Reversal bars are quite simply a type of bar that suggests that price will reverse its current direction. The patterns are based on Japanese candle stick reversal patterns. Another way or slightly more common way of describing these reversal bars is to call it a Pin or Pinocchio bar. Personally I don't actually care what it it called I'm more interested in IF I can trade the pattern and make some money from it.

I look at several different types of candle stick patterns and generically call them reversal bars which then need to be pre-qualified. (more on that later)

In short I look at Hammers/Shooting stars, Doji'/Spinning Top, Dark Cloud Cover/Piercing lines, Engulfing pattern, Harami, and what I call a two bar spike which in candlestick terms the nearest thing is Marubozo (although I don't care if the bars have wicks on them or not).  This last one is what I call bar blending and If you blend one up bar and one down bar of equal magnitude then this is a 2 bar spike and blended together would look like a hammer/Shooting Star.

Ok Ive tried to be as precise as I can with the names of the candlestick patterns but as I've mentioned I don't really care what its called only what the market is potentially telling me.

The next part of the pattern I look for is to pre-qualify the Reversal Bar.

"Reversals happen at the end of a trend"

I therefore need to look for trending price action prior to the Reversal Bar. Personally, I'm very aggressive looking for these patterns and I look for two prior bars showing higher/lower bar lows/high. You can however filter these Reversal Bars further by looking for 3, 4, 5 or more pre-qualifying bars to indicate trending price action.

Reversal Bars with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Shooting Star/Hammer with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Short Trigger                                      Long Trigger

Doji/Spinning Top with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Short Trigger                                      Long Trigger

Two Bar Spike (a not quite Marubozo) with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Short Trigger                                      Long Trigger

Dark Cloud Cover/Piercing line with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Short Trigger                                      Long Trigger

Engulfing Pattern with pre-qualifier, two bars prior to the reversal bars showing trending price action

Short Trigger                                      Long Trigger