Bullish Key Reversal Pattern: The Candles at Nvidia's 2022 Bottom and CrowdStrike's 2024 Low

On October 13, 2022, the day a hot inflation report sent the S&P 500 down as much as 2.4% before it closed up 2.6%, Nvidia printed a bullish key reversal at its lowest price since August 2020. Bought at that close with a stop under its low, the trade risked 9.6%. By April 3, 2023 the stock was up 133.9%. On November 4, 2026 it closed 1,573.3% above that close.

On August 5, 2024, the day Japan's Nikkei fell 12.4%, CrowdStrike printed one, 17 days after its global outage. The risk was 9.6%. By January 28, 2025 the stock was up 84.1%.

Neither stock has traded below its key reversal's low since. Here is how to read a bullish key reversal, where the stop goes, and how to find the next one.

What $10,000 became#

Prices are split-adjusted, as on the chart.

Oct 13, 2022: key reversals across the market#

Nvidia was not alone. On the day of that inflation-report reversal, these large stocks printed bullish key reversals too, and none of their lows has been broken since.

Applied Materials, Lam Research, Mastercard, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Cisco, Dell, eBay, Analog Devices and Booking Holdings printed one that day as well, and their lows still hold too.

The bullish key reversal in one table#

A bullish key reversal is two daily candles. On the second day the stock trades below the first day's low, then turns and closes above the first day's high. Sellers pushed it to a new low, and buyers took back the whole of the day before by the close.

These are the rules the VCP Scanner terminal uses to name a bullish key reversal on a daily chart.

The bodies and the colours do not count. Nvidia's day 1 was red, so its key reversal was also a bullish engulfing. CrowdStrike's day 1 was green, with a 0.18 body, so its key reversal was not an engulfing at all.

The position rule matters most. A bullish key reversal comes after a decline. At the top of a rally, the mirror image (a new high, then a close below the prior day's low) is a bearish key reversal.

Bullish key reversal and its look-alikes#

The bullish engulfing is the near twin. It compares bodies: day 2's green body covers day 1's red one. The key reversal compares the range: a lower low and a close above the high. Many bars are both, like Nvidia's. Every bullish key reversal is also an outside day; the key reversal adds the place (after a decline) and the close (above the prior high).

Example 1: Nvidia (NVDA) at its 2022 bottom, Oct 13, 2022#

Open NVDA in the VCP Scanner terminal →

The day: a hotter-than-expected September inflation report sent the S&P 500 down as much as 2.4% after the open, to its lowest level in nearly two years. It closed up 2.6%, one of the biggest intraday comebacks on record. Nvidia's fall had started at its late-2021 top, where the bearish marubozu article begins.

What followed:

• Next session (Oct 14): closed at 11.23, down 6.1%. Its low that day, 11.20, was 39 cents above the stop, the closest Nvidia has come to it since.
• Oct 20: 12.19, the first close above the pattern's high of 12.08, five sessions after the key reversal.
• Ten sessions later (Oct 27): 13.18, +10.2%.
• Dec 13: 18.07, +51.1%.
• Apr 3, 2023: 27.97, +133.9%. That is 13.9 times the 1.15 risked on each share.
• The low of 10.81 was never broken. On Nov 4, 2026 Nvidia closed at 200.13, 1,573.3% above the key reversal's close.

Four gap days of 5% or more made up 34% of the 120-session rise and 45% of the rise to Dec 13: Oct 27, Nov 10 and Dec 13, 2022 (the last two the mornings of cooler inflation reports) and Feb 23, 2023, the session after its earnings report.

With $500 at risk, the stop sized the trade at 434 shares, about $5,191. At the Apr 3, 2023 close those shares were up $6,948.

Example 2: CrowdStrike (CRWD) on the Aug 5, 2024 sell-off#

Open CRWD in the VCP Scanner terminal →

The day: Japan's Nikkei fell 12.4%, its worst day since 1987, and the S&P 500 lost 3.0%. CrowdStrike was still falling after July 19, when a faulty update to its Falcon software crashed about 8.5 million Windows computers, by Microsoft's count.

