A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in a downtrend with a long lower shadow and almost no upper shadow.
- Weapon tier
- Starter tier
- Slots used
- Candle markings 1/3
Concept
A candle with a small body sitting near the top and a long shadow hanging below — it looks like a hammer with a long handle. It shows the price was pushed far down during the session and pulled back up near the close.
In a downtrend it is commonly read as "buyers appeared down there". The same shape in an uptrend is called “Hanging Man” and means the opposite.
- Hammer
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
80 candles with volume. The price steps down from the top, and at candle 60 (yellow vertical line) a candle with a long lower shadow appears. The price then rises for a few candles and moves sideways. Keyboard: ←/→ to move, +/− to zoom, 0 to see the whole chart.
The candle with the yellow vertical line is the hammer, and the tip of its shadow became the low of that stretch. This scene was picked because the price rose afterwards; it is also common for the price to fall below the tip of the shadow after a hammer. Drag the chart sideways with a finger or the mouse to move it, and pinch with two fingers to zoom in. With a keyboard, click the chart, then use ←/→ to move and +/− to zoom.
How it is calculated
The close must be below the average close of the last 10 candles — meaning "inside a downtrend".
The lower shadow (bottom of the body − low) must be at least the body length × 2.
The upper shadow (high − top of the body) must be at most the full candle length (high − low) × 0.15. A candle that meets all of this gets the marker, whether it is up or down.
Parameters
| What it sets | Name in the game | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candles used for the trend (average) before it | trendPeriod | 10 | 3 – 60 |
| Lower shadow must be at least this many bodies long | shadowMultiple | 2 | 0.5 – 5 |
| Upper shadow must be at most this share of the full candle | upperShadowMax | 0.15 | 0.02 – 0.5 |
Trading ideas
Rather than buying on the hammer alone, many traders wait to see whether the next candle closes above the hammer’s high (a confirmation candle).
The hammer’s low (the tip of the shadow) is also used as a line that says "below this, the read was wrong".
Common traps
- In a strong downtrend the price simply keeps falling after a hammer. A single shape often loses to the trend.
- The "downtrend" check only asks whether the close is below the average, so the marker also appears on candles that dip below it briefly in a sideways stretch.
- The chart on this page was picked because the price rose afterwards. Falling again after the same shape is common too.
In the game
- “Hammer” is an “Starter tier” weapon and uses 1 “Candle markings” slot (limit 3).
- The game draws a faint grey vertical line in the price area on every candle where the event happens, and writes the weapon name only on the most recent line.
- The same shape in an uptrend is marked by “Hanging Man”.
Related indicators and lessons
- Three White Soldiers — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on the third of three big up candles closing higher one after another.
- Three Black Crows — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on the third of three big down candles closing lower one after another.
- Morning Star — A candle-pattern marker for a three-candle bottom shape — big down candle, small-bodied candle, big up candle — with a vertical line on the third candle.
- Evening Star — A candle-pattern marker for a three-candle top shape — big up candle, small-bodied candle, big down candle — with a vertical line on the third candle.
- Inverted Hammer — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in a downtrend with a long upper shadow and almost no lower shadow.
- Hanging Man — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in an uptrend with a long lower shadow and almost no upper shadow.
- Shooting Star — A candle-pattern marker that puts a vertical line on a single candle in an uptrend with a long upper shadow and almost no lower shadow.
- Doji — A weapon that finds and marks candles whose open and close are almost the same, so the body is very thin. It is a candle where buyers and sellers ended up evenly matched.
- Bullish Marubozu — A weapon that finds and marks rising candles with almost no shadows and a body far longer than usual. Buyers pushed all the way through the candle.
- Bearish Marubozu — A weapon that finds and marks falling candles with almost no shadows and a body far longer than usual. Sellers pushed all the way through the candle.
- Bullish Engulfing — A weapon that marks a large rising candle whose body completely wraps the previous falling candle’s body, in a downtrend.
- Bearish Engulfing — A weapon that marks a large falling candle whose body completely wraps the previous rising candle’s body, in an uptrend.
- Piercing Line — A weapon that marks, in a downtrend, a rising candle that opens below a long falling candle and closes above the middle of that candle’s body.
- Dark Cloud Cover — A weapon that marks, in an uptrend, a falling candle that opens above a long rising candle and closes below the middle of that candle’s body.
- Bullish Harami — A weapon that marks, in a downtrend, a small rising candle that fits entirely inside the body of the long falling candle before it.
- Bearish Harami — A weapon that marks, in an uptrend, a small falling candle that fits entirely inside the body of the long rising candle before it.
- 1. Reading a single candle
- 2. Trends and sideways moves