Three consecutive long bearish candles at the top of an uptrend. Especially feared in equities — not a one-day panic but three days of methodical, sustained selling.
Three Black Crows (sanbagarasu in Japanese) is a bearish formation made of three consecutive long bearish candles. The English name pictures three black birds descending in sequence. As the mirror of Three White Soldiers, it appears at the top of an uptrend and is read as a strong bearish reversal signal.
The reason the formation has been particularly feared in equity markets is that it is not a one-day panic — it is three days of measured, sustained selling. A single long bearish candle can usually be explained by an external shock or a brief flush. Three consecutive long bearish candles, on the other hand, are typically not surface panic. They suggest organized profit-taking or position exit by institutional capital.
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