Pattern Detail

Bullish One White Soldier

Two-candle bottom: a down candle, then a strong up candle that gaps higher and engulfs the prior body.

A real Bullish One White Soldier on NQ daily bars, Oct 28, 2008. Price then followed through 6.2% over the next 5 bars. The bright candles are the pattern; the dimmed bars are surrounding context.
A real Bullish One White Soldier on NQ daily bars, Oct 28, 2008. Price then followed through 6.2% over the next 5 bars. The bright candles are the pattern; the dimmed bars are surrounding context.

Shown only on the markets where this pattern occurs.

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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 2 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)

29.4%

Backwards

Offered at least 1× its risk before the stop, vs 41.8% for a random long entry (-12.4 pts).

Move size vs normal

1.58×

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

Typical room (20-bar)

0.78R

Average run in favor (capped at 3R), vs 1.09R for a random long entry.

Summary

Offered at least 1R of room only 29.4% of the time vs 41.8% 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 29.4% 41.8% -12.4
Offered ≥ 2R 8.9% 28.0% -19.2
Offered ≥ 3R 3.7% 19.9% -16.1
Stopped < 1R 38.3% 56.4% -18.1
Went sideways 32.2% 1.8% +30.5

214 occurrences · 355,242 random-entry controls · 20-bar horizon

A bullish one white soldier is a two-candle bottom led by a single strong advance. A down candle comes first, in line with the fall. The next candle gaps higher and is a tall up candle that opens above the first candle’s close and pushes past its open. One decisive up day, gapping up and overtaking the prior bar, shows buyers stepping in hard at the lows.

How to spot it

  • The market is falling into the pattern.
  • The first candle is a down (red) candle that fits the decline.
  • The second candle gaps up, opening above the first candle’s close.
  • It is a strong up (green) candle that closes above the first candle’s open.
  • The body engulfs the first candle’s body, taking back the prior loss.
  • The longer the up candle, the stronger the signal.

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

The psychology

The first candle falls in line with the decline, so sellers look comfortable as it closes. Then the market gaps higher and opens above that close, which already breaks the rhythm of the fall. From there a single tall up candle runs the whole session, climbing past the open of the prior bar and taking back the loss in one move.

Traders read this as buyers arriving in force at the lows. There is no hesitation in it, no slow grind: the gap up signals demand showing before the session even starts, and the long body shows that demand holding all day. One decisive bar overtaking the prior one tells the people who were short that the easy money is gone, and some of them cover, which only adds to the climb. The longer that up candle, the more committed the buyers look and the more the mood appears to flip.

One strong session can be a flash or the start of something, and the figures below sort out which.

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 two 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 One White Soldier Firings (20)

Based on data through Apr 29, 2026

Time Risk (pts) Room offered Result
Mar 13, 2026, 10:05 AM CDT 62.75 0.73R Stopped
Mar 13, 2026, 8:30 AM CDT 329.25 0.44R Flat
Dec 26, 2025, 8:30 AM CST 46.75 0.77R Stopped
Nov 21, 2025, 8:30 AM CST 119.5 0.34R Stopped
Oct 29, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 120.25 0.40R Flat
Oct 27, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 325.75 0.22R Flat
Oct 20, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 206.75 0.66R Flat
Oct 8, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 96.5 1.11R Ran ≥1R
Oct 7, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 58.25 0.45R Stopped
Jun 20, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 398 0.10R Flat
May 26, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 340.75 0.02R Flat
May 14, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 138 0.07R Flat
May 9, 2025, 8:30 AM CDT 119.25 0.16R Stopped
Mar 5, 2025, 9:00 AM CST 175 0.30R Stopped
Aug 7, 2024, 8:30 AM CDT 328.75 0.20R Flat
Aug 1, 2024, 8:30 AM CDT 82 1.50R Ran ≥1R
Jul 15, 2024, 8:30 AM CDT 115.5 1.28R Ran ≥1R
Apr 29, 2024, 8:30 AM CDT 99.75 0.05R Stopped
Mar 8, 2024, 8:30 AM CST 49.5 0.00R Stopped
Feb 1, 2024, 8:30 AM CST 96 0.40R Flat

Sample backtests (2)

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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