On Sunday, football fans across the nation tuned their TV sets to the live broadcast of the NFC Championship game. The contest between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers was held at the iconic Candlestick Park, a challenging venue notorious for swirling winds, loud crowd noise — and even the occasional power outage.

Those who attended the game at Candlestick were treated to an epic match-up that, unfortunately for the majority of fans in attendance, ended in agony. Despite this, gridiron enthusiasts were pleased the game didn’t end in a lopsided 60-minute trouncing.

What does this have to do with investing, you ask? Let’s tale a step back to part of the narrative where I described Candlestick Park so I can present you a somewhat awkward transition of sorts.

You see, when it comes to trading, there’s another kind of “candlestick,” and this one can be watched everyday. In fact, these candlesticks can actually help your portfolio win championship profits.

I’m referring to candlestick charts. What are candlesticks? Well, they’re a tool of technical analysis you can use to help sort out the psychology influencing the price action of stocks, futures and FOREX markets.

What do candlesticks offer that typical high-low bar charts do not? As far as the actual data displayed, nothing. Just like bar charts, candlestick charts display the open, high, low and close for a given security. (See this article on 7 candlestick patterns every trader should know.)

However, when it comes to visual recognition of data and the ability to see data relationships and investor sentiment over time, candlesticks are far superior to traditional bar charts.

Traditional bar charts have little meaning by themselves, whereas candlestick charts display the action that took place in the market that day in much greater detail. A look at the price action in an equity over time allows you to use pattern analysis to determine the probability of that equity’s future movement.

After a small amount of practice and familiarization, candlestick chart pattern analysis can play an integral role in just about any investment methodology.

A Psychological Portrait

We all know prices are very often influenced by fear, greed and hope. Some form of technical analysis needs to be employed in order to understand these changing psychological factors. Candlesticks allow you to read the changes in the market’s determination of value — otherwise known as investor sentiment.

Candlesticks do this by showing the interaction between buyers and sellers, which is often reflected in price movement. As such, candlestick charts provide insight into the financial markets that you just can’t get with traditional bar charts.

Easy to Understand

Candlesticks provide a clear and easy-to-identify set of patterns that are highly accurate in predicting market trends. By using candlesticks, along with some basic technical analysis, you can easily begin to see patterns emerge in the market — and more important, you can start taking advantage of these patterns when you trade.

The good thing about candlesticks is they don’t take months or years to master. With practice, the patterns can be memorized relatively quickly, and though this does take some effort, the profit potential understanding these tools brings is invaluable.

A Proven Technique for 250 Years

That’s right. For 250 years, candlestick have helped traders understand the price action in markets. The first use of candlesticks is generally attributed to a Japanese rice trader in the 1700s named Munehisa Honma (this is why candlesticks are also known as Japanese candlesticks).

Honma began trading in the rice market in 1750, in the city of Sakata. This is also is the reason you may hear a reference to “Sakata’s Methods” or “Sakata’s Rules” when studying candlesticks. Honma analyzed decades of rice prices, comparing them with yearly weather conditions and, over time, became a legend in the rice trading industry. It’s from his methods of trading in the rice markets that candlesticks evolved.

Thanks to Honma, we all get to benefit from this exceptional analytical tool.

This article originally appeared on Traders Reserve.