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What Is the Bullish Kicker Pattern and How to Trade It?

Key Takeaways

What Is a Bullish Kicker Candlestick Pattern?

A bullish kicker is a rare two-bar candlestick pattern that signals a sudden trend reversal from a downtrend to an uptrend.

How to Identify a Bullish Kicker Candlestick on a Chart?

A bullish kicker needs 1) a strong bearish candle, 2) a gap up to a strong bullish candle that opens at or above the first

Bullish Kicker Price Action: Why Does the Bullish Kicker Pattern Form?

News such as an earnings report opens price above the first candle, which traps short sellers and closes short position which adds to the buying pressure.

How to Trade the Bullish Kicker Pattern?

Traders enter a long position when the third candle trades above the second candle's high, confirm the signal with volume, and place the stop-loss below the second candle's low.

Bullish Kicker Pattern Example

In the worked example, the tall second candle puts the stop-loss 6.20 points from the entry, so the position size shrinks to keep risk at 1% of the account.

What Are the Limitations of the Bullish Kicker Pattern?

The bullish kicker is rare, depends on news, gives no profit target and fails if price fills the gap.

Bullish Kicker vs Bearish Kicker: What Is the Difference?

The bearish kicker is the mirror image of the bullish kicker and signals a reversal from an uptrend to a downtrend.

Xulosa ko‘rish

A bullish kicker pattern is a two-bar candlestick pattern in which a strong bearish candle in a downtrend is followed by a strong bullish candle that opens with a gap up, at or above the first candle's open signaling a trend reversal. The bullish kicker pattern signals a sudden reversal from a downtrend to an uptrend, usually after news such as an earnings report changes sentiment overnight.

Bullish kickers are rare, yet technical analysts treat the bullish kicker as one of the most powerful reversal signals in candlestick analysis. Traders use the bullish kicker candlestick pattern in three steps: identify the gap between the two candles, wait for price to trade above the second candle's high, and place a stop-loss below the second candle's low.

What Is a Bullish Kicker Candlestick Pattern?

A bullish kicker candlestick pattern is one of the two-bar reversal candlestick patterns in candlestick charting, and a bullish kicker turns a downtrend into an uptrend over the span of just two candles. The bullish kicker is the bullish version of the kicker candlestick pattern, and the bearish kicker is the opposite version.

The bullish kicker shows a sudden shift in sentiment: sellers control the first candle, and buyers control the second candle from the open to the close. A shift in market sentiment that sharp usually needs major news such as an earnings report, FOMC Decisions or other significant news, which is why traders treat the bullish kicker as one of the most powerful reversal signals available.

Bullish kickers are rare, and when a bullish kicker appears, money managers and technical analysts take notice. A bullish kicker carries more weight when the bullish kicker forms in an oversold market or at a support level, where the downtrend has already run for some time.

Pattern details	Bullish kicker
Bias	Bullish
Type	Two-bar candlestick pattern
Description	A strong bearish candle followed by a gap up and a strong bullish candle, with no overlap between the candle bodies
Meaning	Forms after a downtrend and signals a sudden shift in sentiment toward buyers and a possible reversal to an uptrend

How to Identify a Bullish Kicker Candlestick on a Chart?

A bullish kicker candlestick has five rules, and all five rules must be present on the chart:

Price is in a downtrend before the first candle forms.
The first candle is a strong bearish candle that continues the downtrend.
The second candle opens with a gap up, at or above the first candle's open.
The two candle bodies have no overlap.
The second candle closes as a strong bullish candle, well above the second candle's open.

The gap up is the rule that separates a bullish kicker from other two-candle reversal patterns. The first candle closes below the first candle's open, so a second candle that opens at or above the first candle's open has gapped up by at least the full size of the first candle's body.

Traders differ on how far the bullish kicker gap must go. The common rule only requires the second candle to open at or above the first candle's open, while stricter traders want the second candle to open above the first candle's high, so that even the shadows (wicks) of the two candles do not overlap.

The classic Japanese version, called the kicking pattern, is stricter still. In a bullish kicking pattern, both candles are marubozu candles (candles with no shadows), so the gap separates the full price range of the first candle from the full price range of the second candle.

Important: If the second candle opens inside the first candle's body, the gap that traps short sellers is missing, so the two candles do not qualify as a bullish kicker.

Bullish Kicker Price Action: Why Does the Bullish Kicker Pattern Form?

To explain why a bullish kicker forms, we need to look at trader psychology of the price action across the two candles. During the first candle, sellers are in full control: price falls through the session, the first candle closes near its low, and short sellers add to their positions in the direction of the downtrend.

Between the two sessions, certain events like news of a strong earnings report or a major announcement changes market sentiment. Price opens the second session with a gap up above the first candle's open, so almost every short seller who sold during the first candle is now holding a losing position.

