Hanging Man Candlestick: Same Shape, Different Trend
A hanging man candlestick has a small body near the top of its range, a long lower shadow, and little upper shadow after a price advance. It is a possible bearish reversal pattern. The same shape after a decline is a hammer. Neither the shape nor a red body proves that the next candle will fall; check the preceding trend and define a separate confirmation rule.
Key Takeaways
- Measure the candle and the preceding trend separately. A long lower shadow alone does not identify a hanging man.
- A completed pattern and bearish follow-through are different events. A next-candle confirmation is available only on that later candle.
- A rise above the pattern high can invalidate a bearish setup. A sideways market or a decline can disqualify the hanging-man label before a trade is considered.
Identify the hanging man candlestick pattern
TradingView names the pattern Hanging Man when it forms during an advance and Hammer when it forms during a decline. The thinkorswim definition describes a short body in the upper part of the range, a long lower shadow, and little or no upper shadow. Those descriptions need numerical choices before they become a repeatable detector. The table below is one illustrative specification for standard OHLC candles. Its thresholds are assumptions, not TradingView defaults or an optimized strategy. Body color is not a filter: a close above or below the open can qualify.
| Test | Illustrative rule | What it excludes |
|---|---|---|
| Range | High minus low must be positive | Flat bars |
| Body | Absolute difference between close and open; at least one tick and no more than 25% of range | Exact doji and large bodies |
| Lower shadow | Lower of open and close minus low; at least 2 times the body | Candles without a long lower shadow |
| Upper shadow | High minus higher of open and close; no more than 10% of range | Long shadows on both sides |
| Prior advance | The five completed closes before the candidate rise consecutively | Declines, ranges, and rallies containing a pullback in those five bars |
Example: a lower shadow after five rising closes
In this hypothetical sequence, the five preceding closes are 97, 98, 99, 100 and 101. The candidate opens at 102, trades between 98 and 102.2, and closes at 101. Its body is 1, lower shadow is 3, upper shadow is 0.2, and range is 4.2. The body occupies about 23.8% of the range and the upper shadow about 4.8%, so the shape and advance tests both pass. Assume a minimum price increment of 0.1. The recovery from 98 leaves a long lower shadow, but it does not identify the traders involved or prove that selling will continue. The next candle closes at 97.5 without exceeding 102.2, satisfying the bearish confirmation rule defined below.
| Bar | Open | High | Low | Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rise 1 | 96 | 97.5 | 95.8 | 97 |
| Rise 2 | 97 | 98.5 | 96.8 | 98 |
| Rise 3 | 98 | 99.5 | 97.8 | 99 |
| Rise 4 | 99 | 100.5 | 98.8 | 100 |
| Rise 5 | 100 | 101.5 | 99.8 | 101 |
| Hanging man | 102 | 102.2 | 98 | 101 |
| Confirm | 100.8 | 101.2 | 97 | 97.5 |
Hollow bodies close at or above the open. Filled bodies close below the open.
Invented prices in arbitrary price units. The confirmation decision occurs at the final candle close, not at the hanging-man close. This is not a historical trade or a performance result.
Hanging man versus hammer: change the trend, keep the candle
Keep the candidate prices exactly the same, but replace the preceding closes with 106, 105, 104, 103 and 102. The candle still has a body of 1 and a lower shadow of 3. It now follows a decline, making it a hammer candidate rather than a hanging man. Its red body does not change that distinction. The final candle below deliberately has no follow-through bar. A hammer candidate is not a confirmed bullish reversal either. In a sideways sequence, neither reversal label has the trend context required by this example.
| Bar | Open | High | Low | Close |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 1 | 107 | 107.2 | 105.8 | 106 |
| Fall 2 | 106 | 106.2 | 104.8 | 105 |
| Fall 3 | 105 | 105.2 | 103.8 | 104 |
| Fall 4 | 104 | 104.2 | 102.8 | 103 |
| Fall 5 | 103 | 103.2 | 101.8 | 102 |
| Hammer | 102 | 102.2 | 98 | 101 |
Hollow bodies close at or above the open. Filled bodies close below the open.
Hypothetical counterexample. Only the preceding trend changes; the candidate open, high, low and close match the hanging man above.
Define confirmation, expiration and invalidation
First wait for the candidate candle to close. TradingView indicators can recalculate during an open bar, so its body and shadows may stop meeting the thresholds. Bar-close confirmation fixes those measurements for that bar; it does not confirm a reversal. For the example on this page, bearish follow-through requires the very next candle to close below the hanging-man low without trading above its high. Otherwise the setup is discarded after that candle. This is stricter than a close below the hanging-man close and delays the decision by a full bar. Record the confirmation on the later candle instead of drawing a historical entry back on the candidate.
| Next-bar observation | Example | Decision under this rule |
|---|---|---|
| Close below low; high remains below pattern high | High 101.2, close 97.5 | Confirmed at this close |
| Close below pattern close but above its low | High 101.5, close 100 | Unconfirmed; one-bar window expires |
| Advance through the pattern high | High 103.5, close 103 | Invalidated; the uptrend can continue |
| Both a higher high and a lower close | High 103, close 97.5 | Discarded because the high was breached |
- A later trade above 102.2 also invalidates the example bearish premise after confirmation. Confirmation does not prevent a subsequent loss.
- For a strategy test, specify order timing, a stop buffer, exits, fees and slippage. The confirmation close is not a guaranteed fill price.
- Keep expired and invalidated candidates in the evaluation. Reviewing only examples followed by declines cannot estimate reliability.
Candles that are easy to misidentify
A candle with a long lower wick can belong to several different descriptions. Use the same measurements throughout a test instead of changing the definition to match the next price move. A zero body is excluded here even though dividing the wick by that body would appear to produce an extreme ratio.
| Lookalike or setting | Difference | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Hammer | Same lower-shadow geometry after a decline | Fails the prior-advance test |
| Dragonfly doji | Open and close are equal or nearly equal near the high | Check the minimum-body rule; an exact doji is excluded |
| Spinning top | Small body with substantial shadows above and below | Can fail the short-upper-shadow rule |
| Shooting star | Long shadow is above the body after an advance | Different geometry; lower-shadow rule fails |
| Unfinished candle | Its close, high and low can still change | Wait for the bar to close |
Keep the trend filter separate when building a detector
TradingView offers SMA50, SMA50 with SMA200, or no trend detection for its Hanging Man indicator. These options differ from our five-rising-closes example. Turning trend detection off broadens the shape search but removes the contextual distinction illustrated above. Pineify's Visual Editor includes a Hanging Man output in its Candlestick Patterns indicator. The current built-in condition includes an open above each of the prior two highs; it does not enforce our five-close advance or next-bar confirmation. Check the generated conditions before treating that preset as equivalent to this page's definition. For a custom detector, give the AI Coding Agent the body and shadow thresholds, a separate prior-trend input, and the confirmation deadline. Ask for separate candidate and confirmation markers, then inspect the output on TradingView. Test the same OHLC shape in rising, falling and sideways contexts. Product access depends on the account plan; this page is an educational guide and does not scan live markets.
Pineify next step
Build a hanging-man rule with explicit trend context
Specify shape, prior trend, confirmation and invalidation as separate rules for the AI Coding Agent. Review the generated script against both illustrated contexts before testing historical results. The Visual Editor offers a preset Hanging Man output when its conditions fit your task.
Educational information only, not investment advice. All chart prices and numerical rules on this page are illustrative, with no claimed trading performance. Trading can cause substantial losses; confirmation and historical results do not guarantee future outcomes.