A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on the third of three big down candles closing lower one after another.
- Weapon tier
- Standard
- Slots used
- Candle markings 1/3
Concept
Three down candles in a row, each closing below the one before, all with bodies bigger than usual. They look like three crows settling down in a line, hence the name.
At the end of an uptrend it is commonly read as "sellers pushed for three days running". It mirrors “Three White Soldiers”. The marker goes on the third candle.
- Three Black Crows
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
80 candles with volume. The price rises for a long time, three down candles follow at the top, and the third one, candle 60 (yellow vertical line), gets the event marker. The price then moves up and down while drifting lower. Keyboard: ←/→ to move, +/− to zoom, 0 to see the whole chart.
The candle with the yellow vertical line and the two before it are the three black crows. This scene was picked because the price fell afterwards. Bouncing right after the pattern is also common — the price has already dropped for three days. Drag the chart sideways with a finger or the mouse to move it, and pinch with two fingers to zoom in. With a keyboard, click the chart, then use ←/→ to move and +/− to zoom.
How it is calculated
Take the average body length of the last 10 candles as the "usual body".
All three candles must be down candles, each close must be lower than the last, and all three bodies must be bigger than the usual body × 1.
The second and third candles must not open more than the usual body × 0.5 below the previous close. The third candle that meets all of this gets the marker.
Parameters
| What it sets | Name in the game | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candles used for the "usual body" | lookback | 10 | 5 – 30 |
| How many times the usual body each body must exceed | bodyMultiple | 1 | 0.3 – 3 |
| How far the open may drop below the previous close (multiple of the usual body) | openTolerance | 0.5 | -0.5 – 3 |
Trading ideas
Three black crows after a long rise are commonly used as a sign that "it is time to consider reducing what you hold". Check whether highs have stopped rising (lesson 2) and whether volume grew on the way down.
Since the price has already fallen for three days, many traders check whether the next bounce is weak instead of selling at the third candle.
Common traps
- Three black crows at the end of a downtrend, near a bottom, can mean "it has fallen too far". Where the pattern appears matters more than its shape.
- The chart on this page was picked because the price fell afterwards. Rising again after the same pattern is common too.
- No candle pattern is a sure signal. Read it together with the trend and volume.
In the game
- “Three Black Crows” is a “Standard” weapon and uses 1 “Candle markings” slot (limit 3).
- The game draws a faint grey vertical line in the price area on every candle where the event happens, and writes the weapon name only on the most recent line.
- The opposite shape (three up candles closing higher) is marked by “Three White Soldiers”.
Related indicators and lessons
- Three White Soldiers — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on the third of three big up candles closing higher one after another.
- Morning Star — A candle-pattern marker for a three-candle bottom shape — big down candle, small-bodied candle, big up candle — with a vertical line on the third candle.
- Evening Star — A candle-pattern marker for a three-candle top shape — big up candle, small-bodied candle, big down candle — with a vertical line on the third candle.
- Hammer — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in a downtrend with a long lower shadow and almost no upper shadow.
- Inverted Hammer — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in a downtrend with a long upper shadow and almost no lower shadow.
- Hanging Man — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in an uptrend with a long lower shadow and almost no upper shadow.
- Shooting Star — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in an uptrend with a long upper shadow and almost no lower shadow.
- Doji — A weapon that finds and marks candles whose open and close are almost the same, so the body is very thin. It is a candle where buyers and sellers ended up evenly matched.
- Bullish Marubozu — A weapon that finds and marks rising candles with almost no shadows and a body far longer than usual. Buyers pushed all the way through the candle.
- Bearish Marubozu — A weapon that finds and marks falling candles with almost no shadows and a body far longer than usual. Sellers pushed all the way through the candle.
- Bullish Engulfing — A weapon that marks a large rising candle whose body completely wraps the previous falling candle’s body, in a downtrend.
- Bearish Engulfing — A weapon that marks a large falling candle whose body completely wraps the previous rising candle’s body, in an uptrend.
- Piercing Line — A weapon that marks, in a downtrend, a rising candle that opens below a long falling candle and closes above the middle of that candle’s body.
- Dark Cloud Cover — A weapon that marks, in an uptrend, a falling candle that opens above a long rising candle and closes below the middle of that candle’s body.
- Bullish Harami — A weapon that marks, in a downtrend, a small rising candle that fits entirely inside the body of the long falling candle before it.
- Bearish Harami — A weapon that marks, in an uptrend, a small falling candle that fits entirely inside the body of the long rising candle before it.
- 1. Reading a single candle
- 2. Trends and sideways moves