What is the bullish engulfing pattern?
The bullish engulfing is a bullish candlestick pattern. A green body completely engulfs the previous red body after a decline. Buyers overwhelmed the sellers in one session.
How to spot a bullish engulfing
- 1Start with a downtrend ending in a red candle.
- 2The next candle is green and opens at or below the red close.
- 3Its body closes above the red candle's open, covering the whole red body.
How does the bullish engulfing form?
Price has been falling. A red bar closes, then the next bar opens at or below that close and rallies far enough to close above the previous bar's open. Its body swallows the one before it.
How do you confirm a bullish engulfing?
The engulfing must happen on the bodies, not the wicks. A bar with a long lower shadow but a small body has not engulfed anything; it has only been volatile.
When does the bullish engulfing fail?
It fails most often when it appears mid-range rather than after a real decline. With no sellers to overwhelm, there is nothing for the bar to reverse.
No chart pattern works every time. The examples on this page were chosen because they show the pattern clearly, and in real markets patterns fail often.
Practice on real charts
3 real examples of the bullish engulfing, cut off where the pattern completed. Make your call, then see what happened.
The shaded area is a bullish engulfing. Where did price go next?
Bullish Engulfing: common questions
Is the bullish engulfing bullish or bearish?
The bullish engulfing is bullish. The bigger the engulfing body, the clearer the shift in control.
How do you spot a bullish engulfing?
Start with a downtrend ending in a red candle. The next candle is green and opens at or below the red close. Its body closes above the red candle's open, covering the whole red body.
What is the difference between the bullish engulfing and the bearish engulfing?
The bullish engulfing: A green body completely engulfs the previous red body after a decline. Buyers overwhelmed the sellers in one session. The bearish engulfing: A red body completely engulfs the previous green body after a rally. Sellers seized control in one decisive session.
How reliable is the bullish engulfing?
No chart pattern works every time. It fails most often when it appears mid-range rather than after a real decline. With no sellers to overwhelm, there is nothing for the bar to reverse. That is why it helps to wait for confirmation and to practice on many real examples before relying on it.
How can I practice spotting the bullish engulfing?
Use the real charts on this page: each one stops where the bullish engulfing completed, so you can make a call and then see what happened. The free Chartle app mixes the bullish engulfing in with 48 other patterns in short daily sessions.
Keep learning
- Chart pattern gameGuess where price goes next on real charts, all 49 patterns mixed.
- All 49 chart patternsEvery bullish and bearish pattern, with a printable cheat sheet.
- How to read candlestick chartsBodies, wicks and colors explained from the start.
- Cheat sheet PDFAll patterns on two printable pages.
