Candlestick Patterns
Doji Indecision & Reversal
A doji closes almost exactly where it opened, and on its own that is a location, not a signal.
Step through the tape, predict what a doji does next
Bars reveal one at a time. Every candle updates the indecision meter below the chart, which measures how small the real body is relative to the full range. Whenever a genuine doji prints, the tape pauses and asks you to predict reversal or continuation for the next three bars before they are revealed.
Doji printed. Over the next three bars, does price reverse or continue?
How it works
- A doji is a ratio, not a shape. The rule divides the real body (the distance between open and close) by the full range (high to low). When that ratio falls under the threshold, roughly a tenth of the range by default, the candle counts as a doji regardless of where the wicks sit.
- The indecision meter reads that same ratio live. It is inverted so a near-zero body reads as high indecision on the gauge. A normal trending candle with a real body sits low on the meter; a doji spikes it.
- Location is the variable this page is testing. Some dojis in the tape print at a clear trend extreme, after a run of several bars in one direction. Others print in the middle of a trend with no extremity behind them. The mechanical doji test treats both identically.
- Your own split accuracy makes the point. Predicting reversal or continuation after each doji and tracking the hit rate separately for extreme-context dojis versus mid-trend dojis shows, from your own results, whether location changes the odds more than the candle shape does.
Where this breaks
A doji in a strong trend is often just a pause, not a reversal
The body-to-range ratio has no memory of the trend it sits inside. A doji printing after a sharp five-bar run can just as easily mean the crowd is briefly catching its breath before continuing, not that control has flipped. Reading every small-bodied candle as a reversal signal, regardless of where it sits, is the specific way this pattern fails: it mistakes a pause for an ending. The mid-trend dojis on this tape exist to make that failure visible in your own prediction results, not just in the description.