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Home / Technical Analysis / Candlestick patterns / On-Neck

Candlestick formation · Bullish

On-Neck

What is it, in one line

A green close that reaches only the previous low.

Bullish · 2 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below

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

What has to be true

A green close that reaches only the previous low. 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 = Bullish
trend filter = prior decline
forward window = 10 bars

Method

What the engine tests

A long down candle followed by an up candle opening below it and closing back only as far as the previous candle’s low — less of a recovery than the in-neck.

Family
Candlestick
Bars
2 bars
Direction
Bearish
Class
Continuation
Prior context
Downtrend
TA-Lib
CDLONNECK

The traditional claim

Traditionally read as a continuation, and as the weakest of the four piercing-family outcomes.

How this detection is wrong

Closes at the prior low rather than the prior close. See in-neck for the full family.

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 On-Neck
ParameterMeaningDefault
trendPeriodbars of prior trend inspected5
maxPriorSlopeprior slope must be below-1
minPriorBodyAtrthe preceding body, at least, in ATR0.5
matchTolAtrhow closely two levels must match, in ATR0.08
atrPeriodbars of ATR used to size everything below14
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
matchTolAtr 0.04 · maxPriorSlope -1.5
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
matchTolAtr 0.15 · 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 On-Neck candlestick pattern?

A long down candle followed by an up candle opening below it and closing back only as far as the previous candle’s low — less of a recovery than the in-neck. The detector also requires a prior downtrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the On-Neck bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a continuation, and as the weakest of the four piercing-family outcomes.

When is a On-Neck not a On-Neck?

Closes at the prior low rather than the prior close. See in-neck for the full family.

How is a On-Neck 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 below -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.

How this was measured →

Other 2-candle formations

All 107 →
Thrusting A green close inside the prior body but below its midpoint.
Matching High Two candles closing at the same high after a rise.
Matching Low Two candles closing at the same low after a decline.
Tweezer Top Two adjacent candles sharing the same high.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.