Direct Answer
Gap side-by-side white lines is a two-candle pattern that appears during an established uptrend. The sequence starts with a gap up, then is followed by two consecutive bullish (white or filled-green) candles.
Key Takeaways
- Gap side-by-side white lines is a rare two-bar bullish continuation pattern that appears during an uptrend.
- Price gaps up, then two consecutive bullish candles of roughly similar size form after the gap.
- Both candles open near the same price, near the start of the gap, rather than each opening at or near the prior candle's close.
- The gap below both candles stays unfilled, which is read as a sign of continued underlying demand.
- Because the two opens land near the same level instead of stepping progressively higher, this pattern is less intuitive to spot than most bullish continuation setups.
Gap Side-by-Side White Lines Candlestick Pattern: Formation, Meaning, and Signals
A gap side-by-side white lines pattern is a rare two-bar bullish continuation setup that forms during an uptrend when price gaps up and two similar-sized bullish candles both open near the same price, close to where the gap started, without the gap below them ever filling.
What Is a Gap Side-by-Side White Lines?
Gap side-by-side white lines is a two-candle pattern that appears during an established uptrend. The sequence starts with a gap up, then is followed by two consecutive bullish (white or filled-green) candles. What makes the pattern distinct isn't just that two bullish candles follow a gap, it's the relationship between those two candles: both open near the same price, close to the level where the gap began, rather than each candle opening progressively higher off the prior one's close.
Because it forms mid-trend rather than at a turning point, it's read as a continuation signal, not a reversal signal. The pattern's core message is that buyers who drove the initial gap are still active, the market absorbed the gap-up move and kept finding buyers at roughly the same level twice in a row, rather than giving that ground back.
How a Gap Side-by-Side White Lines Forms
The pattern requires an uptrend already in place, followed by a gap up between one candle's range and the next. After the gap, two bullish candles form back to back. Both candles need to be roughly similar in size, and, the defining detail, both need to open near the same price, near the start of the gap, rather than at or near each other's close the way most sequential bullish candles do.
The other necessary condition is that the gap below both candles remains unfilled. If price later trades back down and closes the gap, the setup no longer reflects the sustained demand the pattern is meant to signal.
Gap Side-by-Side White Lines Example
The chart below shows a deterministic, illustrative example: an uptrend leading in, a gap up followed by the two side-by-side bullish candles, then two possible continuations, a confirmation (the gap stays open and price keeps climbing) and a failure/look-alike (the gap fills). Toggle between them to see why the unfilled gap is the condition that matters most.
How to Trade a Gap Side-by-Side White Lines
Spotting it takes more care
Because both candles open near the same level rather than sequentially higher, this pattern is less intuitive to spot than most bullish continuation setups. It's easy to glance past two bullish candles after a gap without noticing that their opens line up, since the visual habit is to look for a staircase of higher opens rather than two candles anchored to the same price.
Check the gap first
The key check is whether the gap below both candles remains unfilled. An unfilled gap signals continued underlying demand, buyers haven't given back the ground gained on the gap-up move. That unfilled gap, not the shape of the two candles alone, is what supports the continuation read.
Treat it as continuation, not entry timing
Because the pattern confirms an existing uptrend rather than calling a turning point, it's typically used to add conviction to a trend that's already in place, alongside other trend and level-based confirmation, rather than as a standalone timing trigger.
Common Mistakes
- Confusing it with two ordinary consecutive bullish candles that simply happen to follow a gap, similar size alone doesn't make the pattern.
- Missing the shared-open requirement, the defining feature is specifically that both candles open near the same price, not merely that they are similar in size.
- Not checking whether the gap stays open, a filled gap invalidates the bullish read, and it's easy to overlook this once the two candles have already formed.
- Treating it as a reversal signal, it's a continuation pattern that appears mid-trend, not a pattern that marks a turning point.
