Classic engulfing-pattern scanners fire on almost every other candle, which is exactly why so many of the signals turn out to be noise. The Engulfing Pattern Plus One indicator raises the bar by requiring the current candle to engulf the range of the previous two candles, not just one, before it plots an arrow. Download the free MT5 version below and install it in your MQL5/Indicators folder to start filtering for the stronger version of this classic pattern.

What Is the Engulfing Pattern Plus One Indicator?

This is a chart-overlay indicator built around a stricter definition of the traditional engulfing candle. A standard engulfing pattern only compares the current candle to the one before it. This indicator’s logic checks the current candle’s high and low against both of the previous two candles: a signal only qualifies when the current bar’s high is greater than or equal to the high of each of the prior two bars, and its low is less than or equal to the low of each of the prior two bars. In other words, the current candle’s full range has to swallow the combined range of the last two candles at once — hence “Plus One” in the name.

Once that range condition is met, the indicator checks the candle’s direction to decide which arrow to plot. If the candle closed above its open (bullish), a BUY arrow is placed at the candle’s low. If it closed at or below its open (bearish), a SELL arrow is placed at the candle’s high. Because the range condition is symmetric but the direction check determines the label, the two-bar engulf can produce either signal depending on how the candle actually closed.

Key Features

• Two-bar engulf filter — requires the setup candle to engulf the high and low of the previous two candles, not just one, which naturally cuts down on marginal signals versus a standard one-bar engulfing scan.
• Separate BUY and SELL arrow plots — BUY arrows print in DeepSkyBlue below the signal candle; SELL arrows print in OrangeRed above it.
• Configurable arrow codes — Inp_BUY_ArrowCode and Inp_SELL_ArrowCode let you swap in any Wingdings character for either arrow.
• Configurable vertical offset — Inp_BUY_ArrowShift and Inp_SELL_ArrowShift control how many pixels the arrows sit away from the candle, so they don’t overlap price on tighter charts.
• Lightweight, chart-window overlay — no separate subwindow, just two buffers plotted directly on price.
• No repainting of confirmed signals — once a bar closes, its arrow (or lack of one) is locked in and is not recalculated by later bars.

How to Use It

Installation

1. Download the Engulfing Pattern Plus One.mq5 file.
2. Open MetaTrader 5, go to File > Open Data Folder, then open MQL5/Indicators.
3. Copy the file into that folder and restart MT5, or right-click Indicators in the Navigator and select Refresh.
4. Drag the indicator onto any chart.

Reading the Indicator

A BUY arrow under a candle means that candle’s range engulfed the previous two candles’ ranges and closed bullish — a sign that buyers took full control after two bars of price action got absorbed in one move. A SELL arrow above a candle means the same engulf happened but the candle closed bearish, showing sellers overwhelming the prior two bars instead. Because the pattern only appears when a single candle swallows two bars of range, signals are naturally less frequent than a standard engulfing scan, but each one represents a more decisive shift in control.

Trading With It

Traders typically use this as a reversal or continuation trigger depending on where it appears: a BUY arrow forming after a pullback in an uptrend, or at a known support level, is read as a stronger continuation or reversal cue than an ordinary engulfing candle would provide, and the same logic applies to SELL arrows near resistance. Because the indicator only marks the pattern itself, most traders combine it with a trend filter, support/resistance zone, or a higher-timeframe bias before acting on a signal, and place stops beyond the engulfing candle’s own high or low.

Best Timeframes / Best Use Cases

The two-bar engulf logic works on any timeframe, but it tends to be most reliable on M15 and higher, where each candle represents a more meaningful chunk of order flow and a two-candle engulf is a genuinely significant event rather than noise. It’s well suited to swing and day-trading approaches that look for confirmation at key levels rather than constant signals, since the stricter range requirement naturally reduces signal frequency compared to a one-bar engulfing scanner. On very low timeframes (M1-M5) the pattern can still appear frequently during volatile sessions, so pairing it with a trend or volatility filter is worth considering there.

Final Thoughts

The Engulfing Pattern Plus One indicator takes a familiar candlestick concept and tightens the qualifying condition so it fires less often but with more range behind each signal. With adjustable arrow codes and offsets on top of the core two-bar engulf logic, it’s a straightforward, free way to add a stricter engulfing filter to any MT5 chart without cluttering it with a constant stream of one-bar signals.