Bearish reversal2 sessions

A gap higher that gets sold back through the middle of the prior session. The piercing line's mirror.

The shape: An up session, then an open above its close and a close back below its midpoint

The second session opens above the first session's close — a gap in the buyers' favour — and then declines all day, closing below the midpoint of the first body but above its open.

As with the piercing line, the gap is what makes the reversal legible: the day started where buyers wanted it and ended where sellers did.

How deep the close cut into the prior body is the reading. Just past the midpoint is marginal; near the prior open is nearly a bearish engulfing.

The gap's high is the level afterwards — reclaiming it says the selling was a single session.

On the chart: a triangle below the bar for a bullish reading, above it for a bearish one, a diamond for indecision. Hover any mark to see the pattern and what qualified it — the level it formed at and the move it followed.

Gap-up-then-fade sessions are common around earnings and guidance. The Earnings overlay on the chart is the fastest way to tell whether the pattern is describing a change of view or simply a scheduled event.

Like everything in this guide, these are descriptions of conditions and reference levels — context for your own decisions, not instructions to trade.