Dark Cloud Cover: the bearish mirror of the piercing line
An up bar followed by a partial reversal down bar — the same partial-recovery logic as the piercing line, applied at a top.
Dark Cloud Cover is free on Basis — the button opens a live crypto chart with it already applied. No account, no trial and no limit on how many indicators you add.
Open the chartWhat it measures
Dark cloud cover is an up bar followed by a down bar that opens above the first bar’s high and closes below the midpoint of its body, without closing below its open.
It measures a partial reversal of an advance within the following bar.
How it is calculated
These are the steps Basis performs, verified against the published definition.
- 1
Bar one closes up.
- 2
Bar two opens at or above bar one’s high.
- 3
Bar two closes below the midpoint of bar one’s body but above bar one’s open.
How to read it
- A deeper close below the midpoint reads as a stronger reversal attempt; a close just past the midpoint is marginal.
- Weaker than a bearish engulfing pattern by construction, for the same reason the piercing line is weaker than a bullish engulfing pattern.
Where it misleads
The same gap dependence as the piercing line applies here — crypto rarely opens meaningfully above the prior high, so most real-world matches use a looser overlap condition.
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Updated 2026-08-27 · Educational reference, not financial advice.