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.
- Weapon tier
- Starter tier
- Slots used
- Candle markings 1/3
Concept
Yesterday the price fell hard and today it opened low again, but buyers pushed it back up to close above the middle of yesterday’s body. It did not reach yesterday’s open, though (if it had, it would be closer to a bullish engulfing pattern).
At the end of a downtrend it is often read as a sign that selling is weakening.
- Piercing Line
Charts by TradingView Lightweight Charts™
80 candles with volume. At the end of a steep fall, candle 60 (yellow vertical line) is the rising candle of the piercing line. The price then bounces and moves sideways. Keyboard: ←/→ to move, +/− to zoom, 0 to see the whole chart.
The yellow vertical line is the second candle of the piercing line. It appeared at the bottom of a sharp fall, and the price bounced quickly afterwards. This scene was picked because it worked out — the fall often continues after the pattern too. 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
Trend: if the close is below the average close of the last 10 candles, it is a downtrend.
Yesterday must be a falling candle whose body is longer than the average body of the last 10 candles × 1.
Today must be a rising candle whose open is at most yesterday’s close + average body × 0.3, and whose close is above the middle of yesterday’s body but below yesterday’s open. If all of this holds, today’s candle is marked.
Parameters
| What it sets | Name in the game | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candles used for the average body | lookback | 10 | 5 – 30 |
| Candles in the closing-price average used to judge the trend | trendPeriod | 10 | 3 – 60 |
| How many times the average body the body must exceed | bodyMultiple | 1 | 0.3 – 3 |
| How far from the previous close the open may be (multiple of the average body) | gapTolerance | 0.3 | -0.5 – 2 |
Trading ideas
A piercing line with heavy volume at the end of a long fall is often read as the start of a bounce. Many traders wait to see the next candle close above today’s close.
The further past the middle of yesterday’s body it closes, the stronger it is considered.
Common traps
- A piercing line is only a pushback, not confirmation that the trend has turned. The price often slips again the next day.
- The check judges the trend only from the closing-price average. Whether this is the bottom of a long trend needs a separate look.
- The chart on this page is a picked scene. Read it together with the trend (lesson 2).
In the game
- “Piercing Line” is an “Starter tier” weapon and uses 1 “Candle markings” slot (limit 3). It uses no chart lines and no indicator panel.
- In the game, every candle that meets the conditions gets a faint gray vertical line in the price area, and only the most recent line is labeled “Piercing Line”. The chart on this page looks the same; the yellow vertical line is an extra mark for the candle this page talks about.
- If you equip several “Candle markings” weapons, their lines are told apart as solid, dashed and dotted.
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.
- Hammer — 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.
- 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.
- 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