Direct Answer
An upside tasuki gap is a three-bar pattern that forms within an established uptrend. It belongs to the family of gap-based continuation patterns: it uses the presence of a price gap, and what happens to that gap on the following bar, to gauge whether the trend that produced the gap is still intact.
Key Takeaways
- An upside tasuki gap is a three-bar bullish continuation pattern that appears within an existing uptrend, not a reversal signal.
- The first two bars are both long bullish candles with a gap up between them; the third bar is a bearish candle that opens within the second bar's body.
- The third bar pulls back partway into the gap but does not fully close it, the gap stays partly open, which is what separates this pattern from Upside Gap Three Methods.
- Because part of the gap remains unfilled, some traders treat this as a slightly stronger continuation signal than a fully-filled gap, with the unfilled portion expected to act as support if the uptrend resumes.
Upside Tasuki Gap Candlestick Pattern: Formation, Meaning, and Signals
An upside tasuki gap is a three-bar bullish continuation pattern in which two rising candles leave a gap up between them, followed by a bearish third candle that pulls back partway into the gap without fully closing it. It signals that the uptrend is likely to continue, with the unfilled portion of the gap treated as potential support.
What Is an Upside Tasuki Gap?
An upside tasuki gap is a three-bar pattern that forms within an established uptrend. It belongs to the family of gap-based continuation patterns: it uses the presence of a price gap, and what happens to that gap on the following bar, to gauge whether the trend that produced the gap is still intact.
Unlike single-bar patterns such as a doji, the upside tasuki gap only makes sense as a three-bar sequence, the first two bars establish the gap, and the third bar's reaction to that gap is what gives the pattern its name and its bullish continuation reading.
How an Upside Tasuki Gap Forms
The pattern requires three bars in sequence, within an uptrend. The first two bars are both long bullish candles, and there is a gap up between the first bar's range and the second bar's range. The third bar is a bearish candle that opens within the second bar's body and closes lower, pulling back partway into the gap left between bars one and two, but it does not fully close that gap. Part of the gap stays open after the third bar closes.
That partial fill is the defining feature of the pattern: if the third bar's pullback were to fully close the gap instead, the same three-bar setup would be classified as a different pattern (Upside Gap Three Methods) rather than an upside tasuki gap.
Upside Tasuki Gap Example
The chart below shows a deterministic, illustrative example: an uptrend leading in, the two-bar gap up followed by the partial-fill third bar, then two possible continuations, a confirmation (the uptrend resumes off the unfilled gap) and a failure/look-alike (price fully closes the gap instead). Toggle between them to see why the amount of the gap that gets filled matters.
How to Trade an Upside Tasuki Gap
Read the gap, not just the trend
Because the gap is only partially filled, some traders read the upside tasuki gap as a slightly stronger continuation signal than Upside Gap Three Methods, where the third bar fully closes the gap. The distinction matters: a fully closed gap removes the level entirely, while a partially closed gap leaves a portion of it intact.
Watch the unfilled portion as potential support
The unfilled portion of the gap is expected to act as support if the uptrend resumes. Traders watching this pattern often track whether subsequent price action respects that unfilled zone rather than trading straight through it.
Confirm before acting
As with any multi-bar pattern, the three bars describe what already happened, not what happens next. Waiting to see whether price actually holds above the unfilled gap on subsequent bars, rather than assuming the continuation is automatic, keeps the read grounded in confirmed price action.
Common Upside Tasuki Gap Mistakes
- Confusing a fully-filled gap with a partially-filled one, the upside tasuki gap and Upside Gap Three Methods are distinguished specifically by how much of the gap the third bar closes, so misreading the fill amount misclassifies the pattern.
- Ignoring the surrounding trend, the pattern only qualifies as a continuation signal when it appears within an existing uptrend, not in a sideways or declining market.
- Treating the gap as guaranteed support, the unfilled portion is only expected to act as support if the uptrend resumes; it is not a guarantee that price will hold there.
- Overlooking bar count, skipping ahead without confirming all three bars (two bullish with a gap, one bearish partial-fill) match the definition can lead to labeling other gap patterns as an upside tasuki gap.
