Side-by-Side White Lines Candlestick Pattern: Rules, Examples and Tested Results

The side-by-side white lines candlestick pattern is a three-candle continuation pattern: after a gap in the direction of the trend, two white candles of similar size open near the same price, side by side. The up-gap version forms in an uptrend and is read as bullish; the down-gap version forms in a downtrend and is read as bearish.

This guide explains how to identify both versions on a chart, how traders read and trade them, and what actually happened next. Our test bench scanned full price history with a strict rule and detected 249 up-gap and 15 down-gap patterns on daily charts, and compared the outcome with ordinary bars on the same assets.

What is the side-by-side white lines pattern?

In candlestick charting, a white (or green) candle closes above its open, and a gap is called a window. The side-by-side white lines pattern is a window followed by two white candles that look like twins: bodies of about the same size and nearly the same opening price. Steve Nison describes it among the window patterns in Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques (1991).

It is a continuation pattern, not a reversal pattern. The gap shows the trend, and the second white candle, opening back at the level of the first one instead of gapping again, shows that the gap held. Classical candlestick analysis (Nison) reads it as a pause before the trend goes on.

Anatomy and identification of the pattern

The pattern always has three candles. Our bench applies the rules below without judgment, with two choices worth knowing: a prior trend is required, and the gap must be a true gap between the full ranges of the candles, wicks included, not only between the bodies.

The bullish up-gap side-by-side white lines

1. An uptrend is in place, and the first candle is white.
2. The second candle gaps up: its low is above the high of the first candle. It closes above its open (white).
3. The third candle is also white, with a body of similar size, and opens near the same price as the second. Its low also stays above the high of the first candle, so the window remains open.

The chart below is the median shape of the up-gap patterns our bench detected on daily charts across all markets (mostly US stocks), with the lines of the trade we test.

The bearish down-gap side-by-side white lines

1. A downtrend is in place, and the first candle is black (it closes below its open).
2. The second candle gaps down: its high is below the low of the first candle. It is white.
3. The third candle is white too, with a similar body and a similar open, and its high stays below the low of the first candle.

How to interpret the market psychology

In the up-gap version, buyers push price above the previous range. The next session opens back at the same level, which the classical reading takes as profit taking, yet buyers lift it again and the window stays open.

The down-gap version is harder to read. Two white candles in a downtrend look like a rebound, which makes the bearish label counterintuitive. The textbook reading is that the rebounds come from short covering, not from new buying, and fail to close the window.

Key differences between the two versions

The up-gap version is much more common. US stocks make up most of the cases: 204 of the 249 up-gap patterns and 11 of the 15 down-gap ones. Stock data also misses most delisted companies, a survivorship bias we have not sized.

Trading strategies and risk management

The classic way to trade the pattern is a break of its extreme in the direction of the trend. This is the setup our bench simulates on every occurrence, and the figures in this section come from daily charts.

Entry points and confirmation signals

For the up-gap version, place a buy stop just above the high of the three candles. The breakout above the pattern is the confirmation that the trend resumes. The buy stop was triggered 85.9% of the time; in 14.1% of cases price fell below the low of the pattern first and the setup was canceled. For the down-gap version, a sell stop goes just below the low. It was triggered only 46.7% of the time, and 53.3% of setups were canceled. In the remaining cases of both versions, the order was never filled: neither level was touched within the 20 bars the order stays active, or the data ended first.

Setting stop loss and profit targets

Filters traders add

Two classic filters are strong volume on the gap and a market above its 200-day moving average. We measured both on up-gap patterns. With high volume on the last candle (above 1.5 times the 20-day average, 19 patterns, fewer than 30, so shown but not interpreted), 42.9% of the trades they opened reached the 2:1 target, against 36.4% on normal volume. Above the 200-day average, 38.1% reached it (+0.12 R); below it, 32.3% (−0.03 R). These breakdowns are descriptive, not corrected for the number of tests.

Side-by-side white lines reliability: results by market

Neither version is measurably reliable. The up-gap version was followed by a rise a little more often than an ordinary day, but its average excess return over the rest of the market is slightly negative and does not pass our statistical test; on daily charts it is rated "No clear edge". The down-gap version is too rare to judge: 15 daily occurrences, fewer than 30, rated "Not enough data". Here are the numbers.

How to read the table

Read it in pairs of columns. "Moved as expected" means higher 10 bars later for the up-gap version and lower for the down-gap version. On the daily timeframe, 56.5% of up-gap patterns were followed by a rise, against 55.0% for ordinary bars on the same assets. The excess return over the rest of the market after 10 days was −0.47%, with a 95% confidence interval from −1.12% to +0.15%. Zero is inside the interval: no clear edge, and the sign is negative. The ETF and index rows have fewer than 30 patterns each: their numbers are shown, not interpreted.

