Abandoned Baby: The Rarest and Most Powerful Reversal
The Abandoned Baby is a three-candle reversal pattern similar to the Morning/Evening Star, but with one critical difference: the middle Doji candle gaps completely away from both its neighbours — above and below. No wicks touch. This isolation makes it one of the most reliable reversal signals in candlestick analysis.
The Abandoned Baby's name is evocative: the middle Doji candle is left alone, isolated, untouched by the candles on either side. In a Morning Star, the Doji often touches (or nearly touches) the prior candle's wicks. In an Abandoned Baby, there is genuine price space — a gap — between all three candles. The middle candle is truly alone. That isolation represents a moment of maximum uncertainty followed by a decisive institutional shift.
Abandoned Baby: the middle Doji is completely isolated — gaps on both sides, no wick contact with either neighbour.
The Critical Distinction: Complete Gap Isolation
In a standard Morning Star, the Doji or small candle may touch (via wicks) the prior candle or the following candle. That is acceptable for a Morning Star but does not qualify as an Abandoned Baby. For the Abandoned Baby, the Doji must be completely isolated: its highest wick must be below the lowest wick of candle 1, and its lowest wick must be above the highest wick of candle 3 (for a Bullish Abandoned Baby). This double gap is rare — hence the pattern's rarity.
Why the Isolation Matters
The gap below candle 1 (in a Bullish Abandoned Baby) means that even at the extreme lows — the wicks — sellers could not reach where they had been before. The Doji marks a session where price could not go lower than the gap. Then the gap up into candle 3 shows buyers immediately taking charge at a higher level, never revisiting the Doji's range. The entire pattern says: sellers ran out of steam at a gap, and buyers exploded higher from that same gap.
Abandoned Baby vs Morning Star
The Morning Star is a common, moderately reliable three-candle reversal. The Abandoned Baby is a rare, highly reliable variant of the same idea. If you see a Morning Star, it's worth a trade with confirmation. If you see a genuine Abandoned Baby with true gaps on both sides, it's one of the highest-probability single-pattern setups in candlestick analysis.
Trading the Bullish Abandoned Baby
Bullish Abandoned Baby After a Crash
A stock falls sharply: Day 1 — red candle from ₹200 to ₹182, wick low ₹180. Day 2 — Doji at ₹172, high wick ₹174, low wick ₹170. Day 3 — green candle gaps up, opens at ₹180, rallies to close at ₹195. Notice: Day 2 high wick (₹174) is below Day 1's low wick (₹180). Day 2 low wick (₹170) is below Day 3's open (₹180). Complete isolation. Entry: ₹195 on Day 3 close. Stop: below the Doji low (₹169). Target: ₹210 (prior resistance).
On Indian Markets, True Gaps Are Less Common
Indian markets open after a break and price can gap. However, the NSE's pre-open auction session often absorbs overnight news, reducing gap sizes. True Abandoned Baby patterns are more common on daily charts for individual stocks (especially around earnings) than on indices like Nifty/BankNifty. On 5-minute intraday charts, true isolation gaps essentially never occur — this pattern is primarily a daily/weekly chart pattern.
Key Takeaways
- The Abandoned Baby requires the middle Doji to gap completely away from both the first and third candles — wicks cannot touch.
- Bullish Abandoned Baby: large bearish candle → gap-down Doji → gap-up bullish candle.
- Bearish Abandoned Baby: large bullish candle → gap-up Doji → gap-down bearish candle.
- The complete isolation of the Doji is what separates this from the Morning/Evening Star — and makes it rarer.
- When genuine gaps are present on both sides of the Doji, the reversal is extremely high-probability.