Midpoint (50% level)

In practice

In a piercing pattern, a red candle is followed by a green candle that opens below the red's low but closes above the red's midpoint — past the halfway mark. Pushing past the 50% level shows buyers reclaimed more than half of what sellers gained, a genuine reversal attempt.

Why it matters for traders

The midpoint is a simple but powerful threshold for judging how much of a prior candle was actually reclaimed, which filters out weak reversals that look good but only recovered a sliver. Using it keeps you out of shallow pullbacks that fail, accepting only patterns where one side took back meaningful ground.

Common pitfall

The pitfall is rigidly demanding a 50% close for every reversal pattern even when momentum clearly reversed earlier, causing missed trades; or ignoring it entirely and counting shallow pullbacks as real reversals. Use the midpoint as a quality filter, not a religion. A genuine reversal reclaims meaningful ground — the midpoint is a sensible threshold — but combine it with the level and trend rather than applying it as a blind rule on every candle.

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