Table of Contents
What is Pin Bar in Forex Trading?
Pin Bar or Pinocchio Bar represents a single candlestick with a long wick that indicates future sharp reversal, rejection of price. Pin bar can be bullish or bearish.
What is a bullish pin bar?
A bullish pin bar is one candle pattern with a longer down the wick and represents a sharp reversal, rejection of price, and usually indicates a future rising trend. The image below is an example of a bullish pin bar reversal candlestick:
What is a bearish pin bar?
A bearish pin bar is one candle pattern with a long upper wick representing a sharp reversal, rejection of price and usually indicates a future downtrend. The image below is an example of a bearish pin bar reversal candlestick:
One of the many strategies available to a trader to understand the price action in the market is the Pin Bar Pattern. It is a candlestick pattern that derived its name from the expression “Pinocchio Bar” for its similarities with the shape and relevance with that of Pinocchio’s nose.
A Pin Car basically represents an upcoming rejection or reversal in the ongoing price trend. According to the Pin Bar pattern creator, Martin Pring, it causes a break in the price movement and brings it back to the price level of the last candle. Therefore, it is advisable to be aware of such breaks in the price, identify such patterns, and not get trapped in short-term trades.
How to identify the Pin Bar on the chart?
A Pin Bar usually looks like a wick or a wand with a long tail and a shorter body. Because of its shape, it is also known as a ‘wick’ or a ‘shadow.’
The tail in the Pin Bar pattern is of absolute importance. They are the real indicators of price action. The reliability of the price movement directly depends on the length of the tail. Along with its length, the direction where the tail points are also critical. The length of the tail represents the prices that were rejected and that the reversal is expected the opposite to that where the tail points. For example, if a Pin Bar pattern has its tail pointing upwards, this represents that the Pin Bar rejected the higher prices, and now a bearish or downward trend is going to approach. Likewise, a downward pointing Pin Bar tail represents the rejection of the lower prices and an approaching upward or bullish trend.
Download free Pin Bar Detector Indicator
Below you can download the pin bar detector indicator. This indicator will mark bullish and bearish pin bar candlesticks.
Trading with the Pin Bars
While trading with Pin Bars, traders should keep in mind some important notes to get a better result. First, one must not just look at a pattern with a wick and call it a Pin Bar. It has its own characteristics that can ensure a strong reversal in the price trend. Otherwise, traders can misjudge such patterns.
Following are some points that a trader should keep in mind while trading with the help of a Pin Bar:
- The length of the whole Pin Bar should be visibly more than that of the previous days’ Pin Bars.
- If it is a bearish Pin Bar, i.e., its wick is pointing upward, then it must appear in-between a bullish trend; only then will it confirm the reversal of the bullish trend. Likewise, the bullish Pin Bar with its wick pointing downward should appear in-between a bearish trend to confirm the price reversal.
- If the price falls beneath the lower point, one must consider going short in the case of a bullish Pin Bar.
- A trader can also consider putting a stop-entry just above the highest point in the bullish Pin Bar and below the lowest point in the bearish Pin Bar.
- It is advisable to be cautious while putting a stop to loss, as beginners can easily misjudge the pattern, and sometimes the market may turn out to move quicker than expected.
Pin Bar Support and Resistance
To counter-trend or, in simple words, go against the ongoing trend or what the Pin Bar suggests, key chart levels of resistance and support are beneficial. Resistance and support levels basically represent strong selling and buying opportunities, respectively. Therefore, if you see that the upper point of the wick in the bearish Pin Bar, appearing in the bullish trend, moves above the key resistance level, then the point at the top of the wick is a new sell signal. Also, these resistance and support levels can somehow confirm their signals of a possible reversal.
The Pin Bars can also be authenticated when they have other indicators or patterns supporting them. For example, this junction of many patterns in a price chart gives stronger signals of the price movement than a single Pin Bar that can merely pause.
Other possible areas of confluence are support and resistance. This holds if two or more two technical indicators are pointing towards a possible reversal. It is tough to break these confluence areas. In addition to this, a higher time frame does lead to stronger areas. You can confirm these confluence zones with the help of various indicators. For example, if an area previously a support level is not showing a double-bottom pattern, this could show a possible price confluence area.
It concludes that, as opposed to a single Pin Bar, strong reversal signals are expected when Pin Bars occur as a part of other patterns.
Trading Pin Bars chart pattern and the Fibonacci Levels
- Compute the length of the Pin Bar. Calculate it from the lowest point to the highest.
- The next step is to find the 50% and 61.8% levels of the Pin Bar. For this, Fibonacci retracement tools can be used.
- At the 50% level, the entry limit should be placed.
- As mentioned before, it is advisable to place a stop order exactly below the lowest Pin Bar point.
- Buying at market price is advisable soon after the close of the Pin Bar pattern.
- The level of take-profit can be twice the distance of the entry point.
The visible battle between the bulls and the bears in the Pin Bar pattern to dominate each other and gain their place in the price chart can cause conflicts between the actual price reversal opportunities. This means that it is not always confirmed to see a price reversal right after seeing a Pin Bar; there can be pullbacks. That is where the stop loss helps the traders.
In case of such pullbacks, traders can take the help of the Fibonacci ratio to get a healthier risk-reward ratio.
Points to Remember About the Pin Bars
Some more points can help the trader to understand the Pin Bar pattern more clearly.
- It is advisable to consider the movement of price near or before the pattern in the price chart. This is because not all the patterns can confirm the reversal of price. For example, if the Pin Bar, bullish or bearish, is not strong enough or the Pin Bar’s length is smaller than it should be, then it is not a price reversal signal but only a pause in the trend.
- The length of the Pin Bar is significant, along with its position in the price chart. Some may also state that the ideal length of the whole body of the Pin Bar should be somewhere between 20% of the whole length of the pattern for a trader to consider it as an entry or exit point.
- Because of the similarities, Pin Bars can confuse the traders with other patterns like the ‘Doji candlestick’ and the ‘hanging man.’ This is where identifying pin bar patterns with the help of their position and length helps the traders to differentiate between these similar patterns.
- Timeframe charts are also essential to consider while trading with Pin Bars. Ideally, 4-hour timeframes are much better than the 5-minute timeframes. Daily timeframes can also be considered suitable.
- The tip of the Pin Bar is always pointing opposite to which the trend is expected to turn its directions. Thus, a bearish pin bar has its tail pointing upwards, while a bullish pin bar has its tail pointing downwards.
- Always compare the length of the wick of the Pin Bar with the previous price trends. If it does not exceed it, it may be a fake Pin Bar.