The 2:1 trade gives the same picture: +0.09 R per trade before costs, against +0.12 R for the same entry, stop and target on random dates. The pattern did a little worse than random dates, and what both made comes from stock markets rising over time. The down-gap version closed only 7 trades, too few to read anything into its result.

For the bullish up-gap version on daily charts, all markets combined, the excess return was −0.72% in the first half of the history and −0.22% in the second.

Crypto and forex: too few gaps

The pattern needs a gap, and markets that trade around the clock rarely gap. With its strict rule, our bench finds no occurrence of either version on crypto or forex charts, at any timeframe. On hourly and 4-hour forex charts, nearly the only gaps come at the weekly open, across the weekend, and our bench takes no signal on the first bar of the week. Weekly charts are nearly empty too: a single up-gap pattern, on US stocks.

Real-world examples and chart performance

The two galleries in this section, one per version, show real side-by-side white lines picked by our bench (best and worst results, textbook shapes, most recent, typical draws), with their actual outcome. The cases described below are on daily charts of US stocks, a Japan equity ETF and the Korean KOSPI index, with prices adjusted for splits and dividends.

An up-gap pattern that reached its target

On FFBC, a white candle on November 13, 2020, had a high of 13.11. The next two sessions, November 16 and 17, opened at 13.53 and 13.52 and closed higher, with lows above 13.11: an up-gap side-by-side white lines pattern. The buy stop at 13.86 was triggered on November 18, with a stop at 12.76 and a 2:1 target at 16.05. The stock was 2.5% lower 10 days after the pattern, but the stop held, and the target was reached on January 6, 2021, for a gain of 2 R.

A trade that went up, then hit the stop

On EWJ, the Japan equity ETF, the pattern formed on January 5, 8 and 9, 2018. The buy stop at 52.47, the top of the pattern, was filled at the 52.77 open on January 10, with a stop at 51.92 and a target at 54.46. Price climbed to 54.36 on January 26, more than 1.8 R above entry but just short of the target, then opened at 51.33 on February 5, 2018, under the stop: the position closed at the open for a loss of 1.7 R. It is not an isolated case: of the trades that hit their stop, 19.5% had first been up 1 R.

A setup canceled before entry

On the KOSPI index, the pattern completed on February 9, 2023, with a buy stop at 2,487.35 and a stop at 2,432.40. On February 15 price fell to 2,424.16 before trading above the entry: the setup was canceled without a trade, and the index was 1.7% lower 10 days after the pattern.

A down-gap pattern that failed

On Citigroup (C), a black candle on March 5, 2026, had a low of 106.84. On March 6 and 9, two white candles opened at 104.17 and 103.43, both with highs below that low. The sell stop sat at 101.02, the low of the pattern, with a stop at 110.51. Price never traded below 101.02: on March 23 it rose to 112.29, above the stop level, and the setup was canceled without a trade. The stock was 4.7% higher 10 days after the pattern.

Common mistakes to avoid when trading this pattern

• Counting a gap between bodies only. If the wicks overlap, the window is not open.
• Ignoring the trend. Without a prior trend, there is nothing to continue.
• Confusing it with the tasuki gap, where the third candle has the opposite color and moves into the gap, or with the upside gap three methods, where it fills the gap.
• Expecting a strong bearish signal from the down-gap version. In our data it is too rare to judge: 15 daily occurrences, fewer than 30.

Frequently asked questions

Summary

• Side-by-side white lines: a gap in the direction of the trend, then two white candles of similar size opening near the same price.
• On 249 daily up-gap patterns, 56.5% were higher 10 days later, against 55.0% for ordinary bars, but the average excess return over the rest of the market, −0.47%, is not statistically significant: no clear edge.
• The daily down-gap version closed only 7 2:1 trades, too few to judge.
• The pattern needs gaps: it appears mostly on stocks and ETFs, and our bench finds no occurrence on crypto or forex.

If you trade it, treat it as a location for a trade, not as a reason for one: define the stop before entry, size the position on that distance, and keep the risk per trade small.

About the author and the data. Written by Amaury, founder of PatternsWizard, who is passionate about finance, quantitative trading and data analysis. He built the PatternsWizard test bench, which detects each setup with published rules on full market history: crypto, forex, US stocks, ETFs, indices and commodities. Trades and win rates are compared with random bars on the same assets, excess returns with the rest of the market, with error margins and a correction for multiple testing, and the whole pipeline is checked on random-walk prices, where nothing can be predicted. Statistics on this page were generated on November 5, 2026. The full methodology explains every step. This page is educational and is not investment advice: trading involves a risk of loss, and past results do not predict future ones.