Thomas Bulkowski’s successful investment activities allowed him to retire at age 36. He is an internationally known author and trader with 30 years of stock market experience and widely regarded as a leading expert on chart patterns. His four books, including the best selling Encyclopedia of Chart Patterns, have been translated into seven languages. He may be reached at

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Bulkowski's Three Inside Up

Market

Industrials (^DJI):

Transports (^DJT):

Utilities (^DJU):

Nasdaq (^IXIC):

S&P 500 (^GSPC):

As of 02/07/2012

12,878 33.07 0.3%

5,323 -10.92 -0.2%

452 2.11 0.5%

2,904 2.09 0.1%

1,347 2.72 0.2%

YTD

5.4%

6.0%

-2.7%

11.5%

7.1%

Tom's Targets Overview: 02/03/2012

13,100 or 12,400 by 02/15/2012

5,500 or 5,150 by 02/15/2012

470 or 440 by 02/15/2012

3,100 or 2,800 by 02/15/2012

1,375 or 1,300 by 02/15/2012

Test Portfolios and CPI

Indus. strength: 2.4%

Mutt Losers: None YTD

Mutt Winners: 2.5%

Wilder RSI: None YTD

CPI:

on 12/20/2011

In my book, Encyclopedia of Candlestick Charts, pictured on the right, I explore the entire range of candlestick patterns from abandoned babies to windows (not exactly A to Z, but you get the idea), in both bull and bear markets, using almost 5 million candle lines in the tests.

The book takes an in-depth look at 103 candlestick patterns and reports on behavior and rank (3 types: reversal rate, frequency, and overall performance), identification guidelines, performance statistics (tables of general statistics, height, and volume), trading tactics (tables of statistics on reversal rates and performance indicators), and wraps each chapter with a sample trade. I share a sliver of that information below. If you like what you read here, then you will love the book. Help support this website and buy a copy by clicking on the above link.

The three inside up candlestick pattern is supposed to act as a bullish reversal and it does, quite often, too, -- not always, mind you, but quite often. The frequency rank is 31st out of 103 candle types, so this won't be as prevalent as hair on a gorilla, but you should be able to find the three inside up candlestick easily. Even better is the overall performance rank which is high. A check of the numbers shows that the three inside up candlestick works best after a downward breakout in a bear market.

Important Results

Discussion

Identification Guidelines

Three Trading Tidbits

Example

Three Inside Up: Important Results

Theoretical performance: Bullish reversal

Tested performance: Bullish reversal 65% of the time

Frequency rank: 31

Overall performance rank: 20

Best percentage meeting price target: 60% (bull market, up breakout)

Best average move in 10 days: -7.00% (bear market, down breakout)

Best 10-day performance rank: 9 (bear market, down breakout)

All ranks are out of 103 candlestick patterns with the top performer ranking 1. "Best" means the highest rated of the four combinations of bull/bear market, up/down breakouts.

The above numbers are based on hundreds of perfect trades. See the glossary for definitions.

Three Inside Up

Three Inside Up: Discussion

The three inside up candlestick is a bullish harami with a confirming candle as the third day, according to Morris who created this candle pattern. In theory, it acts as a bullish reversal. In reality, it acts the same way, but only 65% of the time. I still consider that a respectable reversal rate. When coupled with a overall performance rank of 20, this candle pattern deserves a closer look.

The best average move 10 days after the breakout is a drop of 7% in a bear market, ranking 9th. Anything over 6% I consider a good move, so this candlestick pattern does very well.

Three Inside Up: Identification Guidelines

Characteristic	Discussion
Number of candle lines	Three.
Price trend leading to the pattern	Downward.
Configuration	Look for a tall black candle in a downward price trend. The next day, a small bodied white candle has a body that is within the body of the prior candle. The tops or bottoms of the bodies can be the same price, but not both. The last day is a white candle that closes above the prior close.

Three Inside Up: Three Trading Tidbits

If you want a few bones from my Encyclopedia of candlestick charts book, here are three to chew on. The pages refer to the book where the tips appear.

Three inside up candles that appear within a third of the yearly low perform best -- page 750.
Patterns within a third of the yearly high tend to act as reversals most often -- page 753.
Trade the three inside up during a downward retracement of the primary uptrend -- page 752.

Three Inside Up: Example

The three inside up candlestick on the daily scale

The chart shows a three inside up candle pattern circled in red. Price trends downward into the start of the pattern, a tall black candle. Following that, a white candle appears that fits inside the body of the prior candle. This completes the bullish harami candlestick. The final day of the pattern is the confirming candle, a white one that closes above the prior close, which it does. The combination suggests price has reversed trend.

An upward breakout occurs when price closes above the top of the candlestick. That happens in this example of the three inside up candlestick. Price enters the pattern trending downward and exits upward, so this three inside up acts as a reversal. However, look at how far price climbs. It forms a triple top before reversing and making a strong move down into March.

For the best performing setup, look for an upward price trend (the longer term trend). Then find a downward retrace of that uptrend followed by the three inside up candle. When price breaks out upward from that candle pattern it rejoins the uptrend already underway. Price often continues moving up after that.

-- Thomas Bulkowski