Trapped short sellers then rush to close their sell positions by buying back their positions, which is called short covering. Short covering adds buying pressure on top of the new buyers who reacted to the news, and the combined buying pushes the second candle to close as a strong bullish candle.

Where Does the Bullish Kicker Appear: Forex, Shares or Indices?

A bullish kicker needs a large opening gap, and the market you trade decides how often a gap that large appears. Price must gap up by at least the size of the first candle's body, because the first candle closes below its open and the second candle has to open at or above that open.

Shares gap overnight on earnings reports and company news, which makes daily share charts and share CFDs the most common place to find a bullish kicker. Index CFDs with a daily session break can also open with a gap after major economic news.

Spot forex trades 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, so a daily forex candle usually opens at or very near the previous close. On currency pairs, a gap large enough to form a bullish kicker mostly appears at the Monday open, after news breaks over the weekend.

On an intraday share chart, a bullish kicker can only form across the session open, where the overnight gap sits, because each candle inside a continuous session opens where the last candle closed.

Pro Tip: On forex daily charts, check the Monday open, because the weekend gap is where a bullish kicker on a currency pair is most likely to form.

How Do You Trade the Bullish Kicker Pattern?

Trading the bullish kicker pattern comes down to four decisions: where to enter a long position, how to confirm the signal, where to place the stop-loss and where to set the profit target.

Where to Enter a Bullish Kicker Trade

Most traders wait for the third candle (the candle after the pattern) to trade above the high of the second candle before entering a long position. A move above the second candle's high shows that buyers are still in control after the gap day.

Some traders prefer to wait for a pullback into the gap before entering a long position, because price looks like it has moved too far, too fast. A strong bullish kicker often does not pull back, so traders who wait for a pullback can miss the trade entirely.

How to Confirm the Bullish Kicker With Volume

High volume on the second candle adds confirmation to a bullish kicker, because heavy volume shows that many traders took part in the reversal. A bullish kicker on low volume has a higher chance of failing, since fewer buyers and short sellers are behind the gap.

Spot forex has no central exchange volume, so MT4 and MT5 show tick volume, which counts the number of price changes in each candle. Traders read tick volume the same way, and a second candle with tick volume well above the recent average adds confirmation.

Where to Place the Stop-Loss on a Bullish Kicker

Traders place the stop-loss for a bullish kicker just below the second candle's low. Price that falls back into the first candle's body fills the gap, and a bullish kicker that fills the gap has failed.

The second candle of a bullish kicker is usually tall, so the distance from an entry above the second candle's high down to the stop-loss can be large. To keep the same money risk on a wide stop-loss, traders reduce the position size.

News-driven gaps also bring wider spreads and slippage around the open, so a stop-loss can fill at a worse price than the level set on the trading platform.

How to Set a Profit Target After a Bullish Kicker

The bullish kicker gives no built-in profit target, so traders set the profit target at the nearest resistance level above the entry. Before entering the trade, compare the distance to the resistance level with the distance to the stop-loss, because you need a risk-reward ratio above 1:2.

Bullish Kicker Pattern Example

A worked example with round numbers on a daily chart shows how a bullish kicker trade fits together from the pattern to the exit.

Candle 1: Price has fallen for several sessions in a downtrend. The first candle opens at 100 and closes at 96, a strong bearish candle that continues the downtrend.

Candle 2: News released after the close changes sentiment. The second candle opens at 101 with a gap up above the first candle's open of 100, trades no lower than 100.50 and closes at 106. The two candle bodies have no overlap, so the two candles form a bullish kicker.

Candle 3: The third candle trades above the second candle's high of 106.40, and the trader enters a long position at 106.50. The stop-loss goes just below the second candle's low at 100.30, and the profit target goes at the nearest resistance level at 115.

Trade detail	Value
Entry	106.50
Stop-loss	100.30
Risk per unit	6.20
Profit target	115.00
Reward per unit	8.50
Risk-reward ratio	1:1.37
Account risk (1% of a 10,000 account)	100
Position size	16 units (100 ÷ 6.20 = 16.1, rounded down)

The tall second candle puts the stop-loss 6.20 points from the entry, so the trader can only hold 16 units to keep the loss at 100 if the stop-loss is hit. A trader who ignored the wide stop-loss and used a normal position size would lose far more than 1% of the account on a failed bullish kicker.

What Are the Limitations of the Bullish Kicker Pattern?

Bullish kickers are rare, so a trader who waits only for bullish kickers will have very few trades.
A bullish kicker completes after price has already moved sharply, so the stop-loss is wide and the risk-reward ratio to the nearest resistance level can be poor.
A bullish kicker depends on news, and a second piece of news can reverse the gap as fast as the first piece of news created the gap.
A gap fill back into the first candle's body cancels the bullish kicker signal.
Spot forex rarely produces a bullish kicker outside the Monday open, so forex traders see the bullish kicker far less often than share traders.
The bullish kicker gives no profit target, so the exit depends on resistance levels the trader has to find separately.