What followed:

• Next session (Aug 6): closed at 57.92, +4.3% and already above the pattern's high of 56.03. Its low that day, 55.39, is the lowest CrowdStrike has traded since.
• Ten sessions later (Aug 19): 66.69, +20.1%.
• Oct 11: 80.05, +44.2%.
• Jan 28, 2025: 102.17, +84.1%. That is 8.8 times the 5.31 risked on each share.
• The low of 50.20 was never broken. On Nov 4, 2026 CrowdStrike closed at 241.00, 334.2% above the key reversal's close. It split 4 for 1 in July 2026, and the prices here are adjusted for it.

No gap of 5% or more came in the 120 sessions after it: the run was built day by day. The second dot on the chart is another bullish key reversal, on Sep 11, 2024 (also an engulfing), and its low of 60.56 has held too.

With $500 at risk, the stop sized the trade at 94 shares, about $5,218. At the Jan 28, 2025 close those shares were up $4,386.

Where a bullish key reversal counts: key levels#

A bullish key reversal on a level is a test of that level. In the terminal, the Only at a key level switch is on by default and keeps the key reversals that close back above one of these:

Neither example sat on one of these. Nvidia and CrowdStrike printed theirs at fresh three-month lows, in Stage 4, the declining stage. To see key reversals like those, turn Only at a key level off. Arm's Feb 5, 2026 bar, the second example in the bullish engulfing article, was a key reversal that undercut a prior low, so it shows with the default switch.

Stage 2 is Stan Weinstein's advancing stage: the stock trades above a rising 30-week average.

How to trade a bullish key reversal#

1. Find the low. A bullish key reversal comes after a decline. Look for it at a prior low, a rising average or a fresh multi-month low, like Nvidia's in 2022 and CrowdStrike's in 2024.
2. Check the range. Day 2 must trade below day 1's low and close above day 1's high. Nvidia's low was 0.54 under and its close 0.22 over. CrowdStrike's were 2.59 under and 0.14 over.
3. Choose your entry. Some traders buy day 2's close. Others wait for a close above day 2's high. CrowdStrike gave that close the next session. Nvidia gave it five sessions later, after first falling 6.1%.
4. Put the stop under the low. Under day 2's low, or under the lowest low of the test if price went lower earlier in it. The terminal calls this "the low, test included".
5. Size from the stop. Shares = money at risk ÷ (entry − stop). With $500 at risk on CrowdStrike: 500 ÷ (55.51 − 50.20) = 94 shares.

A key reversal at a panic low carries a wide stop. Both of these risked 9.6%, so $500 of risk bought only about $5,200 of stock.

Find bullish key reversals on any chart in VCP Scanner#

• Open a stock in the terminal, for example NVDA or CRWD.
• Open Candles in the chart toolbar and tick Bullish key reversal, or use the Reversals quick pick for every classic reversal candle. With the quick pick on, a key reversal that is also an engulfing shows under the engulfing's name; tick only Bullish key reversal to see every one.
• Only at a key level is on by default. Turn it off to see every bullish key reversal on the chart, including both examples above.
• The chart jumps to the latest bullish key reversal. A dot marks each one under its low, and the selected one shows its stop on the price scale.
• The inspector lists the close, stop, risk to stop, level, volume and stage, and the bar's other names under Also. Walk through the others with the ← and → keys.
• Mark the ones you care about with the drawing tools. The arrows in the charts above are the Arrow Marker (Alt+A): click where the arrow starts, then click the candle.

Candles are free, on daily, weekly and monthly charts.

Bottom line#

• A bullish key reversal is a new low that closes above the prior day's high: sellers broke the low, and buyers took back the whole day before by the close.
• Nvidia's marked its 2022 bottom on the inflation-report reversal, and CrowdStrike's its low on the Aug 5, 2024 sell-off. Both risked 9.6%, and the stocks rose 133.9% and 84.1% within six months.
• Day 2's low is the stop. It defines your risk before you take the trade.

Data: VCPScanner daily market data through Nov 4, 2026, split-adjusted. The examples are for education, not recommendations.