Candlestick formation · Bearish
What is it, in one line
Two up candles where the second is entirely contained within the first's body.
Bearish · 2 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below
Two up candles where the second is entirely contained within the first's 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.
Method
Both candles close higher than they open, but the second body sits wholly inside the first. The advance continues in name and shrinks in fact: buyers are still winning each bar and winning less of it. It is the bullish-looking sibling of the harami.
The traditional claim
Read as a bearish reversal, on the reading that a contracting advance is an exhausting one.
How this detection is wrong
Both bars must be white. Allowing a black second bar makes this a bearish harami, which is a different formation already in the set, and merging them would double-count the same bars under two names.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| trendPeriod | bars of prior trend inspected | 5 |
| atrPeriod | bars of ATR used to size everything below | 14 |
| minPriorSlope | prior slope must be above | 0.5 |
| minFirstBodyAtr | first body, at least, in ATR | 0.3 |
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.
What is a Descending Hawk candlestick pattern?
Both candles close higher than they open, but the second body sits wholly inside the first. The advance continues in name and shrinks in fact: buyers are still winning each bar and winning less of it. It is the bullish-looking sibling of the harami. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
Is the Descending Hawk bullish or bearish?
It is read as bearish. Read as a bearish reversal, on the reading that a contracting advance is an exhausting one.
When is a Descending Hawk not a Descending Hawk?
Both bars must be white. Allowing a black second bar makes this a bearish harami, which is a different formation already in the set, and merging them would double-count the same bars under two names.
How is a Descending Hawk detected?
As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 4 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, bars of ATR used to size everything below 14, prior slope must be above 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.