Do candles really need to finish strong?

Price is up and down all day long; every few minutes a several pip movement may be seen in either direction. No matter what the overall daily direction is, retracements can occur at any given time.

Therefore I am wondering why it is often stated that candles (whether M15, H1 or H4) need to finish strong and why we should read pin bars as a weakness.

One possibility is that candles that end strong entice more of the market to carry on in the same direction, maybe robots adhere to these strong candles too. But ultimately can we ignore these candles and is price movement per se more important?

the last 10% of a candle move indicates current sentiment in any time frame.

Once a retracement occurs a new current sentiment evolves and so the candle may not be so important. Only the fact that price had been to a particular level may be important.

A strong 30min candle may soon become part of an hourly pin bar that many would view as a weak ending. This weak ending may be just a retracement and price may take off again.

yes it could well be.. if you haven't already - read and watch steve nison's material on candlesticks... very helpful

thanks, will do just that

My only suggestion to you regarding the points you are making:

Look at the charts!

If you see a valid pin bar at a significant point then, yes, a pin bar can be significant. A pin bar at an insignificant point is... not as significant. The same goes for solid bars.

It is not the bars themselves, it is the location and context of those bars. For example, an engulfing bar has ZERO predictive ability as far as reaching a 1:1 R:R taken in isolation. If, however, you have a definite uptrend and notice a pullback of at least 3 bars that do not exceed the most recent swing low and THEN see a bullish engulfing bar, you have a 60-65% chance of reaching 1:1.

If you see multiple bars during an uptrend that have large and/or increasing upper wicks then, yes, they can be significant. Selling pressure is increasing. Add volume to the mix (yes, tick volume) on a chart and you now have an edge in reading bars on a chart.

Context is everything when trying to read price action.