Candlestick formation · Bullish
What is it, in one line
A long green, three small red bodies inside it, then a new high.
Bullish · 5 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below
A long green, three small red bodies inside it, then a new high. 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
Five candles: a long up candle, then three small candles that stay entirely within its high-low range, then a final up candle closing above the first candle’s close. A pause that never threatens the move.
The traditional claim
Traditionally read as one of the few genuine continuation formations rather than a reversal signal.
How this detection is wrong
The containment requirement is strict: if any of the three middle candles breaks the first candle’s range, it is not this pattern. Five-candle formations are rare by construction, so expect small counts.
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 |
| minPriorSlope | prior slope must be above | 1 |
| minFirstBodyAtr | first body, at least, in ATR | 0.6 |
| maxMidBodyRatio | middle body, at most, relative to its neighbours | 0.6 |
| 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.
Five candles: a long up candle, then three small candles that stay entirely within its high-low range, then a final up candle closing above the first candle’s close. A pause that never threatens the move. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
It is read as bullish. Traditionally read as one of the few genuine continuation formations rather than a reversal signal.
The containment requirement is strict: if any of the three middle candles breaks the first candle’s range, it is not this pattern. Five-candle formations are rare by construction, so expect small counts.
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, first 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 uptrend, its mirror a preceding downtrend.
Falling Three Methods: A long down candle, three small rally candles inside its range, then a new low close.