As of 12/20/2024   Indus: 42,840 +498.02 +1.2%     Trans: 15,892 +32.54 +0.2%     Utils: 986 +14.76 +1.5%     Nasdaq: 19,573 +199.83 +1.0%     S&P 500: 5,931 +63.77 +1.1%	YTD  +13.7%   0.0%    +11.9%    +30.4%    +24.3%	Targets    Overview: 12/12/2024     44,200 or 41,750 by 01/01/2025   16,100 or 17,700 by 01/01/2025   1,050 or 975 by 01/01/2025   20,500 or 19,300 by 01/01/2025   6,100 or 5,775 by 01/01/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 12/5/24

As of 12/20/2024   Indus: 42,840 +498.02 +1.2%     Trans: 15,892 +32.54 +0.2%     Utils: 986 +14.76 +1.5%     Nasdaq: 19,573 +199.83 +1.0%     S&P 500: 5,931 +63.77 +1.1%	YTD  +13.7%   0.0%    +11.9%    +30.4%    +24.3%
Targets    Overview: 12/12/2024     44,200 or 41,750 by 01/01/2025   16,100 or 17,700 by 01/01/2025   1,050 or 975 by 01/01/2025   20,500 or 19,300 by 01/01/2025   6,100 or 5,775 by 01/01/2025
Chart Pattern Indicator: on 12/5/24

Bulkowski on the Thrusting Candle Pattern

Thrusting Candlestick: Summary

The thrusting candle name is an unusual one, but one that makes sense. The thrusting candle begins with a downward price trend and a black candle appears. The next day a white candle opens below the prior low, but closes near the mid point of the prior body. The thrusting part is the white candle gapping open lower but soaring into the body of the black candle. It is not a complete piercing because the candle stops below the mid point of the black body.

The thrusting candle is supposed to act as a continuation of the downward price trend, but testing shows that it acts as a bullish reversal more often. Still, I consider the performance as near random since it is difficult to predict the breakout direction with any accuracy. The thrusting candle appears mid list in the frequency rankings (56th), so you should be able to find them in your neighborhood grocery store. The overall trend performance rank is quite good. In fact, the thrusting candle pattern works best in a bear market, but suffers in a bull market.

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My book, Encyclopedia of Candlestick Charts, pictured on the left, takes an in-depth look at candlesticks, including performance statistics.

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Thrusting Candlestick: Important Results

Theoretical performance: Bearish continuation Tested performance: Bullish reversal 57% of the time Frequency rank: 56 Overall performance rank: 15 Best percentage meeting price target: 65% (bull market, up breakout) Best average move in 10 days: -5.92% (bear market, down breakout) Best 10-day performance rank: 20 (bear market, down breakout) All ranks are out of 103 candlestick patterns with the top performer ranking 1. "Best" means the highest rated of the four combinations of bull/bear market, up/down breakouts. The above numbers are based on hundreds of perfect trades. See the glossary for definitions.

Thrusting

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Thrusting Candlestick: Discussion

The thrusting candle is supposed to act as a bearish continuation candle, but actually performs as a bullish reversal 57% of the time. That is what I call "near random." The overall performance rank is 15th out of 103 candles, which is very high up the list.

The best average move 10 days after the breakout is a drop of 5.92% in a bear market. That ranks 20th. I consider moves of 6% or more to be good, so this is close enough for government work, as they say.

Thrusting Candlestick: Identification Guidelines

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Thrusting Candlestick: Three Trading Tidbits

If you want a few bones from my Encyclopedia of candlestick charts book, here are three to chew on. The pages refer to the book where the tips appear.

1. Thrusting candles that appear within a third of the yearly low perform best -- page 806.
2. Select tall candles for the best performance -- page 807.
3. Avoid trading the thrusting candle as part of a reversal of the primary downtrend -- page 808.

Thrusting Candlestick: Example

The chart shows a thrusting candlestick pattern circled in red on the daily scale. Price trends downward leading to the candle pattern, but only for a few days unless you consider the longer view. Then a black candle shows followed by a white one. The white one opens below the closing black marubozu and closes near but below the midpoint of the black candle's body.

This thrusting candle acts as a reversal of the downward price trend because price closes above the top of it. That upward price trend lasts all of a day before another reversal happens. The new reversal takes price lower, forming a sort of triple bottom before a longer-term reversal takes hold and price rises.

A head-and-shoulders bottom (bottoms 1, 2, and 3) is a better choice for this chart pattern

-- Thomas Bulkowski

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See Also

• The bullish meeting lines candle pattern looks similar to the thrusting candle.
• Ditto for the piercing pattern, which has more candle overlap.
• Thrusting could develop into a bearish side-by-side white lines pattern.
• Tall candles show support and resistance.
• Two candlestick tips could improve profitability.
• Candles near the yearly low perform best.
• Chart pattern breakouts: Which candlesticks appear most often the day before breakouts?
• Shadows. Do tall candle shadows predict price turns? Yes and no.
• Tall candles at peaks and valleys. Tall candles appear at turning points.

If you're smoking in here, you better be on fire!