What is an Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern?
An inside bar is a two-candle pattern where the second candle's entire range — high, low, wicks and all — fits inside the previous candle's range. That previous candle is called the mother bar.
The inside bar can be bullish or bearish. What matters is that it's fully contained inside the mother bar's high and low.
What Does an Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern Indicate?
An inside bar tells you price is compressing. Buyers and sellers fight to a stalemate, and neither side can push price beyond the previous candle's range.
Orders stack on both sides of the mother bar. Tension builds. When one side finally forces price outside the range, the expansion is sharp because every trapped position is now in a rush to react.
Compression precedes expansion.
Is the Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern Bullish or Bearish?
The inside bar by itself is neither bullish nor bearish. It's a contraction pattern. The bias comes entirely from where it prints.
- Inside bar in a strong uptrend? Favor upside continuation.
- Inside bar in a downtrend? Favor downside continuation.
- Inside bar at major support or resistance? Reversal trigger — once price breaks and holds beyond the mother bar.
🔥 Pro Tip: Context decides direction. The candle pattern decides when. Print an inside bar at a random spot on the chart and it means nothing. Print it after an impulse leg into a major level and you've got a high-quality setup.
How to Identify an Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern?
Spotting an inside bar takes three seconds. The second candle's full range sits inside the previous candle's full range.
Here's the checklist:
- Inside bar's high is below the mother bar's high
- Inside bar's low is above the mother bar's low
- The inside bar's body AND both wicks stay inside the mother bar
- Mother bar is noticeably larger than the inside bar — the cleaner the compression, the cleaner the signal
- Location matters: after an impulse move, at support/resistance, or during a trend pause
⚠️ Warning: If you have to squint to see whether the wicks are inside, it's not a clean inside bar. Skip it. The market prints plenty of A+ setups — you don't need to force the borderline ones.
How to Trade an Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern?
The mother bar's high and low are your decision levels. You trade the break of either side, with a defined stop and a logical target.
Bullish breakout:
- Buy on a close above the mother bar high (or a buy stop above the high if your plan allows it)
- Stop loss below the mother bar low
- Target the next swing high or resistance zone
Bearish breakout:
- Sell on a close below the mother bar low (or a sell stop below the low)
- Stop loss above the mother bar high
- Target the next swing low or support zone
The filter that saves accounts: Skip inside bars in choppy ranges. Only take setups aligned with the trend, or printed at a level where a breakout actually changes market structure.
📌 Key Takeaway: Inside bar losses come from taking the trade in dead price action. Location beats signal every time.
What Happens After an Inside Bar Candlestick Pattern?
Price expands. The direction is what you're trading.
Two outcomes:
- Clean follow-through: consecutive closes outside the mother bar, in the direction of the break
- Failed break: price pokes outside the mother bar, gets rejected, and closes back inside — often leading to a move toward the opposite side of the range
That second scenario is why confirmation matters. A close outside the mother bar is information. A wick outside is noise.
What are the Different Types of Inside Bar Candlestick Patterns?
Inside bars come in three flavors, separated by how long price coils before the break.
- Single inside bar: one inside bar forms inside the mother bar, then price breaks
- Double inside bar: two inside bars in a row, both contained inside the same mother bar range
- Multi-inside bars: three or more inside bars stacked inside the mother bar — extended consolidation that leads to the sharpest expansion of the three
💡 Trader Truth: The longer price coils, the more violent the break. Multi-inside bars are the spring loading up — you don't know which direction it'll snap until it does.