The Engulfing strategy
Engulfing is a reversion strategy in STS Trading. It waits for one candle closing completely through the previous one, against the move immediately before it. It runs on all 11 timeframes, and every market and timeframe it runs on has its own backtested record.
Last updated 1 October 2026.
What it waits for
Engulfing waits for one candle closing completely through the previous one, against the move immediately before it. It is a single-candle pattern, which makes it frequent. The record shows what that pattern has been worth on its own, with no other filter.
What every signal carries
Every signal carries an entry, a stop and four targets at 0.5R, 1R, 1.5R, 2R, where 1R is the distance from the entry to the stop. The record counts how many of its past trades reached each target before the stop, one trade at a time.
How to read its record
- A strategy is not one record. Engulfing has one per market per timeframe, and they differ widely. A figure pooled across every market describes the rule, not any trade you would take.
- Read the trade count before the win rate. A high percentage from a handful of trades says very little.
- Read it after the spread. On fast charts the cost of getting in and out is a large share of each trade's risk, and it can turn a winning record into a losing one.
- Treat it as the past. A rule that held up over past data has no obligation to keep doing so.
Further reading
- Which markets carry the edge
Every strategy pooled across every market, before and after spread, and why the market matters as much as the rule.
- How we test a strategy
The data, the costs, the four targets, the minimum sample and what a backtest leaves out.