Three Inside Up Candlestick Pattern - How It Works and How Traders Can Use It
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When it comes to the stock market, sometimes you might hear the term "three inside up pattern" mentioned. It refers to a type of stock chart candlestick pattern that is popular among active stock traders.
This article will explain what a three inside up candlestick pattern is and how traders might be able to benefit from using it.
What Exactly Is a Three Inside Up Candlestick Pattern?
A three inside up pattern is a type of price candlestick pattern found on a stock chart.
Stock charts show how a stock's price has changed over time, and that price activity can be conveyed in different ways. One of those ways is with price candlesticks, or price candles, which are also sometimes referred to as price bars.
Each price candle represents a pre-specified period of time, such as one day or one hour. Candles give information that might be pertinent to an investor, including the open price, close price, high price, and low price of the period.
A three inside up candlestick pattern consists of three candles:
- First candle - The first candle is a long red candle, indicating strong selling pressure where the closing price is noticeably lower than the opening price.
- Second candle - The second candle is a smaller green candle that is completely within the range of the first candle, meaning its high is lower than the high of the first candle and its low is higher than the low of the first candle.
- Third candle - The third candle is another green candle that breaks the high price of the second candle.
That image is a graphical icon that gives an idea visually of what a three inside up pattern looks like.
You can see that the first candle is red and the second and third candles are green.
Also, the first candle fully envelopes the second candle. And the high price of the third candle exceeds the high price of the second candle.
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What Does a Three Inside Up Candlestick Pattern Look Like On A Stock Chart?
The image below is an example of a three inside up pattern as shown on one of our stock charts.
The three inside up pattern is shown in the three candles at the very far right of the stock chart.
You can see the tall red candle followed by two ascending green candles.
How Do Traders Use a Three Inside Up Candlestick Pattern?
A three inside up pattern suggests that after strong selling, the sellers may be losing their grip. The second candle, which is green, represents a potential weakening of selling pressure. The third candle, also green, confirms the new buying sentiment.
As a result, it might indicate a potential reversal of a downtrend or a slowing down of downtrend momentum.
If the stock has been in a downtrend, and then a three inside up candlestick pattern appears, a trader could try to capitalize by buying the stock.
Is a Three Inside Up Pattern Bullish or Bearish?
Three inside up patterns are considered bullish, meaning that the presence of a three inside up pattern on a stock chart might be an indication that the stock price is on the verge of going up.
That level of bullish sentiment might be more pronounced if the three inside up pattern occurs after a downtrend, as the pattern is commonly seen as a reversal signal.
How Do You Find Stocks That Have Three Inside Up Candlestick Patterns?
You can find them by using our Three Inside Up Pattern scanner. It's a free tool we offer here at Stock Market Guides. It uses our proprietary scanning technology to find stocks that just had a three inside up candlestick pattern on a daily chart.
Here's how the scanner results look:
That tool ensures that you don't have to waste time flipping through stock charts manually to find stocks with a three inside up candle pattern.
Example of a Three Inside Up Pattern Trading Strategy
For this example of a three inside up pattern trading strategy, we're going to use a daily chart, where each price candle represents one day of price activity. That means it would be a swing trading strategy where the trade is designed to last more than one day but not for the long haul.
Entry for the Three Inside Up Pattern Trading Strategy
The entry for this Three Inside Up Pattern trading strategy will be as follows:
The entry criterion for our Three Inside Up Pattern trading strategy is very simple.
Exit for the Three Inside Up Pattern Trading Strategy
There are a lot of possibilities here for the exit.
For any given trading strategy, it can be helpful to define three different criteria for the exit: profit target, stop loss, and time limit.
Not everyone uses all three, and that's totally fine. Ultimately, you can set these values however you want. But for the purposes of this strategy example, we will define all three:
- Profit Target
We will set the profit target at 1.5 ATRs away from the entry price.
ATR is an indicator in the stock market that measures a stock's recent price volatility. Most trading platforms have it available as an indicator you can enable.
Our profit target criterion indicates that we will take the ATR value of the stock, multiply it by 1.5, and add it to the price we paid when we bought the stock. That will be our profit target, and we can set up a sell limit order at that price.
- Stop Loss
We will set the stop loss at 3 ATRs below the entry price. This means we take the ATR value of the stock, multiply it by 3, and subtract it from the price we paid to buy the stock.
That will be our stop loss, and we can set up a stop order at that price.
- Time Limit
We will set the time limit as one week since this is a swing trade. If the stock has not hit either the profit target or stop loss by the time limit, then we will close the trade manually at the opening bell seven calendar days after entry.
How Well Do Three Inside Up Candlestick Patterns Actually Work?
The idea of a three inside up pattern trading strategy sounds nice to many people because it offers a clear, easy-to-understand way to find a trade setup.
But does it actually work? Can traders indeed generate profits by trading three inside up patterns?
That's exactly what our company can help answer for you, since our scanner technology has allowed us to do our own research on that precise question.
The answer is that trades based on a three inside up pattern are not always profitable, but for certain stocks they might indeed have a track record of success according to our backtest research.
Here is some data that shows how a proprietary three inside up candle trading strategy we created has performed historically according to backtests:
Wins
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Losses
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Win Percentage
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Annualized Return
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Anyone who signs up for our swing trading scanner service will be able to see stocks that qualify for that trading strategy in real time.
Learning More About Three Inside Up Patterns
You can contact us any time if you would like to ask any questions about three inside up candlestick patterns or anything else related to the stock market.
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