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Price Action

What Is a Pin Bar

A pin bar is a candle with one wick that is at least two-thirds of the whole candle and a small body at the other end: a price that was reached and given back inside one period. This paper shows you a real pin bar drawn large, how it relates to the hammer, the shooting star and the doji, the trip down and back that made its nose, the same candle among its neighbours on the chart, and how to read it against the price scale on your platform.

Difficulty
Beginner
Reading time
5 min
Pages
8
Reviewed by
Saman Rahbar

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The nose

A pin bar is a candle with one wick — the thin line beyond the body — that is most of the candle, at least two-thirds of the range from high to low, and a small body at the other end, in either colour. The long wick is the nose, and it points at the price the period reached and gave back. On 21 January 2025 the euro against the dollar drew one with 72 of its 94 pips below the body — a pip being the fourth decimal place, the smallest step most people count in. Sellers took the price down there, and by the close it was all back.

The family

The hammer and the shooting star are pin bars with extra conditions attached: a rule about which end the body sits at, measured against the body rather than the whole range, and a place in a move where the shape takes its name. The pin bar is the general case, free of the location rule. The doji is a cousin with no body at all. All four record the same thing — a price reached and given back inside one period — and differ in where the body is and what came before.

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