Bullish Three Line Strike
The Bullish Three Line Strike is a four-candle continuation pattern. Three consecutive bearish candles march steadily lower, followed by one large bullish candle — the "strike" — whose real body fully engulfs the bodies of all three prior candles. Despite looking bearish initially, this is actually a bullish continuation pattern: the strike candle erases all the selling in a single period, showing that buyers overwhelmed the pullback decisively.
Bullish Three Line Strike candlestick pattern diagram
Pattern Anatomy
- Candles 1–3: Three consecutive bearish candles, each closing lower than the previous. These form a short pullback within the larger trend.
- Candle 4 (the "strike"): A bullish candle that opens at or below the lowest close of candles 1–3, and closes at or above the highest open of candles 1–3.
- The strike candle's real body must engulf all three prior real bodies — wicks are ignored per Nison/Bulkowski. This means it opens below where the bears finished and closes above where the bears started.
How to Interpret
- Bullish continuation — the three bearish candles are a pullback within an uptrend, not a reversal. The strike candle confirms the trend is resuming.
- The strike candle shows buyers overwhelming sellers decisively — reclaiming three periods' worth of losses in a single candle.
- Most effective when it appears during an existing uptrend (pullback then continuation). In a downtrend, this pattern is less reliable.
- Volume on the strike candle is important confirmation — a high-volume strike is much more convincing than a low-volume one.
- A highly-ranked pattern in Engulfy — one of the higher-confidence multi-candle patterns.
How Engulfy Detects the Bullish Three Line Strike
- Candles 1, 2, and 3 must all be bearish (Close < Open)
- Candle 4 must be bullish (Close > Open)
- Calculate priorBodyHigh = max of c1.Open, c2.Open, c3.Open (since bearish: Open is body high)
- Calculate priorBodyLow = min of c1.Close, c2.Close, c3.Close (since bearish: Close is body low)
- Candle 4 must open at or below priorBodyLow (c4.Open ≤ priorBodyLow)
- Candle 4 must close at or above priorBodyHigh (c4.Close ≥ priorBodyHigh)
Three-Line Strike uses REAL BODY engulf only. Wicks are intentionally ignored per Nison/Bulkowski.
Expert References
- Steve Nison, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques — describes the three-line strike as a continuation pattern where the fourth candle "strikes back" against the prior three
- Thomas Bulkowski, Encyclopedia of Candlestick Charts — found the Bullish Three Line Strike acts as a bullish continuation approximately 83% of the time, making it one of the more reliable multi-candle patterns
- A highly-ranked pattern in Engulfy — reflecting its strong statistical backing and clear mechanical definition
Controversy & Limitations
- Counter-intuitive — the pattern looks bearish at first glance (three red candles in a row) but is actually a bullish continuation signal. This trips up many beginners.
- Bulkowski's data shows high reliability (83%), but sample sizes for this pattern are relatively small compared to more common patterns like engulfing or hammer.
- Context matters — if there is no prior uptrend, the three bearish candles may actually be the start of a genuine downtrend rather than a pullback.