Bullish Kicker vs Bearish Kicker: What Is the Difference?

The bearish kicker is the mirror image of the bullish kicker. A bearish kicker forms after an uptrend: a strong bullish candle is followed by a gap down, and a strong bearish candle opens at or below the first candle's open, signalling a reversal from an uptrend to a downtrend.

Feature	Bullish kicker	Bearish kicker
Prior trend	Downtrend	Uptrend
First candle	Strong bearish candle	Strong bullish candle
Gap	Gap up: second candle opens at or above the first candle's open	Gap down: second candle opens at or below the first candle's open
Second candle	Strong bullish candle	Strong bearish candle
Signal	Reversal to an uptrend	Reversal to a downtrend
Stronger when formed	In an oversold market or at a support level	In an overbought market or at a resistance level
Stop-loss	Below the second candle's low	Above the second candle's high

Both kicker patterns follow the same identification rules, with every direction reversed.

FAQ

Is the bullish kicker pattern reliable?

Technical analysts consider the bullish kicker one of the most reliable reversal patterns in candlestick analysis, especially when news drives the gap and the bullish kicker forms in an oversold market. A bullish kicker can still fail, so traders wait for the third candle to trade above the second candle's high, check volume and place a stop-loss below the second candle's low.

What is the difference between a bullish kicker and the kicking pattern?

The kicking pattern is the stricter classic version of the bullish kicker. A bullish kicking pattern uses two marubozu candles with no shadows, while a bullish kicker only needs the second candle to open at or above the first candle's open with no overlap between the candle bodies.

What happens if price fills the gap after a bullish kicker?

A gap fill means price has fallen back into the first candle's body, and a bullish kicker that fills the gap has failed. Sellers have taken back the price range the gap skipped, so traders exit long positions and treat the bullish kicker signal as cancelled.

Check More Bullish Candlestick Patterns

Bullish Pattern	Features
Hammer Pattern	The hammer is a single-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The candle has a small body at the top of its range. 2. The lower shadow is at least twice the length of the body. 3. The candle has little or no upper shadow.
Inverted Hammer Pattern	The inverted hammer is a single-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The candle has a small body at the bottom of its range. 2. The upper shadow is at least twice the length of the body. 3. The candle has little or no lower shadow.
Dragonfly Doji Pattern	The dragonfly doji is a single-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms at the bottom of a downtrend. 1. The open and close are at or near the high of the candle. 2. The candle has a long lower shadow. 3. The candle has little or no upper shadow.
Bullish Engulfing Pattern	The bullish engulfing is a two-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a small bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a larger bullish candle with a body that completely engulfs the body of the first candle.
Bullish Harami Pattern	The bullish harami is a two-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a large bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a small candle, usually bullish, with a body that sits completely inside the body of the first candle.
Piercing Line Pattern	The piercing line is a two-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a long bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a bullish candle that opens below the close of the first candle. 3. The second candle closes above the midpoint (50%) of the first candle body.
Tweezer Bottom Pattern	The tweezer bottom is a two-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms at the end of a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a bullish candle. 3. Both candles have the same, or nearly the same, low.
Bullish Abandoned Baby Pattern	The bullish abandoned baby is a three-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a long bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a doji that gaps down below the first candle. 3. The third candle is a long bullish candle that gaps up above the doji.
Three White Soldiers Pattern	Three white soldiers is a three-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. Three long bullish candles with small shadows form in a row. 2. Each candle opens inside the body of the previous candle. 3. Each candle closes higher than the previous candle.
Three Inside Up Pattern	The three inside up is a three-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a large bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a small bullish candle that stays inside the first candle body and closes above the midpoint (50%) of the first candle body. 3. The third candle is a bullish candle that closes above the open of the first candle.
Three Outside Up Pattern	The three outside up is a three-candle bullish reversal pattern that forms after a downtrend. 1. The first candle is a bearish candle. 2. The second candle is a bullish candle with a body that completely engulfs the body of the first candle. 3. The third candle is a bullish candle that closes above the close of the second candle.