Gap Side-by-Side White Lines vs. Similar Patterns
| Pattern | Candle count | Key difference |
|---|---|---|
| Gap Side-by-Side White Lines | 2 | Baseline, two similar-sized bullish candles opening near the same price after a gap up, gap stays open |
| Rising Window | 1 gap event | Just the raw gap-up concept; no requirement about the following candles' opens |
| Three White Soldiers | 3 | Three sequentially higher-opening bullish candles; no gap requirement |
Limitations of the Gap Side-by-Side White Lines Pattern
Gap side-by-side white lines describes a specific two-candle relationship after a gap, not a guarantee that the uptrend continues. It carries no information about volume, order flow, or why the gap occurred, a gap driven by scheduled news behaves differently from ordinary trading. It also says nothing about how large the next move will be, or when the gap might eventually fill on a later bar. Like any candlestick pattern, it's best read alongside broader trend context and a defined invalidation plan, rather than acted on in isolation.
Same Two Candles, Direction Set by the Gap
This pattern has an unusual property: the two similar white candles at the end of it mean the opposite things depending on which way the preceding gap went. After a gap up they read as continuation of an advance; after a gap down they read as continuation of a decline, with two green candles appearing inside a downtrend. The candles are the same. The gap decides the interpretation, which makes it the first thing to identify rather than the last.
The similar-size requirement is doing real work too. Two white candles of comparable size opening at roughly the same level describe a market holding its new position rather than extending, and a second candle much larger or smaller changes what is being described.
That combination makes this one of the easier patterns to misread from the outline alone. Anyone matching by shape will find two green candles and reach for a bullish conclusion, which is wrong half the time by construction.
And like every gap-based pattern, it needs session boundaries to occur and an existing trend for the continuation reading to have anything to continue.
Gap Side-by-Side White Lines FAQs
Is gap side-by-side white lines a bullish or bearish pattern?
It's a bullish continuation pattern. It appears during an uptrend after a gap up, and the two candles that follow reinforce the existing upward move rather than signal a reversal.
Why is gap side-by-side white lines hard to spot?
Because both candles open near the same price rather than each opening progressively higher, the pattern doesn't have the obvious staircase look of most bullish continuation setups, which makes it easy to overlook.
What invalidates a gap side-by-side white lines pattern?
If price later fills the gap below the two candles, the bullish read is invalidated. The unfilled gap is the part of the pattern that signals continued underlying demand, so losing it removes the basis for the signal.
How is it different from two ordinary bullish candles after a gap?
The defining feature isn't just that two bullish candles follow a gap up. It's that both candles open near the same price, close to where the gap started, rather than each one opening at or near the prior candle's close.
How many candles make up the gap side-by-side white lines pattern?
Two candles, both bullish and roughly similar in size, following a gap up during an uptrend.
Why does this pattern have both bullish and bearish versions under one name?
Because the two white candles are the same in both cases and only the direction of the preceding gap differs. After an upward gap the pattern is read as continuation higher; after a downward gap the same two candles are read as continuation lower, on the reasoning that a rally inside a downward gap failed to close it. The name describes the candles rather than the reading, which is why the direction has to be stated.
How similar do the two bodies have to be?
The description calls for two white candles of roughly the same size opening at roughly the same price, and neither roughly is quantified. Implementations apply a tolerance to both the opening prices and the body sizes. Those two tolerances together determine how often the pattern is found, and a strict reading returns almost nothing.
Do the two opening prices need to match?
Approximately, and that is the condition doing most of the work. Two consecutive up candles are common; two consecutive up candles opening at essentially the same price after a gap is not. The side-by-side appearance the name refers to comes entirely from that matching open, which is why relaxing it collapses the pattern into an ordinary pair of up bars.
How would a scanner separate this from a gap followed by two ordinary up bars?
By the opening-price match and the body-size similarity, which are the only conditions distinguishing them. A scanner testing only for a gap plus two up candles will return a large number of instances that are not the pattern. Adding the two tolerances cuts the list drastically, and the values chosen for them determine what survives.
References
- CMT Association: Technical Analysis Body of Knowledge and Research
- CFA Institute Research and Policy Center: Investment Research
- Steve Nison, Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques (1991), the book credited with popularizing Japanese candlestick analysis in Western markets.
- SEC Investor.gov: Introduction to Investing