Upside Tasuki Gap vs. Similar Patterns
| Pattern | Bars | Key difference |
|---|---|---|
| Upside Tasuki Gap | 3 | Baseline, third bar partially fills the gap, leaving part of it open |
| Upside Gap Three Methods | 3 | Third bar fully fills/closes the gap instead of leaving it partly open |
| Rising Window | 2 | Just the two-bar gap-up concept alone, without the third-bar fill attempt |
Limitations of the Upside Tasuki Gap Pattern
An upside tasuki gap describes what three specific bars did, it does not tell you whether the uptrend will actually continue, how far it might extend, or whether the unfilled portion of the gap will hold as support if price returns to it. It carries no information about volume or the reasons behind the gap itself. Like any multi-bar pattern, it works best combined with broader trend context and a defined plan for what happens if the unfilled gap is later closed, not used in isolation.
If the Gap Fills, It Was Not This Pattern
The single condition that makes this pattern what it is: the third bar pulls back into the gap and does not close it. An unfilled remainder is the whole claim, since it says the pullback ran out of momentum before erasing the repricing that produced the gap. A third bar that fills the gap entirely produces a different, separately named pattern with a different reading, and the two are easy to confuse because the first two bars are identical.
That makes the gap boundary the level to watch while the third bar forms. It is knowable in advance and it is the difference between two patterns rather than a matter of degree.
The third bar being bearish is expected rather than a warning. It is a pullback inside a continuation pattern, and reading it as a reversal signal misses that the pattern already accounts for it.
The gap requirement, as always, makes the pattern uncommon in continuously traded markets, and the whole structure needs an existing uptrend since it describes a trend pausing rather than one starting.
Upside Tasuki Gap FAQs
Is the upside tasuki gap a reversal or a continuation pattern?
It's a continuation pattern. It appears within an existing uptrend and suggests the trend is likely to keep going, not that it's about to reverse.
What's the difference between an upside tasuki gap and an upside gap three methods pattern?
Both start with two bullish candles and a gap up, followed by a bearish third candle that pulls back into the gap. In an upside tasuki gap the third candle only partially fills the gap, leaving part of it open. In an upside gap three methods pattern, the third candle fully closes the gap.
Why does a partially filled gap matter?
Because the gap stays partly open, the unfilled portion is treated as a level that can act as support if the uptrend resumes. Some traders read this as a slightly stronger continuation signal than a pattern where the gap fully closes.
How many bars make up an upside tasuki gap?
Three. The first two are long bullish candles with a gap up between them, and the third is a bearish candle that opens within the second candle's body and pulls back partway into the gap.
Does the upside tasuki gap tell you the gap will hold as support?
No. The pattern only describes what the three bars did, it doesn't guarantee the unfilled portion of the gap will hold if price returns to it. That still depends on subsequent price action and broader context.
Does the third candle have to be a single bar?
Yes. The pattern is defined as exactly three candles, with the third opening inside the second body and closing into the gap. A retracement that takes two or three sessions to reach the same place is not the pattern, though it may describe the same behaviour. The bar count is part of the definition and it is what makes the structure identifiable.
How is this different from a gap that simply gets partly filled?
By the specific bar relationships. A partly filled gap is any gap where price later traded into it. The tasuki pattern requires the retracement to begin from inside the second candle body, to happen in one bar, and to stop before closing the gap. Most partly filled gaps satisfy none of those, and the pattern is a narrow case of the general event.
Is the upside tasuki gap widely implemented?
It appears in most comprehensive pattern libraries and less consistently in general charting software, which tends to cover the better-known reversal patterns first. That means instances are often present without being labelled. It also means any study drawn from scanner output is studying whichever implementation produced it rather than the pattern as classically described.
What if the third candle closes above the second candle high?
It is not the pattern at all, since the third candle is supposed to be a retracement rather than a continuation. A third bar closing above the second high describes the advance continuing without a pullback, which needs no pattern name. Implementations testing only that the third candle is bearish would still exclude this, since the direction condition fails.
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