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Home / Technical Analysis / Candlestick patterns / Three Outside Down

Candlestick formation · Bearish

Three Outside Down

What is it, in one line

A bearish engulfing confirmed by a third red close.

Bearish · 3 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below

Bearish 3 candles Traditional claim
Three Outside Down — 13 price bars ending on the bar where the Three Outside Down completes. The last 3 bars are the formation, shaded; the bars before them are the prior context the rule requires.
Verified example · fires the Three Outside Down rule · not a schematic

What has to be true

A bearish engulfing confirmed by a third red close. 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 = 3 candles
direction = Bearish
trend filter = prior advance
forward window = 10 bars

Method

What the engine tests

The mirror: a bearish engulfing followed by a third down candle closing below the second candle’s close.

Family
Candlestick
Bars
3 bars
Direction
Bearish
Class
Reversal
Prior context
Uptrend
TA-Lib
CDL3OUTSIDE

The traditional claim

Traditionally read as a confirmed bearish engulfing.

How this detection is wrong

Contains a bearish engulfing by construction.

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 Three Outside Down
ParameterMeaningDefault
trendPeriodbars of prior trend inspected5
minPriorSlopeprior slope must be above1
minPriorBodyAtrthe preceding body, at least, in ATR0.3
atrPeriodbars of ATR used to size everything below14
strict
Tighter thresholds. Fewer detections, each a cleaner example.
minPriorSlope 1.5 · minPriorBodyAtr 0.5
loose
Wider thresholds. More detections, more marginal ones.
minPriorSlope 0.5 · minPriorBodyAtr 0.1
no-context
The prior-trend requirement removed, so the shape alone fires.
minPriorSlope 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 Three Outside Down candlestick pattern?

The mirror: a bearish engulfing followed by a third down candle closing below the second candle’s close. The detector also requires a prior uptrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.

Is the Three Outside Down bullish or bearish?

It is read as bearish. Traditionally read as a confirmed bearish engulfing.

When is a Three Outside Down not a Three Outside Down?

Contains a bearish engulfing by construction.

How is a Three Outside Down detected?

As an executable rule over open, high, low and close, with 4 named parameters — including bars of prior trend inspected 5, prior slope must be above 1, the preceding body, at least, in ATR 0.3 — 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

Three Outside Up

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 Outside Up: A bullish engulfing, then a third candle closing above the second.

How this was measured →

Other 3-candle formations

All 107 →
Bullish Tri-Star Three consecutive dojis at the bottom of a decline.
Bearish Tri-Star Three consecutive dojis at the top of a rise.
Advance Block Three green bodies, each smaller than the last.
Stalled Pattern Two long green bodies, then a small one gapping up.

Size a trade on this setup before you take it.