Concept
Engulfing Bar
Engulfing Bar is a Chart & Candlestick Patterns concept. The Library holds 3 implementations, each one a working definition you can pull into Quant.
Top Engulfing Bar indicators
3 total
What is an Engulfing Bar?
An engulfing bar is a two-bar pattern in which the second bar's range completely swallows the first: its high exceeds the prior high, its low undercuts the prior low, and it closes beyond the prior bar's extreme in the new direction. A bullish engulfing bar trades below the previous bar's low yet closes above its high; the bearish version mirrors it. Definitions vary by tradition: bar-chart readers compare full high-to-low ranges, while the candlestick catalog's bullish/bearish engulfing compares real bodies and requires opposite-colored candles.
The pattern matters because of what the round trip implies. Price broke one side of the prior bar, found no acceptance, then traversed the entire bar to close beyond the other side, trapping anyone positioned off the first bar. Structurally it is a directional outside bar: the engulfment supplies the trap, and the close location supplies the bias.
How traders use it
- As a reversal trigger at a location: an engulfing bar printed at a tested support level, a supply or demand zone, or after a sweep of a prior swing gives the pattern context; entries commonly trigger on the engulfing bar's close or a break of its extreme, with the stop beyond the opposite end.
- As continuation confirmation: a bullish engulfing bar that ends a pullback inside an uptrend suggests the dip has been absorbed, aligning the entry with the prevailing trend rather than against it.
- Filtered for quality: many systems require the engulfing bar to exceed recent average range, to close in the top or bottom third of its span, or to engulf more than one prior bar, because small engulfing bars inside chop fire constantly and mean little.
Engulfing Bar vs. similar bar patterns
Outside Bar: Every engulfing bar is an outside bar, but the engulfing label adds a directional requirement: the close must finish beyond the prior bar's extreme, not merely sit somewhere inside a bigger range.
Bullish/bearish Engulfing: The candlestick version compares open-to-close real bodies and requires opposite colors; the bar version compares full high-to-low ranges, so the two conventions do not always tag the same bars.
Two-bar Reversal: A two-bar reversal pairs two strong bars of similar size closing in opposite directions; the second bar does not need to engulf the first, only to close firmly the other way.
Related concepts · Single/multi-bar (western)
Concept family
Chart & Candlestick Patterns
84 concepts mapped · 46 in the Library
Engulfing Bar FAQ
Is an engulfing bar the same as an outside bar?
Nearly. In bar-chart usage both require the second bar's high and low to exceed the prior bar's, so every engulfing bar qualifies as an outside bar, with the engulfing label reserved for the directional case where the bar also closes beyond the prior extreme. The candlestick convention compares real bodies instead of full ranges, so a candlestick engulfing pattern does not have to be an outside bar at all.
Are engulfing bars reliable on their own?
No pattern is reliable in isolation. An engulfing bar reports a two-bar shift in control, and that happens constantly inside ranges where it carries little information. The useful readings tend to come at meaningful locations such as tested levels or swing extremes, and even there follow-through is a scenario to manage, not a certainty.
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