Tasuki Line (Bullish & Bearish)

A Bullish Tasuki Line is two long candles after a decline: a red candle, then a green candle that opens at or above the red close and closes above the red open. The green candle wins back the whole red body without ever opening lower.

“Long” means the bodies (the thick part between open and close) are clearly bigger than the candles around them. If the parts of a candle are new to you, start with the Candlestick Basics guide.

The mirror, a Bearish Tasuki Line, is a long green candle after a rally, then a long red candle that opens at or below the green close and closes below the green open. This guide teaches the bullish form first and the bearish one as its mirror.

Two sessions: one that belongs to the sellers, and one where they never got going.

The name says which way it points. A Bullish Tasuki Line points to a turn up after a decline; a Bearish Tasuki Line to a turn down after a rally.

The second candle already does a lot. Its close is above the red candle's open, so everything the red candle lost has been won back inside the pattern. Many traders treat that close as the confirmation. Others want one more piece of evidence: price clearing the nearest resistance, a level where recent rallies have stalled. Traders disagree, and both are reasonable.

Either way, the idea fails on a close below the pattern's low. Where it forms matters too. In the middle of a steep decline, far from any level where buyers have stepped in before, some traders read the same two candles as a sharp bounce that sellers will use to sell again.

Where the green candle opens decides two things: which pattern you are looking at, and where the stop goes. The chart below keeps the red candle and the green close fixed and moves only the green open.

Opens below the red close: an engulfing. Sellers were still pressing at the start of the day, and buyers had to absorb that before winning the session. The lowest point is usually the green candle's own.

Opens inside the red body: a Tasuki Line. The selling did not carry into the next morning; sellers got no lower open. Buyers still did most of the work during the session. The green low usually stays above the red low.

Opens above the red candle's high: a gap up. The looser definition's open rule still allows it, if the green body is long; the stricter one does not, because it does not open inside the red body. Either way most of the turn happened overnight, usually on news. With both candles shaved, with no shadows, it is a Kicking pattern.

The open moves the stop. Because the green candle opens at or above the red close, its low is often above the red candle's low. Then the lowest point of the pattern belongs to the red candle, and that is where the idea fails. A stop tucked under the green candle's low sits inside the pattern, where an ordinary dip can reach it without breaking anything.

Tasuki Line versus engulfing. Both close above the red open; the open is the difference. A Bullish Engulfing opens below the red close, so its body covers the red body from end to end. When the green opens exactly at the red close, the two bodies share one edge, and traders disagree: some count it as an engulfing as well, others keep the names apart. On markets that trade around the clock, such as crypto, each candle usually opens at the last close, so the distinction there is thin.

Tasuki Line versus Piercing. A Piercing Pattern opens below the red close and stops past the middle of the red body, short of its open. A Tasuki Line starts higher and finishes higher.

Tasuki Line versus Kicking. A Bullish Kicking opens above the red candle's open, so the whole turn happened overnight, and both candles are shaved, with no shadows. Under the looser Tasuki definition a gap-up green can also qualify; under the stricter one it must open inside the red body.

Tasuki Line versus Tasuki Gap. They share a name and nothing else. The Upside and Downside Tasuki Gaps are three-candle patterns built around a gap, usually read as a trend continuing. The Tasuki Line has no gap requirement and is read as a reversal.

In the bearish form, a strong up day is followed by a session that opens no higher than its close. Buyers get no higher open, and sellers then push price below where the green day began. Everyone who bought during the green day is behind. The red candle's high is often below the green candle's high, so the stop usually goes above the green candle.

Volume. Heavier volume on the green candle means more shares changed hands in the session that won the red day back, so the turn had real participation. Read the Candlesticks + Volume guide →

Size. Average True Range (ATR), a measure of how far a stock usually moves in a day, tells you whether both candles are really long for this stock, and how wide the stop is. Read the Candlesticks + ATR guide →

Moving averages. A Tasuki Line that turns up from a rising 50-day moving average reads as the end of a pullback in an uptrend. Under a falling one, the larger trend still points down, so a confirming close would be a turn against the decline, with that falling average still overhead. Read the Candlesticks + Moving Averages guide →

A Tasuki Line is a turn you can read from the open. After a heavy red day, the next session does not start lower, and buyers then carry it past where the red day began.

Look at the open before you look at the size of the green candle. It tells you whether the selling carried into the morning, which pattern you are looking at, and where the stop belongs. Then check that it formed somewhere buyers have a reason to defend.