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Three outside up

A bullish engulfing candle followed by a third candle closing higher still, confirming the reversal with follow-through.

Sequence: a red candle, a bullish-engulfing green candle, then a further green close above the engulfing candle's high.

As with three-inside-up, the value is the confirmation. An engulfing candle that is immediately rejected means little; one that is followed by continuation is a real transfer of control.

Statistically, adding a confirmation candle raises the proportion of patterns that continue but reduces the number of opportunities and worsens entry price. That trade-off is the central tension of all candlestick trading, and there is no setting that removes it. Decide which side of it your strategy needs and apply it consistently rather than case by case.

Related: bullish-engulfing, three-inside-up, candlestick-confirmation, confirmation-signal

See it drawn

Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.

The parts of a candlestickAn up candle and a down candle with the same high and low, labelled with open, high, low, close, the real body and the wicks.UP CANDLEclose above openHigh 41.00Close 40.30Open 38.20Low 37.40upper wickreal bodyopen to closelower wickDOWN CANDLEclose below openHigh 41.00Open 40.30Close 38.20Low 37.40Same high and low; only the open and close swap places.
The parts of a candlestick. One candle sums up a slice of time: the thick real body runs from the opening price to the closing price, and the thin wicks reach out to the highest and lowest prices traded. Colour tells you which way the body ran.

Educational only, not advice. Spotted an error? Post in Site Feedback.