Confirmation candle
A confirmation candle is the strong candle that proves a move is under way. It tells you the direction, but it is a poor place to enter, because it puts you far from your stop.
In depth
Price sits at a level for an hour, then one full-bodied candle runs from 100.10 to 100.90. That candle is the confirmation. Buy at 100.85 with your stop still under the level at 99.90 and you are risking almost a dollar for a move someone else joined at 100.15.
The usual answer is to drop a timeframe and wait for the pullback after the candle, then enter near the level. The trade-off is real. Waiting for confirmation of the confirmation means the move is gone, and a reversal is a pause, not a round trip, so price will not always come back to you.
Why it matters
This is the quiet reason good reads lose money. You were right on direction, entered late, and the first normal pullback took you out at your stop. Then the move carried on without you. The problem was distance from the stop, decided at the moment you clicked rather than by the chart.
Tag your late entries and the By tag table shows the win rate and average loser for that group against your others. Trade replay marks your fills on a TradingView chart, so you can see how far from the level you actually got in.
Frequently asked questions
Usually not. It leaves your stop far away, so a normal pullback takes you out even when the read was right.
Drop a timeframe and look for the pullback back toward the level. Enter as close to it as you can.
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