The three white soldiers pattern is three long bullish candles in a row, each opening inside the previous body and closing near its high. Its mirror, three black crows, is three long bearish candles closing near their lows. Both show one side taking firm control, but by the third candle the move is already large, so the real question is where you enter and where the stop goes.
Quick answer: what is the three white soldiers pattern?
Three white soldiers is a bullish three-candle pattern: three consecutive long bullish candles, each opening within the prior body and closing near its high, with small upper wicks. It shows buyers taking control, often after a decline or a range. Three black crows is the bearish mirror. Neither tells you the move will continue.
The rules of the three white soldiers pattern
If bodies and wicks are new to you, start with our guide on how to read candlestick charts for beginners. The textbook version has four parts.
- Three bullish candles in a row. Each closes higher than the one before.
- Long bodies. Each body is clearly larger than the recent average candle, not a string of small green bars.
- Opens inside the previous body. Each candle opens within the body of the one before, rather than gapping far above it.
- Closes near the high. Small upper wicks show buyers held the price into the close.
In forex, each candle usually opens at the previous close. We accept that as meeting rule three; the long bodies and strong closes carry the message.
Three black crows: the bearish mirror
Three black crows reverses every rule: three long bearish candles, each opening inside the prior body and closing near its low. It often appears after a rise or at the top of a range, and it shows sellers pushing through three sessions in a row.
Strong soldiers vs weak soldiers
Not every run of three green candles deserves the name. The details that separate a firm push from a tiring one are visible on the chart before you risk anything.
| Feature | Strong version | Weak version |
|---|---|---|
| Body size | Similar or growing | Third body clearly smaller |
| Upper wicks | Small | Growing on candles two and three |
| Starting point | Breaks out from a level or base | Already far above any level |
| What lies ahead | Open space to the next resistance | Resistance a few candles away |
| Our reading | Context for a pullback entry | Stand aside |
Some traders call the shrinking version an “advance block”: smaller bodies and longer wicks as buying pressure fades.
Why big candles can still reverse
Three strong candles feel convincing, yet heavy activity does not prove a move will carry on. A study of stock index returns by Campbell, Grossman and Wang, published as NBER working paper 4193 on trading volume and serial correlation, found that daily return autocorrelation tends to fall as volume rises, and their model links heavy-volume moves to later partial reversal. We read a burst of large candles as information, not as a promise.
Location decides what the pattern means
The same three candles mean different things in different places. Before we look at the shape, we look at where it started and what sits overhead.
- Leaving a demand zone or support: the most useful context. Mark those areas in advance, as in our guide to which key levels count and how to rank them.
- Breaking out of a range: three soldiers through the top of a sideways market is a breakout, so the usual tests from how to avoid false breakouts apply.
- Running into resistance: buying the third candle just under a major level is buying where sellers are waiting.
Three white soldiers vs morning star and engulfing
The morning star candlestick pattern turns a fall with a small stalling candle in the middle; three soldiers has no stall, just three strong pushes. A bullish engulfing candle makes a similar point in two candles, and we cover it in our engulfing candle strategy at support and resistance. Three soldiers is the slowest of the three to confirm, so it leaves the widest distance to any logical stop.
How to trade three white soldiers without chasing
Our main objection to entering at the close of candle three is the stop. The pattern is proven wrong below its start, which is now a long way down. This is the sequence we use instead.
- Check the starting point. The first soldier should leave a level you marked before it formed.
- Check the shape. Long bodies, small upper wicks, no shrinking third candle.
- Check the space. Measure the distance to the next resistance before anything else.
- Wait for a pullback. A dip back towards the second soldier’s body or the broken level, followed by a fresh bullish trigger, lets you place a tighter stop.
- Place the stop below the pullback low. Our guide on where to place a stop loss with price action covers buffers.
- Accept missed trades. Some runs never pull back. Chasing them is how the pattern turns into FOMO and chasing moves you missed.
For three black crows, the steps run in reverse: a rally back towards the second crow’s body, then a stop above the rally high.
Worked example: chasing vs waiting
This example is hypothetical. On a £5,000 account we risk 1% per trade, or £50. An index has based at a demand zone near 7,400, then prints three soldiers that close at 7,520.
Buying the close with a stop under the first soldier at 7,395 means a 125-point stop, so £50 buys only £0.40 per point. Resistance sits at 7,640, just 120 points away: less reward than risk, so we pass.
Two candles later price dips to 7,485, inside the second soldier’s body, and forms a bullish pin bar. A stop at 7,470 is 15 points from a 7,485 entry, so £50 allows about £3.33 per point, sized as in our guide on how to calculate position size for spread bets and CFDs. The same resistance, 155 points away, now offers about ten times the risk.
Spread bets and CFDs are leveraged, so losses can build quickly. A stop becomes a market order once triggered, and a gap can carry price through it, making the loss larger than £50.
Common mistakes with three white soldiers
- Buying the third close by reflex. The stop is wide and the easy part of the move is gone.
- Ignoring the next level. Three soldiers into resistance is often where the run ends.
- Shorting every three black crows. After a long fall, three more red candles can be the capitulation low.
- Ignoring the bigger picture. A run on the 15-minute chart inside a daily downtrend is a bounce at best; see our top-down multiple timeframe analysis.
Frequently asked questions
Is three white soldiers a reversal or a continuation pattern?
Textbooks call it a bullish reversal after a decline, but the same shape often appears mid-trend or out of a range. We treat it as a sign of buying pressure and judge it by where it starts and what lies ahead.
What is the opposite of three white soldiers?
Three black crows: three long bearish candles, each opening inside the previous body and closing near its low. The same rules on location and stops apply in reverse.
How reliable is the three white soldiers pattern?
We have not seen a published success rate for it that we could check, so we quote none. Test it on your own markets with our method for backtesting a trading strategy without fooling yourself.
Next steps
Candle patterns are one layer of the method in our complete beginner’s guide to price action trading. If three-candle runs often end at a sideways box on your charts, our guide to the rectangle chart pattern and trading the box picks up from there.
Price position, filters and triggers, and when not to trade are all covered in our price action trading course, and the basics section is free to start.
This article is for education only and is not financial advice. Trading leveraged products such as CFDs and spread bets carries a high risk of losing money.
