Beyond Candlesticks

Reviewed by Diario de un Inversor · UpdatedJune 13, 2026

Our review

Published in 1994, «Beyond Candlesticks» is Steve Nison's second major work on Japanese technical analysis, aimed at readers who already know the foundations laid out in «Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques» (1991). Nison expands the system with advanced techniques that were little known in the West at the time of publication: three-line break charts, Renko charts, Kagi charts, and more complex continuation and reversal formations. The approach is comparative: Nison contrasts these methods with classical Western technical analysis to show how combining both can improve signal accuracy. The book is dense and technical, with abundant real-market charts from both Japanese and American markets. Its main strength is historical rigour and fidelity to the original Japanese sources. The limitation is shared by all technical analysis books: no pattern works deterministically, and its effectiveness depends entirely on market context and associated risk management.

Key takeaways

• Three-line break, Renko, and Kagi charts remove price noise by eliminating the time variable, making clean trend identification easier.
• Combining Japanese candlestick signals with Western technical indicators reduces the false positives each system generates in isolation.
• The most reliable reversal patterns are those that appear at significant technical levels, not in isolation.
• Japanese technical analysis has roots in eighteenth-century rice markets; many of its principles reflect universal market psychology.

Fact

«Beyond Candlesticks» was published in 1994, three years after Nison's inaugural work, and was one of the first books to describe three-line break and Renko techniques systematically in English.