Bearish engulfing
A red candle whose body fully covers the prior green candle's body, a short-term sign sellers took over.
The pattern reads only the last two bars. The previous bar must close above its open (green) and the current bar must close below its open (red). The current body must also cover the previous body: the current close at or below the previous open, and the current open at or above the previous close. Wicks are ignored, and nothing checks the trend or a price level.
How to read it
- Markers sit on the red candle that completes the pattern, drawn on the price chart.
- A marker means one candle's body swallowed the body of the green candle just before it.
- It is a two-bar shape: it says nothing about where the move came from or where it goes next.
- On one-minute bars it is frequent, so read a marker against the trend and nearby levels.
What it outputs
- Bearish engulfing
- True on the red candle whose body completes an engulfing of the prior green candle. No marker on all other bars.
When it fires
On the close of a red candle whose body fully covers the prior green candle's body, with its close at or below that candle's open and its open at or above that candle's close. Buyers' last bar was overrun by sellers in one step; it is a short-term flip, not a confirmed reversal.
Pitfalls
- On SPY one-minute bars in September 2026 it fired 873 times, about 42 a day (4.3% of bars), so expect many markers each session.
- Nothing checks the trend, so it fires in sideways chop and in trends alike.
- Only bodies are compared: a candle that covers the prior bar's full range without covering its body does not fire.