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Home / Technical Analysis / Candlestick patterns / Bearish Three-Line Strike

Candlestick formation · Bearish

Bearish Three-Line Strike

What is it, in one line

Three red closes, then one green candle covering all three.

Bearish · 4 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below

Bearish 4 candles Traditional claim
Bearish Three-Line Strike — 14 price bars ending on the bar where the Bearish Three-Line Strike completes. The last 4 bars are the formation, shaded; the bars before them are the prior context the rule requires.
Verified example · fires the Bearish Three-Line Strike rule · not a schematic

What has to be true

Three red closes, then one green candle covering all three. 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 = 4 candles
direction = Bearish
trend filter = prior advance
forward window = 10 bars

Method

What the engine tests

The mirror: three down candles, then an up candle opening below the third close and closing above the first candle’s open.

Family
Candlestick
Bars
4 bars
Direction
Bearish
Class
Continuation
Prior context
Downtrend
TA-Lib
CDL3LINESTRIKE

The traditional claim

Traditionally read as a bearish continuation despite the final candle being up.

How this detection is wrong

The fourth candle must close above the first candle’s open.

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 Three-Line Strike
ParameterMeaningDefault
trendPeriodbars of prior trend inspected5
maxPriorSlopeprior slope must be below-1
minBodyAtrbody, at least, in ATR0.3
atrPeriodbars of ATR used to size everything below14
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
minBodyAtr 0.6 · maxPriorSlope -1.5
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
maxPriorSlope -0.5
no-context
The prior-trend requirement removed, so the shape alone fires.
maxPriorSlope 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 Three-Line Strike candlestick pattern?

The mirror: three down candles, then an up candle opening below the third close and closing above the first candle’s open. The detector also requires a prior downtrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the Bearish Three-Line Strike bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a bearish continuation despite the final candle being up.

When is a Bearish Three-Line Strike not a Bearish Three-Line Strike?

The fourth candle must close above the first candle’s open.

How is a Bearish Three-Line Strike detected?

As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 4 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, prior slope must be below -1, body, at least, in ATR 0.3 — 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 Three-Line Strike

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

Bullish Three-Line Strike: Three rising candles, then one down candle that erases all three.

How this was measured →

Other 4-candle formations

All 107 →
Bullish Hikkake An inside bar, a false break down, then a break up.
Bearish Hikkake An inside bar, a false break up, then a break down.
Three Gaps Three consecutive rising windows, read as exhaustion rather than strength.
Concealing Baby Swallow Two marubozu, then a candle whose range swallows the third.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.