Candlestick formation · Bearish
What is it, in one line
Three long red bodies, each closing below the last.
Bearish · 3 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below
Three long red bodies, each closing below the last. 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
The mirror of three white soldiers: three consecutive down candles, each opening within the previous real body, each closing below the previous close, each with a short lower wick.
The traditional claim
Traditionally read as a bearish signal, and often cited as one of the more reliable multi-candle formations — a claim with a sample size attached to it, which is what makes it testable.
How this detection is wrong
Mirror of three-white-soldiers, including maxOpenOutsideAtr. maxLowerPct enforces the 'shaven bottom' requirement. The any-three-down-days variant exists to quantify exactly how much of the published effect survives the classical constraints.
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 |
| minBodyAtr | body, at least, in ATR | 0.4 |
| maxLowerPct | lower wick, at most, as a share of the range | 0.25 |
| atrPeriod | bars of ATR used to size everything below | 14 |
| maxOpenOutsideAtr | how far the open may sit outside, in ATR | 0 |
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.
The mirror of three white soldiers: three consecutive down candles, each opening within the previous real body, each closing below the previous close, each with a short lower wick. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a bearish signal, and often cited as one of the more reliable multi-candle formations — a claim with a sample size attached to it, which is what makes it testable.
Mirror of three-white-soldiers, including maxOpenOutsideAtr. maxLowerPct enforces the 'shaven bottom' requirement. The any-three-down-days variant exists to quantify exactly how much of the published effect survives the classical constraints.
As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 6 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, prior slope must be above 1, body, at least, in ATR 0.4 — 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.
Three White Soldiers: Three up candles, each opening inside the previous body and closing higher, with short upper wicks.