Identical three crows: the no-relief bearish pattern

Identical three crows are a harsher variant of Three black crows: meaning, TA-Lib rules and real examples. There are still three red candles with lower closes, each finishing near its low. The difference is in the opens: each new crow opens at, or within a hair of, the previous crow's close. The market gives no overnight bounce at all. Every session picks up exactly where the last one ended and keeps falling.

The "identical" in the name refers to that hand-off: the close of one day and the open of the next are the same price, so the three bodies line up end to end like a staircase going down. Traditional writers treat this as a sign of panic-like, relentless selling, and some rank it as more bearish than the ordinary crows.

This page sets out how TA-Lib detects the pattern, how it differs from three black crows in code as well as in shape, the three real occurrences our two-year study found, and why three cases cannot settle anything.

Anatomy of identical three crows

Look for:

1. Crow one, a red candle that closes near its low.
2. Crow two, opening at crow one's close rather than somewhere inside its body, then falling to close near its own low.
3. Crow three, the same: open at crow two's close, close lower, close near the low.

Seen on a chart, the bodies form a continuous diagonal. In ordinary three black crows, each crow opens a little above the prior close (inside the prior body), so there is a small bounce each morning before the selling resumes. In the identical version even that small bounce is missing.

The exact rules Finabase uses

Finabase uses TA-Lib's CDLIDENTICAL3CROWS. It returns −100 on the third crow when all of these are true (TA-Lib's default candle settings):

To give the tolerance a size: if a stock's sessions have spanned about $4 from high to low, "equal" means the next open lands within 20 cents of the previous close, above or below it.

Where TA-Lib departs from the classic description:

• Nothing about what came before. The source comment says the pattern matters after a mature advance or at high levels, and that the function does not check. Unlike CDL3BLACKCROWS, it doesn't even require a preceding green candle.
• Crows of any size. There is no long-body requirement. Three modest red candles that hand off cleanly qualify.
• Not a strict subset of black crows. Because black crows must open inside the prior body (strictly below the prior open and above the prior close) and need a green candle first, the two TA-Lib detectors overlap only in narrow cases. In our sample they never fired together.

Reading the staircase

Most falling markets bounce a little overnight. Some holders decide the previous day's selling went too far, short sellers take a little profit, and the next session opens a bit above the prior close. That small relief is what three black crows still allow.

Identical three crows describe a market where nothing like that happens. The opening auction each morning clears at yesterday's closing price, as if the night had not occurred, and then sellers keep pressing through the day until the close is again near the low. Three sessions in a row of that behavior suggest sellers who are patient and persistent, and buyers who are absent.

The pattern describes pressure, not its future. Selling that relentless can run further, or it can exhaust itself, and three sessions of closes at the lows often leave a stock short-term oversold.

Confirmation

Traders who act on the pattern typically check:

• A further close below the third crow's low, the confirmation rule in our test.
• Where the crows started. From a prior high or resistance after an advance is the textbook setting. From the middle of a decline, the pattern mostly records what already happened.
• Volume on the three sessions, ideally rising.
• Momentum: whether an oscillator such as the Relative Strength Index (RSI): how to read and use it has room to fall or is already deeply oversold.

The real cases

Lowe's, September 22, 2025. Lowe's had already slipped 4.6% over ten sessions. On September 18 it fell from $269.07 to $267.57. On September 19 it opened at $267.53, four cents from the prior close, and fell to $265.20. On September 22 it opened at $265.00 and fell to $260.39, near the session low of $260.36. The next session closed at $259.81, below the pattern's low, confirming it. Five sessions later the stock was 2.7% lower, and ten sessions later 7.2% lower, after trading as low as $240.53.

Amazon, August 14, 2026. Amazon had dropped 3.3% in ten sessions. It fell from $273.18 to $267.28 on August 12, opened at $267.24 on August 13 and closed at $265.13, then opened at $264.88 on August 14 and closed at $262.65. The next session closed at $261.31, below the low, which confirmed the pattern, and the stock was 1.5% lower after five sessions. But by the tenth session it had recovered to 1.4% above the pattern's close. The pattern's five-session "hit" turned into a ten-session loss for anyone who stayed short.

The third case, Nike on October 7, 2025, followed a 2.8% ten-session decline. It did not confirm; the stock was 1.8% lower after five sessions and 0.8% lower after ten.

What the data says

The study ran CDLIDENTICAL3CROWS over daily bars from October 30, 2024 to October 29, 2026 for 60 large US stocks and ETFs (29,760 day-samples). A hit is a lower close five sessions later.

None of the three formed after a 10-session rise. Every one came during an existing decline, which is the opposite of the textbook setting. They therefore say more about short-term momentum, a falling stock continuing to fall for a few more days, than about a reversal.

Identical three crows versus related patterns

An educational outline for trading it

This outline describes how the pattern is commonly approached. It is educational only, not a recommendation, and the figures are hypothetical.

1. Check where the staircase began. At the top of an advance, the pattern is a potential reversal. In the middle of a decline, it is a description of momentum.
2. Judge how stretched the move is. Three closes at the lows can leave little room before a reflex bounce.
3. Choose a trigger: the third close, or a further close below the third crow's low.
4. Put the invalidation level above the first crow's open, where the selling began.
5. Size from that distance.

How Finabase shows identical three crows

• Charts. Identical Three Crows (CDLIDENTICAL3CROWS) is in the chart's candlestick list; adding it marks the third crow of each detection.
• Scanner. The candlestick scanner sorts detections by the sign of TA-Lib's output. This pattern always returns −100, so it appears on the Bearish list.
• Signals tab. The Candlestick gauge on a symbol's Signals tab (see AAPL) gives each of the 61 patterns a vote from its latest detection within the last eight bars. An identical-three-crows detection is a Sell vote.

Frequently asked questions

What makes the three crows "identical"?

The opens. Each crow opens at the previous crow's close, so there is no gap and no bounce between sessions. In TA-Lib, "at" means within 5% of the recent average daily range.

Is identical three crows more bearish than three black crows?

Traditional sources often say so, because there is no overnight relief at all. Our data has three identical-crow cases and four black-crow cases, far too few to compare them.

Can identical three crows appear in a downtrend?

Yes, and in our sample all three did. TA-Lib doesn't check the trend, so the detector fires wherever the shapes line up. In a downtrend it describes continuing selling rather than a top.

Why did my chart show identical three crows but not three black crows on the same candles?

The two TA-Lib detectors have different opening rules, and the black-crows version also needs a green candle before the first crow. In our sample they never fired on the same bar.

Summary

Identical three crows are three red candles that hand off from close to open without a pause, each closing near its low. TA-Lib checks the hand-offs and the closes but not the size of the candles or the trend before them. In two years of data on 60 large US stocks and ETFs it fired three times, every time inside an existing decline, and the stock was lower a week later in all three. That is an anecdote, not evidence. If you watch for the pattern, ask where the staircase started, how far it has already fallen, and where you would accept that it has ended.