Bullish Engulfing

Appearance: A white (green) body of a candle engulfs the whole black (red) body of the previous candle.

Criteria: The market has to be in a definable downtrend even if the trend is short term. The body of the second candle must engulf the whole of the previous black (red) body but need not engulf the shadow. If the previous candle is a doji or of very small body then it need not be black (red).The bulls appear to be taking over from the bears and an up-trend may be expected.

Note: In candlestick descriptions, "white (green)" refers to an up-bar, and "black (red)" refers to a down-bar. Individual traders prefer different bar colors. For example, we personally trade with candles set to green for up and red for down. (TradeStation defaults their Candlesticks to this color convention.) Most related textbooks use white (or green, if color is used) for up and black (or red) for down.