Candlestick formation · Bearish
What is it, in one line
A gap down followed by two black candles that fail to close it.
Bearish · 3 candles · verdict: rule and thresholds below
A gap down followed by two black candles that fail to close it. 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
Three candles. Price gaps down into the second candle, which closes black, and the third also closes black without recovering above the second's high. The window stays open, which is the whole point: the formation is a failure to fill.
The traditional claim
Read as continuation — the gap is not being repaired and the sellers who created it are still in control.
How this detection is wrong
The third bar must not exceed the second's high, or the window is being repaired and the formation is a failed gap rather than a confirmed one.
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 |
| minGapAtr | gap between bars, at least, in ATR | 0.15 |
| maxPriorSlope | prior slope must be below | -0.5 |
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 Two Black Gapping candlestick pattern?
Three candles. Price gaps down into the second candle, which closes black, and the third also closes black without recovering above the second's high. The window stays open, which is the whole point: the formation is a failure to fill. The detector also requires a prior downtrend, so the same shape in the wrong context is not counted.
Is the Two Black Gapping bullish or bearish?
It is read as bearish. Read as continuation — the gap is not being repaired and the sellers who created it are still in control.
When is a Two Black Gapping not a Two Black Gapping?
The third bar must not exceed the second's high, or the window is being repaired and the formation is a failed gap rather than a confirmed one.
How is a Two Black Gapping 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, gap between bars, at least, in ATR 0.15 — 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.