Check More Bearish Candlestick Patterns

Bearish Pattern	Features
Hanging Man Pattern	The hanging man is a single-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms at the top of an uptrend. 1. The candle has a small body at the top of its range. 2. The lower shadow is at least twice the length of the body. 3. The candle has little or no upper shadow.
Shooting Star Pattern	The shooting star is a single-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. The candle has a small body at the bottom of its range. 2. The upper shadow is at least twice the length of the body. 3. The candle has little or no lower shadow.
Bearish Engulfing Pattern	The bearish engulfing is a two-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. The first candle is a small bullish candle. 2. The second candle is a larger bearish candle with a body that completely engulfs the body of the first candle.
Bearish Harami Pattern	The bearish harami is a two-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. The first candle is a large bullish candle. 2. The second candle is a small candle, usually bearish, with a body that sits completely inside the body of the first candle.
Dark Cloud Cover Pattern	Dark cloud cover is a two-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. The first candle is a long bullish candle. 2. The second candle is a bearish candle that opens above the close of the first candle. 3. The second candle closes below the midpoint (50%) of the first candle body.
Tweezer Top Pattern	The tweezer top is a two-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms at the end of an uptrend. 1. The first candle is a bullish candle. 2. The second candle is a bearish candle. 3. Both candles have the same, or nearly the same, high.
Evening Star Pattern	The evening star is a three-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. The first candle is a long bullish candle. 2. The second candle is a small-bodied candle that can be bullish or bearish. 3. The third candle is a long bearish candle that closes below the midpoint (50%) of the first candle body.
Three Black Crows Pattern	Three black crows is a three-candle bearish reversal pattern that forms after an uptrend. 1. Three long bearish candles with small shadows form in a row. 2. Each candle opens inside the body of the previous candle. 3. Each candle closes lower than the previous candle.

Check More Neutral Candlestick Patterns

Neutral Pattern	Features
Doji Pattern	The doji is a single candle that opens and closes at or near the same price, which shows indecision between buyers and sellers. 1. The body is very small or appears as a thin line. 2. The upper and lower shadows can be any length. 3. A doji after a strong trend can warn of a reversal, and traders wait for the next candle to confirm the reversal.
Pin Bar Pattern	The pin bar is a single-candle reversal pattern that can be bullish or bearish. 1. The candle has a small body at one end of its range. 2. One long shadow, called the tail, makes up most of the candle range. 3. A bullish pin bar has a long lower shadow, and a bearish pin bar has a long upper shadow.
Marubozu Pattern	The marubozu is a single candle with a long body that shows strong buying or strong selling. 1. The candle has a long body. 2. The candle has no upper or lower shadow, or only very small shadows. 3. A bullish marubozu opens at the low and closes at the high, and a bearish marubozu opens at the high and closes at the low.
Harami Pattern	The harami is a two-candle reversal pattern that can be bullish or bearish. 1. The first candle is a large candle. 2. The second candle is a small candle with a body that sits completely inside the body of the first candle. 3. A bullish harami forms after a downtrend, and a bearish harami forms after an uptrend.
Engulfing Pattern	The engulfing is a two-candle reversal pattern that can be bullish or bearish. 1. The first candle is a small candle. 2. The second candle is a larger candle of the opposite colour, with a body that completely engulfs the body of the first candle. 3. A bullish engulfing forms after a downtrend, and a bearish engulfing forms after an uptrend.
Inside Bar Pattern	The inside bar is a two-candle pattern that can signal a continuation or a reversal. 1. The first candle is a large candle, often called the mother bar. 2. The second candle has a high and low that stay inside the high and low of the first candle. 3. Traders trade the breakout above the high or below the low of the first candle.
Morning Star and Evening Star Pattern	The morning star and evening star are three-candle reversal patterns, one bullish and one bearish. 1. The first candle is a long candle in the direction of the existing trend. 2. The second candle is a small-bodied candle that can be bullish or bearish. 3. The third candle is a long candle in the opposite direction that closes past the midpoint (50%) of the first candle body. 4. A morning star forms after a downtrend, and an evening star forms after an uptrend.

Check More Trading Pattern Guides

Guide	What It Covers
Reversal Candlestick Patterns	This guide explains how candlestick patterns warn that an uptrend or a downtrend may reverse. 1. Bullish reversal patterns form after a downtrend. 2. Bearish reversal patterns form after an uptrend. 3. Traders wait for a confirmation candle before entering a position.
Chart Patterns in Trading	This guide explains how chart patterns form from price swings over many candles. 1. Reversal chart patterns warn that the existing trend may end. 2. Continuation chart patterns show a pause before the existing trend continues. 3. Traders enter a position when a candle closes beyond the trendline that marks the edge of the chart pattern.

Guide

What It Covers

Reversal Candlestick Patterns

This guide explains how candlestick patterns warn that an uptrend or a downtrend may reverse.

1. Bullish reversal patterns form after a downtrend.

2. Bearish reversal patterns form after an uptrend.

3. Traders wait for a confirmation candle before entering a position.

Chart Patterns in Trading

This guide explains how chart patterns form from price swings over many candles.

1. Reversal chart patterns warn that the existing trend may end.

2. Continuation chart patterns show a pause before the existing trend continues.

3. Traders enter a position when a candle closes beyond the trendline that marks the edge of the chart pattern.