Engulfing without the prior body is just a wide bar

An engulfing pair is two real bodies. Wicks may overlap or not; they are not the test. The second body must cover the first body, and the pair must follow a move that exists as a sequence of bars, not as a hope drawn from a headline.

The table’s common error is to treat any wide second bar as engulfing. Wide is not covering. We overlay a strip of tracing paper in the intensive so the first body can be seen through the second. If the strip still shows uncovered real-body, the margin gets “wide bar” and we move on.

Bullish and bearish names come last, and only when the covering is true. Directional language is easy. Measurement is the workshop.

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