Technical & Chart AnalysisPinocchio bar
Pin Bar
A candle with one long wick and a small body, showing that price probed a level and was firmly rejected within the period.
What Pin Bar means
Pin bar is a price-action term that groups hammers, shooting stars and similar rejection candles under one label. The defining features are a small real body, a dominant wick extending well beyond that body on one side, and a short or absent wick on the other. Practitioners commonly want the wick to make up roughly two-thirds or more of the total range. A bullish pin bar has its long wick below the body, and a bearish pin bar has its long wick above.
The appeal of the pin bar is that it marks a level where price traded and was rejected, giving a precise and logical stop location just beyond the wick tip. Traders usually enter on a break of the body in the signal direction, or on a retest of the body midpoint. The weaknesses are that the definition is subjective, that pin bars appear constantly on low timeframes as ordinary noise, and that a long wick can produce a wide stop that forces uncomfortably small position sizes.
Worked example
A daily EUR/USD candle opens at 1.0862, drops to 1.0805, and closes at 1.0868. With a fifty-seven-pip lower wick against a six-pip body, it is a bullish pin bar, and a long entry above 1.0870 with a stop under 1.0805 risks sixty-five pips.
Related terms
- Candlestick ChartA price chart where each period is drawn as a body spanning open to close plus wicks marking the period high and low.
- Hammer CandlestickA candle with a small body near the top of its range and a long lower wick, appearing after a decline as a potential bottoming signal.
- Shooting StarA candle with a small body near the bottom of its range and a long upper wick, appearing after an advance as a potential topping signal.
- Price ActionAn approach that reads raw price movement, candle structure and levels directly, with few or no derived indicators on the chart.
- False BreakoutA move beyond a key level that fails to follow through and quickly reverses back inside the prior range.
Frequently asked questions
What does Pin Bar mean in forex trading?
A candle with one long wick and a small body, showing that price probed a level and was firmly rejected within the period.
How does Pin Bar work in practice?
The appeal of the pin bar is that it marks a level where price traded and was rejected, giving a precise and logical stop location just beyond the wick tip. Traders usually enter on a break of the body in the signal direction, or on a retest of the body midpoint. The weaknesses are that the definition is subjective, that pin bars appear constantly on low timeframes as ordinary noise, and that a long wick can produce a wide stop that forces uncomfortably small position sizes.
What is an example of Pin Bar?
A daily EUR/USD candle opens at 1.0862, drops to 1.0805, and closes at 1.0868. With a fifty-seven-pip lower wick against a six-pip body, it is a bullish pin bar, and a long entry above 1.0870 with a stop under 1.0805 risks sixty-five pips.
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