Harami Pattern
A Harami is a two-session candlestick pattern in which a large first candle is followed by a smaller second candle whose body is completely contained within the first candle's body, historically observed at potential reversal points.
Harami means 'pregnant woman' in Japanese, and the pattern's name reflects its visual character: a large first candle (the mother) whose body completely contains the smaller second candle (the child). The defining requirement is that the second session's open and close both fall within the body of the first session's candle. A Bullish Harami appears at price lows: a large bearish candle is followed by a smaller bullish candle inside its body. A Bearish Harami appears at price highs: a large bullish candle is followed by a smaller bearish candle inside its body.
Historically, the Harami was interpreted as a sign of momentum loss rather than a decisive reversal. Where the Engulfing Pattern showed one side completely overwhelming the other, the Harami showed the prior session's dominant force producing a diminishing result. The second candle, by trading within the range of the first, indicated that the energy of the prior move was not carrying forward into the new session.
The Harami Cross, a variant in which the second candle is a Doji rather than a small-bodied candle, was considered a more significant version in historical analysis. The Doji's complete equilibrium — open equals close — placed within the prior session's large body was treated as a particularly clear transition from dominance by one side to genuine indecision.
The color of the second candle adds modest information. In a Bullish Harami, a second candle that closes higher (bullish) is considered slightly more positive than one that closes lower (bearish) but still remains within the prior body. The key signal, however, is the containment and size reduction rather than the color.
Like all two-candle patterns, the Harami's historical significance was evaluated alongside the context of the prior trend, volume characteristics, and the confirming behavior of subsequent sessions. A Bearish Harami at a long-established price high, followed by a third downward session, appeared in historical case studies as a meaningful topping sequence.