Three Black Crows Pattern on a Live Gold Chart

What it shows

Each one gets a red label marked 3BC over the high of the third candle.

How Pravex works it out

1. What counts as long or small for the three black crows 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. All three candles must be falling (close below open) with long bodies, above the average, and a range above zero.
3. The second and third candles must each open inside the body of the candle before (edges included) and close below that candle’s close.
4. Every one of the three must close near its low: the lower shadow may be no more than 25% of the candle’s range.
5. There is no trend test.

Settings

Setting	Default	What changing it does
Label colour	Red (#F23645)	Change it to tell the three black crows apart from other patterns on the same chart. It fills the 3BC label over the high of the last candle; the text stays white.

How traders read it

Three strong falling candles, each closing near its low, show sellers returning candle after candle. After a rise or out of a range, that is a sign the mood has changed, and the high of the first candle becomes the level the buyers need back.

Selling the third close is late by design. The move has already gone three long candles, so a stop above the pattern can be wide. A bounce into the third candle’s body is the more common place to look for a short.

When it misleads

Late in a long fall, three big candles can be capitulation, and the bounce that follows can be sharp. Long means above the 14-candle average, which a quiet stretch makes easy to meet. Without a trend test the label shows up in any context. Wait for the close before trusting a three black crows label on the latest candle, which is checked on each update and can lose its label.

Questions and answers

What are three black crows?

Three long falling candles in a row, each opening inside the previous body, closing lower, and with a lower shadow of 25% of its range or less.

Are three black crows always bearish?

They are read as bearish, most of all after a rise. After a long fall they can mark the last of the selling.

Do three black crows have a bullish twin?

Three white soldiers: three long rising candles, each closing higher near its high.

Related: Three White Soldiers - Bullish, Marubozu Black - Bearish, Falling Three Methods - Bearish, All Candlestick Patterns, every indicator.