The Outside Bar (3) & the 3-2-2
A 3 takes out both sides of the previous candle — a stop run in two directions inside one bar. Somebody got trapped at the high AND somebody got trapped at the low, and until price escapes that candle's range, its extremes are the levels the market answers to. The community calls it the mother bar for a reason.
Reading the 3
Direction matters less than position: where did the 3 CLOSE inside its own range? A 3 that ran the highs and closed on its lows just told you which trap sprang harder. But the deeper rule is that the outside bar's high and low become the governing triggers — later candles that stay inside it are, functionally, 1s against the mother bar.
The 3-2-2 broadening reversal
After a 3, a directional pullback (say a 2d) sets the trade: the break back through that pullback bar's high is the 3-2-2 — the canon broadening-formation reversal. The pullback crowd is trapped against the mother bar's fuel, and the first target is the outside bar's far extreme, the full width away.
Outside bars and expanding markets
Chains of 3s are how broadening formations print: each candle engulfing the last, every swing running the prior swing's stops. If you see repeated outside bars on a higher timeframe, you are inside a megaphone — trade its edges, not its middle.
See it live, right now
Every concept on this page is detected in real time across 190+ tickers — candle typing, trigger levels, and alerts the second a level breaks.
FAQ
Is an outside bar bullish or bearish?
By itself, neither — it is two-sided by definition. The close's position within the bar hints at which trap dominated; the sequence that follows (3-2-2, 3-1-2) provides the actual trade.
What is a mother bar?
An outside bar whose range contains the candles that follow. Its high and low stay the operative trigger levels until price closes beyond them.
What is a 3-2-2?
Outside bar, directional pullback, and the break back through the pullback bar the other way — TheStrat's broadening reversal, targeting the mother bar's opposite extreme.
Keep learning
Educational content, not financial advice. Patterns describe probabilities, not promises.