Pattern Detail

Bullish Descent Block

Three falling down candles, each opening inside the last and closing lower, read as selling that is running out of force.

A real Bullish Descent Block on NQ daily bars, May 20, 2010. Price then followed through 4.1% over the next 5 bars. The bright candles are the pattern; the dimmed bars are surrounding context.
A real Bullish Descent Block on NQ daily bars, May 20, 2010. Price then followed through 4.1% over the next 5 bars. The bright candles are the pattern; the dimmed bars are surrounding context.
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How to read this

Everything here is in R, the setup's own risk. 1R is the distance from the entry (the pattern's closing price) to where it would be proven wrong — its lowest low over the 3 bars that form it. So "offered 2R" means price ran twice that distance in your favor at some point before the stop. It does not assume you took profit there: a target is a strategy choice.

Room offered (≥ 1R)

38.6%

Backwards

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 42.8% for a random long entry (-4.2 pts).

Move size vs normal

1.35×

Realized range over the next 20 bars vs a random bar. Precedes a bigger move.

Typical room (20-bar)

1.02R

Average run in favor (capped at 3R), vs 1.10R for a random long entry.

Summary

Offered at least 1R of room only 38.6% of the time vs 42.8% for a random long entry — it offers LESS room than chance here. On this market and timeframe the structure works against you.

Room offered, this setup vs a random long entry

Outcome This setup Random entry Edge
Offered ≥ 1R 38.6% 42.8% -4.2
Offered ≥ 2R 30.2% 27.3% +2.9
Offered ≥ 3R 24.2% 18.5% +5.8
Stopped < 1R 61.4% 53.6% +7.7
Went sideways 0.0% 3.6% -3.6

2,013 occurrences · 1,165,570 random-entry controls · 20-bar horizon

A descent block is a three-candle shape that forms while price is still sliding. Three down candles print in a row, each opening inside the body of the one before and closing a little lower. On its face it looks bearish, just more selling. The folklore read is the opposite: each step down is smaller and more labored, a sign the sellers are tiring and a bounce may be close. The block of falling candles is where the downtrend starts to lose its grip.

How to spot it

  • The market is falling into the pattern.
  • All three candles are down (red) candles.
  • Each candle opens inside the body of the candle before it.
  • Each candle closes lower than the one before, so the lows keep stepping down.
  • The shape is an orderly, grinding descent rather than one sharp drop.

The dashed box on the chart above marks the three candles on a real occurrence, with the decline before and the move after.

The psychology

At a glance this is pure selling: three red candles in a row, each closing lower than the last. Sellers are still in charge, and the trend is still pointing down. The detail that changes the reading is the rhythm. Each bar opens inside the body of the one before it instead of gapping lower, and each step down covers a little less ground.

That shrinking stride is the heart of the story. When sellers are powerful they tend to open weak and drive price hard from the start. Here they keep opening inside the prior body, as if the next push has to be coaxed out, and the lower closes come in smaller increments. The market is still going down, but the force behind it is leaking away with every bar. Buyers have not taken anything yet, they are just letting the selling exhaust itself.

The slowing descent is the clue. Whether that loss of momentum tends to set up a bounce is what the data below works out.

Does it actually work?

A pattern is a setup, not a trade, so the honest question is not “did it win” but “how much room did it tend to offer before it was proven wrong.” The tabs below answer that across five futures markets (Nasdaq, S&P 500, gold, crude oil, natural gas) and seven timeframes from one minute to one day.

For each occurrence we measure the room the move offered in units of the pattern’s own risk, then set it against what a random entry on the same market would have done. When the pattern offers more room more often than chance, that shows up as a real edge. When it does not, the page says so plainly.

Read it with the sample size in view. On the faster timeframes a pattern can fire thousands of times, enough to trust. On the daily chart it is far rarer, so treat those numbers as a hint rather than a verdict. Thin samples are flagged for you on the page.

How we measured it

  • Entry is the close of the final candle of the pattern.
  • One unit of risk, 1R, is the distance from that close down to the pattern’s invalidation point: the lowest low of the three candles that form it. If price trades through there, the setup is wrong.
  • We then follow the next 20 bars and record how far price ran in your favor, in multiples of that risk, before the stop was hit.
  • Every figure is set against a random entry on the same market and timeframe, so the market’s own drift is accounted for.
  • No profit target and no position sizing. Where you take profit is a strategy choice; this measures only the room the pattern tends to give.

What this page does not cover

  • Volume on the pattern’s candles.
  • Whether the pattern forms at a meaningful support level.
  • Pairing it with a trend filter or a confirming signal.
  • A profit target or position sizing. We use the pattern’s own invalidation point as the stop to define risk, but where you take profit, and how much you put on, are strategy decisions this page leaves to you.

Sample Bullish Descent Block Firings (20)

Based on data through Apr 29, 2026

Time Risk (pts) Room offered Result
Apr 29, 2026, 2:50 AM CDT 15 2.43R Ran ≥1R
Apr 28, 2026, 12:10 AM CDT 13.75 0.76R Stopped
Apr 27, 2026, 1:40 PM CDT 5.25 0.00R Stopped
Apr 24, 2026, 7:50 AM CDT 12.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 24, 2026, 7:45 AM CDT 11.5 0.00R Stopped
Apr 22, 2026, 8:30 PM CDT 5.25 0.00R Stopped
Apr 21, 2026, 12:16 PM CDT 14.25 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 20, 2026, 8:55 PM CDT 5.5 1.86R Ran ≥1R
Apr 15, 2026, 5:30 AM CDT 7.5 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 8, 2026, 12:20 PM CDT 6 0.00R Stopped
Apr 8, 2026, 9:55 AM CDT 66.5 1.89R Ran ≥1R
Apr 6, 2026, 8:50 PM CDT 12.25 0.00R Stopped
Apr 6, 2026, 1:00 PM CDT 2.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 6, 2026, 12:55 PM CDT 2 0.00R Stopped
Apr 5, 2026, 10:15 PM CDT 32 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 2, 2026, 11:41 PM CDT 4.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 2, 2026, 11:36 PM CDT 0.75 0.00R Stopped
Apr 2, 2026, 10:36 PM CDT 2.75 3.00R Ran ≥1R
Apr 2, 2026, 5:25 AM CDT 5.5 0.00R Stopped
Apr 2, 2026, 5:20 AM CDT 7 1.21R Ran ≥1R

Sample backtest

Real backtested runs of this pattern, with commissions and slippage. Open one for the full equity curve and metrics, or backtest it yourself on your own contract and dates.

Backtest this pattern

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