Dark cloud cover
A red candle that opens above the prior green close and closes below its midpoint: a short-term bearish flip.
Dark cloud cover is a two-bar bearish reversal shape. The first bar must close above its open (green). The second must close below its open (red), open above the first bar's close, and close below the midpoint of the first bar's body. Only these opens and closes are read: wicks, the trend and price levels are not checked.
How to read it
- Markers sit on the red candle that completes the pattern, drawn over the price candles with no separate pane.
- A marker means the prior candle was green and this candle opened above its close and closed below the middle of its body.
- It is a two-bar shape, so it says nothing about the trend, where price came from or where it goes next.
- On one-minute bars it is frequent, so read a marker against the surrounding trend and nearby levels.
What it outputs
- Dark cloud cover
- True on the red candle that completes the two-bar shape. No marker on all other bars.
When it fires
On the close of a red candle that opens above the prior green candle's close and closes below the midpoint of that green candle's body. Sellers reversed the prior green bar in one step; it marks a short-term flip, not a confirmed top.
Pitfalls
- On SPY one-minute bars in September 2026 it fired 764 times, about 36 a day (3.8% of bars), so expect many markers each session.
- The docstring says the open must be above the prior high, but the code only requires it above the prior close, so on one-minute bars the gap can be a single tick.
- Nothing checks the trend or a price level, so it fires in chop and in rallies alike.