A long candle in the trend's direction, then a second session that gaps against it — and closes more than halfway back into the first candle's body, without quite reaching its open. At a low, that's a piercing line. At a high, the mirror image is a dark cloud cover.
The Sakata ledgers name the bullish version kirikomi — «cutting in», like a blade — and the bearish version kabuse — «covering», like a cloud over the sun.
A bar chart shows the jump between two ticks clearly enough — but with no body, there's no depth to measure the recovery against.
Steve Nison's 1991 translation draws the exact boundary: if the second candle's close stays inside the first candle's body, it's a piercing line or dark cloud cover — past the open, it's an engulfing candle instead.
Indices and stocks still gap at the open regularly. On 24-hour crypto tapes, true gaps are rare — the pattern survives, but its anatomy has to be read more loosely.
Candle one is a long body in the trend's direction. Candle two gaps against it at the open, then closes more than halfway back into candle one's body — but, critically, without passing candle one's open. That line is exactly what separates this from an engulfing candle.
At a low, a gap down met by a deep recovery close is a piercing line — bullish. At a high, a gap up met by a deep reversal close is a dark cloud cover — bearish. Same anatomy, opposite address.
The deeper the second candle penetrates into the first, the stronger the signal — a close just over 50% is a weak version; a close near the first candle's open, just short of engulfing it, is a strong version bordering on the more powerful engulfing pattern.
After a brutal red session, the market gaps down further at the open, then claws back deep into the prior day's body by the close — an early piercing line inside the COVID crash's most volatile week.
Near the January 2022 market peak, a strong green session gives way to a gap-up open the next day that fails and closes deep into the prior day's gains — a dark cloud cover marking the start of the decline.
The stock gaps down sharply on a guidance cut, then claws back more than half of the prior day's range by the close — a piercing line at a washed-out, single-stock low.
After a hard decline, a session gaps to a fresh low at the open, then rallies to close 65% of the way back into the prior red candle's body — still short of that candle's open. What is this?
A similar setup prints, but the close only reaches 30% back into the prior candle's body. Is it confirmed?
At a high, a session gaps up, then reverses and closes not just past the halfway mark of the prior green candle, but past its open entirely. What pattern is this actually?
Two sessions, watched as they happen. The gap and the cut build tick by tick on the left — and the mark they leave in the ledger on the right. Same anatomy at a low, at a high — and the shallow miss that never earned the label.
A leg, a gap, and how deep the close cuts back. Weigh the gap, the penetration, and the address — then call it: long, short, or stand aside. Most tapes are a pass. That is the lesson.
The classic error is buying or selling right at the open because of the gap, before the close confirms anything. The discipline is mechanical: wait for the close, measure the penetration percentage, and grade the signal's strength by how deep it ran — not by how dramatic the gap looked in the moment.
From kirikomi and kabuse in the Sakata ledgers to every chart alive today, this pair of patterns records the same fact: a gap against the trend, met by a recovery deep enough to matter — but not quite complete. Measure the gap, measure the close, and never confuse a deep pierce for a full engulfing.
«Clouds across the moon, wind among the blossoms.»