Candlestick formation · Bullish
What is it, in one line
Opens at the low and closes near the high, after a decline.
Bullish · 1 candle · verdict: rule and thresholds below
Opens at the low and closes near the high, after a decline. 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.
Method
A long up candle with effectively no lower wick: it opens at the session low and never trades below it. Distinct from a marubozu, which also requires no upper wick — a belt hold constrains only the open.
The traditional claim
Traditionally read as buyers taking control from the first print and holding it.
How this detection is wrong
A bullish marubozu satisfies this as well, since it has no lower wick either. Belt hold is the weaker constraint and the larger set of the two.
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.
| Parameter | Meaning | Default |
|---|---|---|
| maxLowerPct | lower wick, at most, as a share of the range | 0.05 |
| minBodyPct | body, at least, as a share of the range | 0.6 |
| minBodyAtr | body, at least, in ATR | 0.6 |
| trendPeriod | bars of prior trend inspected | 5 |
| maxPriorSlope | prior slope must be below | -1 |
| atrPeriod | bars of ATR used to size everything below | 14 |
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.
A long up candle with effectively no lower wick: it opens at the session low and never trades below it. Distinct from a marubozu, which also requires no upper wick — a belt hold constrains only the open. The detector also requires a prior downtrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
It is read as bullish. Traditionally read as buyers taking control from the first print and holding it.
A bullish marubozu satisfies this as well, since it has no lower wick either. Belt hold is the weaker constraint and the larger set of the two.
As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 6 named parameters — including lower wick, at most, as a share of the range 0.05, body, at least, as a share of the range 0.6, body, at least, in ATR 0.6 — 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
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.
Bearish Belt Hold: A long down candle that opens at its high, after a rise.