2001.
Related articles
- Use VWAP
VWAP Indicator: Formula, Anchored VWAP and TradingView Setup
A volume-weighted reference line for the trading day, with Anchored VWAP from a chosen point.
- Practice with replay
TradingView Backtesting: Test a Strategy Without Real Money
Replay past charts bar by bar and test your level rules before you risk money.