Three White Soldiers / Three Black Crows

Three-bar continuation pattern. Three consecutive long-bodied bars in the same direction, each opening inside the previous body and closing beyond it. Three White Soldiers = three rising green bars; Three Black Crows = three falling red bars.

Quick reference

Item	Value
Family	Candlestick Patterns
Input type	Candle
Output type	f64 — +1.0 Soldiers, -1.0 Crows, 0.0 otherwise
Output range	{-1.0, 0.0, +1.0}
Default parameters	none — ThreeSoldiersOrCrows::new()
Warmup period	3
Interpretation	Strong continuation signal in the direction of the pattern

Formula

Three White Soldiers (+1.0):

all three candles green
AND closes monotonically rising
AND each open in [prev.open, prev.close]
AND each close > prev.close

Three Black Crows (-1.0): mirror — three red, monotonically falling closes. See crates/wickra-core/src/indicators/three_soldiers_or_crows.rs.

Parameters

None.

Signed ±1 encoding

This pattern already emits the uniform candlestick sign convention shared across the family — +1.0 bullish, −1.0 bearish, 0.0 no pattern — so it drops straight into a machine-learning feature matrix where the bullish and bearish variants of the pattern occupy a single dimension.

Inputs / Outputs

Indicator<Input = Candle, Output = f64>. Python / Node: same as other multi-bar patterns.

Warmup

warmup_period() == 3.

Edge cases

• Monotonicity. Strict — each close must exceed the prior close (no equal-close bars allowed).
• Each open inside prior body. Distinguishes Soldiers from three separate breakaway-gap candles.
• Reset. Clears the three-bar history.

Examples

Rust

use wickra::{Candle, Indicator, ThreeSoldiersOrCrows};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let b1 = Candle::new(100.0, 102.0, 99.5, 101.5, 1.0, 0)?;
    let b2 = Candle::new(101.0, 103.0, 100.5, 102.8, 1.0, 1)?;
    let b3 = Candle::new(102.0, 104.0, 101.8, 103.8, 1.0, 2)?;
    let mut tsc = ThreeSoldiersOrCrows::new();
    tsc.update(b1); tsc.update(b2);
    println!("{:?}", tsc.update(b3));  // +1.0
    Ok(())
}

Python

import numpy as np
import wickra as ta

o = np.array([100, 101, 102])
h = np.array([102, 103, 104])
l = np.array([99.5, 100.5, 101.8])
c = np.array([101.5, 102.8, 103.8])

tsc = ta.ThreeSoldiersOrCrows()
print(tsc.batch(o, h, l, c))

Node

const wickra = require('wickra');
const tsc = new wickra.ThreeSoldiersOrCrows();
console.log(tsc.batch([100, 101, 102], [102, 103, 104], [99.5, 100.5, 101.8], [101.5, 102.8, 103.8]));

Streaming

use wickra::{Candle, Indicator, ThreeSoldiersOrCrows};

let mut tsc = ThreeSoldiersOrCrows::new();
let candle_stream: Vec<wickra::Candle> = Vec::new(); // your live OHLCV candle feed
for bar in candle_stream {
    if tsc.update(bar) == Some(1.0) { /* Three White Soldiers */ }
    if tsc.update(bar) == Some(-1.0) { /* Three Black Crows */ }
}

Interpretation

• Continuation, not reversal. Unlike most candlestick patterns, Soldiers / Crows confirm an existing trend rather than predict reversal. Use as trend-confirmation filter.
• Best at breakouts. Three White Soldiers off a base consolidation is a high-conviction continuation signal.
• Strong tail risk. A late-stage Three White Soldiers (after extended uptrend) can mark short-term exhaustion — the classic "too far too fast" warning.

Common pitfalls

• Treating as reversal. Soldiers / Crows are continuation patterns. Trading them as reversals inverts the edge.
• Strict monotonicity. Tiny pullbacks during the three bars invalidate. If a candle closes equal to or below the prior close, the pattern doesn't fire.
• Without context. Inside a tight range, three consecutive small-body green bars don't qualify as Soldiers — bodies need to be long.

References

• Steve Nison, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques (1991).

See also

• Engulfing — two-bar reversal sibling.
• MorningEveningStar — three-bar reversal sibling.
• Marubozu — single-bar strong-continuation pattern.
• Indicators-Overview — full taxonomy.