Three White Soldiers Candlestick Pattern

Three sessions, three higher closes, and buyers never let go into the bell

Three white soldiers is a bullish three-candle pattern of consecutive long green candles, each opening inside the previous candle's body and closing at or near its high, that appears after a decline or a base and shows buyers in control session after session.

Chart data

#	Open	High	Low	Close
1	118	118.8	115.6	116.1
2	116.1	116.6	113.2	113.8
3	113.8	114.9	111.4	111.9
4	111.9	112.4	108.8	109.3
5	109.3	110.1	106.9	107.4
6	107.4	107.9	104.6	105
7	105	105.6	102.8	103.3
8	103.3	103.8	100.9	101.4
9	101.4	102	100.2	100.8
10	100.9	105.4	100.5	105.1
11	103.2	108.6	102.9	108.3
12	106.6	111.8	106.3	111.5
13	111.5	112	109.6	110.2
14	110.2	113.4	109.9	113
15	113	115.2	112.4	114.8
16	114.8	116	113.9	115.4
17	115.4	117.8	115	117.3
18	117.3	119.2	116.6	118.6

At a glance

What timeframe does it work on?

The pattern was defined on daily sessions, where each soldier means a full day of buyers holding into the close. On 1- and 5-minute charts three strong green bars are routine in any bounce and carry far less weight. In 24-hour markets such as crypto and most forex, each candle opens at or next to the prior close, so the open rule cannot tell anything apart and the real tests become body size and closes near the highs.

Anatomy of the pattern

• Downtrend — The soldiers need something to reverse. In the chart, nine red candles make lower highs and lower lows inside the shaded zone. Mid-range or late in a rally, the same candles mean something else.
• Soldier 1 — The first long green body, opening near the last red candle's close and finishing near its high. Its low becomes the deepest reference for the whole pattern, which is why the chart draws a line there.
• Soldier 2 — It opens inside soldier 1's body rather than above it, dips little, and closes at a new high. That inside-the-body open matters: buyers are being offered a slightly lower price and absorbing it immediately, rather than gapping away on excitement.
• Soldier 3 (Signal) — The pattern completes when the third green candle closes near its high, again having opened inside the prior body. Its body should be long and similar in size to the first two. A visibly smaller third body or a long upper wick is the first sign the advance is tiring.
• Soldier 1 low — The dashed line under the first soldier. A close below it means the entire three-session advance has been erased, and the pattern no longer stands for anything.

How to identify it

1. Three green candles in a row, each with a long real body relative to the recent red candles.
2. Soldiers 2 and 3 each open inside (or, per Nison, very near) the prior soldier's real body, not above its close.
3. Each close is higher than the previous close and sits at or near the candle's high, leaving only small upper wicks.
4. The bodies are similar in size or growing; a third body clearly smaller than the second weakens the read.
5. The three candles arrive after a decline or out of a flat base, not after an already extended run higher.
6. The first soldier starts near the recent low, so the pattern is visibly turning the trend rather than extending a bounce already underway.

How to trade it

Entry. Avoid buying at soldier 3's close. Three long bodies leave price stretched, and a pause or small red candle often follows, as it does in the chart. Wait for that pullback and buy as it holds above soldier 2's body. If the pullback is shallow and price keeps going, buy a break above soldier 3's high.

Stop. Below the low of soldier 2, or below the pullback low when that is higher. Soldier 2's low is where the advance proved it could absorb a lower open; losing it means sellers have erased all of the second and third sessions' gains. The pattern spans three long candles, so a stop under soldier 1 is often too wide for a sensible position.

Target. The pattern projects no distance. Use the nearest resistance above, and in a fresh reversal the previous swing high where the decline last paused. After a sharp decline, the zone where selling accelerated is the first likely resistance, so check what sits overhead before entering.

What invalidates it

• A bearish engulfing candle swallows soldier 3's body. Buyers who drove three straight closes higher have been fully overpowered in a single session.
• Price closes below soldier 1's low. The whole advance has been given back, so there is no longer a reversal to trade.
• The second or third soldier has a long upper wick or a much smaller body. That is the stalling shape traders call an advance block or deliberation, and it signals weakening buying rather than strength.
• The three candles came after a long rally. Late in an uptrend, three oversized green candles are more often a blow-off of buying than a fresh start.
• A soldier opened above the prior candle's close instead of inside its body. That breaks the defining open-inside-the-body rule, so the three candles are no longer the textbook pattern.

Often confused with

Three White Soldiers vs Three Black Crows: what's the difference?

The exact mirror: three long red candles after an advance, each opening inside the prior body and closing near its low. Check the colour and the trend they follow; the open-inside-the-body structure is identical.

Three White Soldiers vs Three Inside Up: what's the difference?

Three inside up starts with a long red candle and a small green candle contained inside it. In three white soldiers all three candles are long and green, and no candle sits wholly inside another.

Three White Soldiers vs Three Outside Up: what's the difference?

Three outside up starts with a red candle that the second, green candle fully engulfs, so that second candle opens below the red body's close and closes above its open; a third green candle then closes higher. Soldiers never engulf; each opens inside the previous green body and simply closes higher.

How reliable is the three white soldiers pattern?

Three white soldiers appears in the standard candlestick references, and its main strength is that confirmation is built in: three consecutive strong closes say more than any single bullish candle can. The weakness is the same feature seen from the other side. By the time the third soldier closes, price has already travelled a long way from the low, so the stop is distant and a pullback is common before any continuation. Results also depend heavily on definitions that vary between traders and studies: how long a body must be, how small an upper wick may be, whether gaps between soldiers are allowed, and what counts as a prior downtrend. That puts it in the moderate tier. It is useful after a real decline and much poorer after an extended rally.

References

• Steve Nison. Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques . Prentice Hall Press , 2001 . ISBN 978-0735201811.
• Thomas N. Bulkowski. Encyclopedia of Candlestick Charts . Wiley , 2008 . ISBN 978-0470182017.
• John J. Murphy. Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets . New York Institute of Finance , 1999 . ISBN 978-0735200661.

Frequently asked questions