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Home / Technical Analysis / Candlestick patterns / Bearish Harami

Candlestick formation · Bearish

Bearish Harami

What is it, in one line

A small red body contained inside the previous large green body.

Bearish · 2 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below

Bearish 2 candles Traditional claim
Bearish Harami — 12 price bars ending on the bar where the Bearish Harami completes. The last 2 bars are the formation, shaded; the bars before them are the prior context the rule requires.
Verified example · fires the Bearish Harami rule · not a schematic

What has to be true

A small red body contained inside the previous large green body. The engine checks the formation as an executable condition over open, high, low and close, with a trend filter applied before the count is kept.

candles = 2 candles
direction = Bearish
trend filter = prior advance
forward window = 10 bars

Method

What the engine tests

The mirror of the bullish harami: a long-bodied up candle followed by a small down candle whose body falls entirely within it.

Family
Candlestick
Bars
2 bars
Direction
Bearish
Class
Reversal
Prior context
Uptrend
TA-Lib
CDLHARAMI

The traditional claim

Traditionally read as a bearish reversal signal.

How this detection is wrong

Mirror of bullish-harami. Containment is on bodies only.

The thresholds the detector uses

Published so the count can be reproduced. Every figure below is a parameter of the rule, not a preference: change one and the occurrence count changes with it.

Detection parameters for the Bearish Harami
ParameterMeaningDefault
trendPeriodbars of prior trend inspected5
minPriorSlopeprior slope must be above1
minPriorBodyAtrthe preceding body, at least, in ATR0.5
maxBodyRatiobody, at most, relative to the bar before0.6
atrPeriodbars of ATR used to size everything below14
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
minPriorSlope 1.5 · minPriorBodyAtr 0.8 · maxBodyRatio 0.4
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
minPriorSlope 0.5 · minPriorBodyAtr 0.3 · maxBodyRatio 0.8
no-context
The prior-trend requirement removed, so the shape alone fires.
minPriorSlope not applied

Easily mistaken for

These share enough geometry that a detector can return more than one of them on the same bar. The engine reports every match rather than picking a winner.

Every pair on the site that can be mistaken for another, and what separates each: the look-alikes index.

Common questions

What is a Bearish Harami candlestick pattern?

The mirror of the bullish harami: a long-bodied up candle followed by a small down candle whose body falls entirely within it. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the Bearish Harami bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a bearish reversal signal.

When is a Bearish Harami not a Bearish Harami?

Mirror of bullish-harami. Containment is on bodies only.

How is a Bearish Harami detected?

As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 5 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, prior slope must be above 1, the preceding body, at least, in ATR 0.5 — all published on this page so the count can be reproduced. Strict and loose variants are defined as well, so the sensitivity of the count to those thresholds is visible rather than assumed.

Measurement pending re-run

No hit rate is published here yet. The run that would supply one was computed on engine ca6d9e36c81c; the engine is now cfb08765de7c. Its candlestick rows included the still-forming bar, and it predates the chart formations entirely, so those figures have been withdrawn rather than published with a caveat. The definition above is unaffected: it is what the detector tests, and no re-run changes it.

Same shape, opposite reading

Bullish Harami

The shapes are close, and the prior trend is what decides which one fired: this rule requires a preceding uptrend, its mirror a preceding downtrend.

Bullish Harami: A long down candle, then a small up candle whose body sits entirely inside it.

How this was measured →

Other 2-candle formations

All 107 →
Bullish Harami Cross A harami whose second candle is a doji.
Bearish Harami Cross A harami whose second candle is a doji.
Dark Cloud Cover Opens above the prior high, then closes below the prior midpoint.
Piercing Line Opens below the prior low, then closes above the prior midpoint.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.