2 September 2026 · Arun Phromsiri
Marking an engulfing pair in pencil
An engulfing pair is two bars. On our desk the rule is the real body, not the full high-to-low range. The second body covers the first body completely. Wicks may stick out. We say that aloud so a student who learned a different book does not think we forgot the wicks. We chose the body rule and we keep it.
Direction from open and close
A bullish engulfing pair has a second body that closes above its open and covers the prior body. A bearish pair has a second body that closes below its open and covers the prior body. On the academy prints a hollow body means the close finished above the open, and a filled body means the close finished below the open. Check the prices anyway. A legend is a convenience, not a measurement.
The slip we see most
The usual miss is a second body that covers the prior wick, or most of the prior body, while a slice of the first body still shows. Most is not the rule. If you can see the first body past the edge of the second, the pair waits for another name or for no name at all.
If the print shows a gap between the two bodies, write the gap in the margin. If the bars overlap in price and there is no gap, do not invent one because a diagram in a book had one. The sheet in front of you is the assignment.
For practice, take a gold daily print and find three candidate pairs. Make one of them fail on purpose by picking a second body that only covers a wick. If you cannot find the failure, you are not ready to trust the two that passed. That exercise is the whole of evening four in the Candle Desk Course, and it is slower than people expect.