After a strong up day, the next session opens higher still — then closes back below the midpoint of the previous candle. Buyers had control at the open and lost it by the bell.
The second candle must open above the first candle's high and close below the halfway point of the first body, without fully engulfing it. A close that stops short of the midpoint does not qualify.
It is the mirror of the piercing pattern and the milder version of a bearish engulfing. Sellers took back most of the previous day's advance but not all of it.
The higher the second candle opens before reversing, the further sellers had to push to reach that close, and the more supply the session reveals.
A gap-up open that fades is often just an overnight overreaction correcting itself — global cues, an ADR move — rather than any change in who controls the stock.
Marginal cases where the close sits just below the midpoint are hard to distinguish from an ordinary volatile day and are best ignored.
In stocks that routinely gap on low overnight liquidity, this shape appears often enough to carry little information. Consistent turnover is what makes it worth reading.