Harami and the inside bar
You will learn to
- A big candle followed by a small one
- Harami cross
- Trading the break of the inside bar
The shape
A large candle, then a small one whose body sits inside the large body ("harami" means pregnant). It is the reverse of an engulfing: momentum stalls instead of reversing outright. When the small candle is a doji it is a harami cross, considered the stronger version.
Inside bar
Western traders call the same idea an inside bar — the whole second candle, wicks included, inside the first. It signals a pause, not a direction. Two common uses: as a sign the trend is tiring (after a long run), and as a breakout trigger — a close beyond the mother candle's range shows which side won.
In NexusCore, the Candlestick Patterns indicator can mark inside bars too (switch it on in the indicator's settings).
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Check yourself
1. A harami mainly signals…
- Strong continuation
- A pause — the prior move lost follow-through ✓
- A guaranteed reversal
Small after big: momentum stalled; direction comes from the break.
2. What is a harami cross?
- A harami whose small candle is a doji ✓
- Two dojis
- An engulfing
The doji version shows even less conviction.
Terms in this lesson
- Harami
- A small body inside the previous large body: momentum stalls.
- Inside bar
- A candle entirely inside the previous candle's range.
Practise it on real charts. In the app, this lesson comes with real examples (reveal what happened next), a graded drill and the track test. Open the Academy in NexusCore — free →