# Three Black Crows Three Black Crows is an indicator on [Vela](https://vela.luxalgo.com/chart), our next-generation charting platform, written in Pine Script®. Detects the three-crows bearish reversal with its qualifications enforced: three long dark candles closing near their lows at progressively lower levels, each opening inside the prior body, after a confirmed advance. It flags the identical-crows variant, structure breaks and exhaustion, and draws bounce levels at the pattern midpoint and first crow open, with five alerts. - Indicator in the LuxAlgo Library, by LuxAlgo, published Jun 8, 2026. - Access: free. - Concepts: [Three Black Crows](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/three-black-crows/) (primary) - Open on Vela: https://vela.luxalgo.com/chart?pineScriptCodeId=ao11e0196z4jbnnkt2zh5czt - Page: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/three-black-crows/ **Three Black Crows** enforces every qualification the tradition attaches to its three-candle decline, the first faithful detector of [three black crows](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/concept/three-black-crows/) here. Each crow must print a long dark body against the pre-pattern average, close near its own low, and open inside the prior crow's body, with closes stepping lower after a confirmed advance. Patterns are boxed and labeled. ## How to Trade the Three Black Crows? - **Pattern label**: an advance met by three qualified crows, one of the stricter entries in the [candlestick reversal catalog](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/family/patterns/). - **Identical Three Crows**: each crow opened at or near the prior close, the rarer, traditionally more bearish variant, labeled separately. - **Structure break**: a third crow closing below the last confirmed swing low is annotated and alerted. - **Bounce levels**: dashed lines at the pattern midpoint and first crow's open mark where many traders wait to sell a bounce instead of shorting the stretched third close; each dims once touched. ## Three Black Crows Settings - **Body Average Length** (default 14) and **Long Body Multiplier** (default 1.0): the yardstick for long bodies. - **Lower Shadow Tolerance %** (default 30): largest lower shadow allowed relative to the body. - **Similar Bodies** (default on) with **Min %** (default 50); **Suppress Overlapping Signals** (default on). - **Exhaustion Multiplier** (default 1.5): a third body at this multiple of the first two's average is annotated as possible short-term exhaustion. - **Require Preceding Advance** (default on) with **Context Test** (default Either) and **Context Length** (default 14). - **Flag Identical Three Crows** (default on) with **Open Tolerance %** (default 10); **Prior Swing Low Break** (default on) with **Swing Length** (default 5). - **Show Bounce Levels** (default on) with **Watch Window** (default 20), plus label, box and context-average toggles. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How does the pattern relate to Three White Soldiers? They are mirrors: the [soldiers pattern](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/three-white-soldiers/) marks renewed demand after a decline, the crows mark reloaded supply after an advance, with the equivalent grading applied on the bearish side. ### Why did an obvious run of red candles produce nothing? Usually context or quality: a run of dark candles inside a downtrend is simply the trend continuing, modest bodies, long lower tails or dissimilar sizes fail the candle tests, and overlapping triples are skipped while dedup is on. ### What are the bounce levels for? By the third close the near-term move is often partly spent, so the two lines give the standard retracement references; alerts fire when price trades back into either inside the Watch Window. ## Related indicators - [On-neck / In-neck / Thrusting](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/on-neck-in-neck-thrusting/) (Chart & Candlestick Patterns): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/on-neck-in-neck-thrusting.md - [Rising/falling Three Methods](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/rising-falling-three-methods/) (Chart & Candlestick Patterns): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/rising-falling-three-methods.md - [Swing Highs/Lows & Candle Patterns](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/swing-highs-lows-candle-patterns/) (Hammer): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/swing-highs-lows-candle-patterns.md - [Reversal Candlestick Structure](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/reversal-candlestick-structure/) (Hammer): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/reversal-candlestick-structure.md - [Candlestick Structure](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/candlestick-structure/) (Doji): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/candlestick-structure.md - [Evening Star](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/evening-star/) (Chart & Candlestick Patterns): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/evening-star.md - [Hanging Man](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/hanging-man/) (Chart & Candlestick Patterns): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/hanging-man.md - [Candlestick Channels](https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/candlestick-channels/) (Hammer): markdown at https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/candlestick-channels.md --- Source: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/indicator/three-black-crows/ (LuxAlgo Library). Free to use with attribution: https://www.luxalgo.com/library/license/