Bullish Harami Cross on a Live Gold Chart

What it shows

Each one gets a blue label marked HC under the low of the doji.

How Pravex works it out

1. What counts as long or small for the bullish harami cross moves with the market, since the yardstick is a 14-candle exponential average of body sizes, where a body is the distance from open to close, so a quiet stretch lowers it and a busy one raises it.
2. The bullish harami cross starts with a falling candle (close below open) whose body is long, above the average.
3. The second candle must be a doji. The bullish harami cross rule calls a candle a doji when its body is no more than 5% of its high-to-low range. Its body has to sit inside the first body, between the first open and the first close, edges included. Its shadows are not tested.
4. The downtrend the bullish harami cross needs is read from the first candle: by default its close must sit below the 50-candle simple average, and the trend setting can make the bullish harami cross test stricter or switch it off.
5. Example numbers, not a live price: the first candle falls from 2,016 to 2,004. The second opens at 2,007.0 and closes at 2,007.2 with a range of 6. The body of 0.2 is about 3% of the range and sits inside 2,004 to 2,016.

Settings

Setting	Default	What changing it does
Trend check	SMA50	Decides what counts as a downtrend before the bullish harami cross. By default one close is read against the 50-candle average; adding the 200-candle average asks for a longer trend before the bullish harami cross, and switching the check off ignores the trend completely.
Label colour	Blue (#2196F3)	The fill of the HC label under the low of each candle where the bullish harami cross pattern is complete; its white text needs a colour it reads well on.

How traders read it

The doji is a harder stop than the small body of a regular harami. After a long falling candle, a candle that closes exactly where it opened shows the sellers did not follow through at all. That is still a pause, and the next candle tells you which side wins it.

Use the first candle’s body as the frame. A close above its open is the usual confirmation for the buyers; a close under the doji’s low and the first candle’s close says the fall goes on.

When it misleads

Dojis are common on quiet hours, so a long falling candle followed by a quiet hour passes easily, and the calm may say nothing about the sellers. The trend test is one close under the 50-candle average. A strong downtrend can print several of these before it turns. Wait for the close before trusting a bullish harami cross label on the latest candle, which is checked on each update and can lose its label.

Questions and answers

What is a bullish harami cross?

Two candles after a fall: a long falling candle, then a doji whose body sits inside the first candle’s body.

How is it different from a bullish harami?

In a regular harami the second candle is a small rising body. In a harami cross it is a doji, with a body of 5% of its range or less.

Is a harami cross stronger than a harami?

It is often read as a little stronger, because the doji shows a complete stall. It still needs the next candle to confirm.

Related: Harami Cross - Bearish, Harami - Bullish, Doji, All Candlestick Patterns, every indicator.