Glossary · Candlestick patterns

Inside bar

A candle whose whole range — high and low — lies within the previous candle's range, signalling a pause or consolidation.

By Sky Trade editorial teamUpdated November 5, 2026

An inside bar has a lower high and a higher low than the candle before it, which is called the mother bar. Unlike the harami, which compares bodies, the inside bar compares full ranges, wicks included, so it is a stricter definition of contraction.

What it means: the market spent a whole period inside the previous period's boundaries, and volatility contracted. Inside bars are often read as coiling before a move, and traders watch for a break of the mother bar's high or low.

Two uses are common:

Continuation: in a trend, an inside bar is a pause, and a break in the trend's direction is the trade.
Reversal: at a level after an extended move, a break against the trend may signal a turn.

The weakness is the one every breakout shares: the first break of the mother bar is frequently false, and in choppy markets inside bars appear constantly without leading anywhere. Several inside bars in a row usually mean the market is waiting for news.

For short expiries an inside-bar break gives a clear trigger, but the follow-through still has to happen before expiry. See the harami guide and the breakout entry.

Example

The mother bar on EUR/USD M15 ranges from 1.0835 to 1.0870. The next candle stays between 1.0842 and 1.0861: an inside bar. A later close at 1.0874, above the mother bar, is the bullish break.

Learn more in the academy

Harami pattern: the inside candle, harami cross and how to read it
How bullish and bearish harami patterns form, how they relate to the inside bar, what a harami cross is, and why a harami shows a pause rather than a reversal.

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