Price Action Trading: Reading the Market Without Indicators

Price action trading is the practice of making trading decisions based solely on price movement — no indicators, no oscillators, just the raw candlestick data. **Why trade price action?** **1. Indicators are derived from price.** Every indicator (RSI, MACD, Bollinger Bands) is calculated from price data. If you can read price directly, you remove the lag that all indicators introduce. **2. Key patterns are universal.** Pin bars, engulfing candles, doji, inside bars — these patterns appear on every instrument and every timeframe. Learning them transfers completely across markets. **3. Simplicity breeds clarity.** A clean chart with just price and key levels is simple. Simpler = cleaner decision-making. **Core price action concepts to learn first:** 1. Support and resistance (horizontal levels) 2. Trend lines and trend channels 3. Pin bars (reversal signal) 4. Engulfing candles (reversal/continuation signal) 5. Inside bars (consolidation/breakout setup) 6. Doji patterns (indecision) **The read:** Every candle tells you who won the battle between buyers and sellers. The wick shows the attempted move; the body shows the result; the size shows the conviction. Do you use pure price action, or do you supplement with a few indicators?