Pin bar
A pin bar is a candle with a long wick on one side and a small body at the opposite end. The wick shows that price was sharply rejected from that level.
How it works
In a classic pin bar the wick makes up about two thirds of the whole candle or more, while the body and the other wick are small. A bullish pin bar has a long lower wick: sellers pushed price down, but buyers brought it back near the open. A bearish one has a long upper wick.
The body color barely matters; location does. A pin bar at strong support or resistance, or after a sweep of liquidity below an obvious low, means far more than one in the middle of the chart. It looks like a hammer or a shooting star, but a pin bar is defined by the rejection of a level.
A common entry is after the pin bar closes or on a break of its high (for a bullish one), with the stop beyond the tip of the wick. Because the wick is long, the stop can be far away, so size the position from that distance.
A daily BTC candle: high $61,000, low $58,000, open $60,600, close $60,800. The lower wick is $2,600 of a $3,000 range, or 87%. The candle tagged $58,000 support and closed near the top: a bullish pin bar. A stop below $58,000 is about $2,800 from the close.
The mistake is trading every pin bar wherever it appears. Long wicks in the middle of a range or against a strong trend happen all the time and mean little. Look for pin bars at clear levels and in the direction of the higher-timeframe trend, wait for the candle to close, and account for the wide stop when sizing.
Questions and answers
What is a pin bar in simple terms?
It is a candle with a long tail and a small body. The tail shows price was pushed one way, but the market snapped it back.
What is the difference between a pin bar and a hammer?
A hammer is a bullish pin bar after a decline, so it is one specific case. Pin bar is the broader name for a rejection candle in either direction.
Where do you put the stop on a pin bar trade?
Usually beyond the tip of the long wick. If price goes past it, the rejection of the level has failed.
Related terms
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Updated: 2026-10-19