The Ultimate Guide to Bearish Harami Cross Candlestick Patterns

Last updated: January 4, 2024

Bearish Harami Cross Pattern

In this pattern, a doji candle body falls within the extended body of the preceding candle, indicating that the strongly bullish market movements seens the previous day are running out of steam:

The bearish harami cross pattern is identical to the bearish harami, except the second candle is a doji.

Chart

General Identification & Interpretation

Steve Nison is credited with bringing Japanese candlestick charting to the West. In his book "Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques" he describes bearish harami cross patterns with the following characteristics:

Typical characteristics

• First candlestick is an unusually long green candle
• Second candlestick is a doji (or a small real body approaching a doji)
• The candles don't necessarily have to be opposing colors

Examples of use as a trading indicator

• Potential bearish reversal signal after an uptrend
• The smaller the real body of the second candle, the stronger the potential reversal signal from this pattern

Other interpretations

• If the second candle is not a doji (or subjectively close to it) but has a small real body within the body of the first candle, this pattern is classified as simply a harami.

More for beginners

Check out our quick start guide to candlestick charting for more information if you are new to candlestick charting!