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Three Black Crows

Patterns candlestick reversal bearish

A three-candle bearish reversal pattern consisting of three consecutive long red (bearish) bodies. Each candle opens inside the prior body and closes near its own low, producing a steady downward staircase that often marks the end of an uptrend.

Visual Example

Three Black Crows: three successive long red candles, each opening within the previous body and closing near its low. Annotations mark the progressive lower closes.

Synthetic ideal satisfying TA-Lib CDL3BLACKCROWS stepping logic. Generated 2026-05-31 IST via docs/gen_candle_previews.py.

Description

The pattern embodies sustained selling pressure over three periods with no meaningful relief. It is one of the more reliable multi-candle reversal formations when it appears after a clear advance and at a resistance or structure level.

Quant developers treat it as a high-conviction binary event feature for short entries or for regime-shift labels in supervised ML. Confirmation on the fourth bar (further weakness) or confluence with a Market Structure BOS flip dramatically improves edge.

Formula / Specification

Recognition Rules (exact implementation in QuantWave / TA-Lib CDL3BLACKCROWS):

  1. Three consecutive bars, each with close < open (red body).
  2. Each bar's open lies inside the body of the prior bar.
  3. Each bar closes near its own low (strong bearish conviction).
  4. The pattern completes on the third bar.
  5. Three-bar window maintained by the streaming wrapper.

Parameters

Parameter Default Description
(none) — Pattern recognition only; no tunable parameters.

Usage Examples

Streaming (Rust)

use quantwave_core::indicators::CDL3BLACKCROWS;
use quantwave_core::traits::Next;

let mut crows = CDL3BLACKCROWS::new();
for (o, h, l, c) in &ohlcv {
    let sig = crows.next((o, h, l, c));
    if sig < 0.0 { /* strong bearish reversal event */ }
}

Streaming (Python) and Polars use the corresponding CDL3BLACKCROWS / .ta.cdl_3blackcrows(...) surface. Full bit-identical parity.

Edge Cases & Limitations

  • Requires three complete bars.
  • Can be overridden by news or very strong trend; always seek structure/volume confirmation.
  • In low-liquidity names the "long body + inside open" geometry can appear without real conviction.
  • Best after an established uptrend or at a higher-timeframe resistance.

Boundary Behavior

Condition Behavior
Warm-up Pattern functions emit 0 (no pattern) until enough bars exist.
period > len Short series returns all zeros (no pattern detected).
NaN inputs Bars with NaN OHLC are treated as no pattern (0).
Invalid params N/A for most candlestick patterns.
Empty data Empty input returns an empty integer series.

Sources & References

Primary Source: TA-Lib CDL3BLACKCROWS via quantwave-core/src/indicators/pattern.rs.

Visual: docs/gen_candle_previews.py, 2026-05-31 IST.

Context: Nison (1991) for staircase selling psychology only. MQL5 PA for confluence.

Provenance: Next + Polars parity.